On the subject of endings

This evening I received the ultimate compliment for a writer. My editor isn’t even half way through the novel yet but she has been looking ahead and having a ‘sneak-peak’ at the end because she is getting into the story now, and wants to know what happens. It gives me hope that other readers will enjoy the story as well.

Continuing on with a little more background to the creative process behind the novel, I recently heard of an author who starts the writing process with the last sentence of his story.  I didn’t come up with the ending for Mine to Avenge until the story was almost at the end, and it sat untouched for some months while I waited on some inspiration and insight. It was a frustrating situation to be in, thinking that I possibly had a reasonable story, with no satisfactory way of ending it. As an ex teacher who has read many student essays in my time, I found that the ending makes or breaks a story. I lost count of the essays I read that ended, “And then I woke up.”

I have also seen many movies that had me glued to the screen, only to finish with an ending that made me wish I had been doing something more constructive for the few hours I wasted watching it.

I didn’t want my story to end this way and hope readers will find the ending satisfying and complete. All major plot elements are successfully resolved, but there is also potential for some ‘loose threads’ to be picked up in a sequel.