the end

by Anna Maria Hansen

 
If there are two words I find it hard to write, it's those.

For years, I have struggled with finishing stories. I get to to the last chapter of the book... and then... I can't end it. It's not that I don't know how I want it to end; how it should end; how it must end. I simply struggle with writing the final words.

Some authors I have read (in particular, Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart" trilogy) seem to struggle with the same thing. Their books go on chapters and chapters after every rational sense the reader has tells them the story is over and the author is just painfully dragging out the necessary ending.

In my opinion, the first chapters and the last sentences are the most important part of a book. If I'm not happy with the ending, I will never read the book again and my rating goes way down. I don't have to feel "happy" at the end of the book; I have been satisfied with book that ended quite sadly, and yet... well. I need to feel that I started -- and ended -- the journey, without being left out of any crucial steps.

I've tried one technique we've discussed at Writers Group: At the point you get stuck, go and write the last chapter and then you should see the story arch your characters will have to make to draw the story together. That did help me to see where I was going... and what I was missing in my character development.

But endings still get me. I struggle with those two words. Perhaps it's because my inner reader can sense that I haven't completed the story arch that I started. Haven't brought it to it's full height and tied up all the loose strings. Hmm.

This is what I write for.

Two words.

The end.