I am fuming. I find a great writer with a great style and a good hook- but then BAng the story dies with no resolution.

I then go and look at some of the magazines he had been published in and yes many of these stories irregardless of authors did not have endings.

So I wrote and asked a buddy in that field about this. He said it is very popular sci-fi gimmick to just stop a story. That the sci-fi folks are just happy as pink to have a generous helping of setting with no ending. One guy I spoke with said he canceled his sub to Analog for that reason.

Well Bah! Im sick of those. I get several a week with no ending, why would I want to publish a story with no ending? There will not be a sequal, no forthcoming novel.

Are writers afraid of a concrete resolved ending?

JBSkaggs
 

Then again, perhaps you should not need to do that in the first place. But I leave that choice to you, sir.
 

Once somebody sells the first one, a bunch of others will always magically appear.

For myself, I like a good ending, even if the resolution is "no resolution", I still like to see a "hook" at the end.
 

Still, you can't help the way you feel. But you can always rewrite the ending to any story you've read to suit what you would want to see. And I think that's what authors are doing -- giving the reader the opportunity to fill in their own ending.

On a related note, TaSha, were you dissapointed with the ending in my short story, "Steel Love?" That is if you've read it yet of course.
 

But I hate endings that don't end. I hate reading them and I hate writing them. Every once in a while, I find one that I don't mind, but not often. I certainly hope it's a fad, because then it will end someday! Hopefully soon...
 

At least, I think that was the name of the title. If not, I'll edit this later. No time right now.
 

Robert Sawyer, Flashforward.
 

To answer your question: "Are writers afraid of a concrete resolved ending?" I certainly hope not, because there's really nothing more irritating than a missing/bad ending. Honestly, I don't know which is worse: missing or bad. I can deal with an open ending that leaves me thinking about how the situation might end, but I can't deal with a horribly bad ending that wraps up a very good story. I read to find out where the writer is taking me, not to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere, or in the middle of a pile of...
Peace...

I guess I have a bit of MPD because what I read and appreciate as a writer is sometimes entirely different than what I appreciate as a reader. And yes, I can turn off one or the other depending on the quality of the work. As a writer, I enjoy any opportunity to use my imagination. As a reader, I want to be lazy and be told everything I need to know. That's part of the fun of reading. If I wanted to be in complete control and make it all up myself then I'd just write it myself. The fun part of reading is I'm NOT in control and I don't know what's going to happen and all I have to do is sit back and let someone serve it all to me on a silver platter. When they rip that platter away and tell me to go get it myself...well, I get a little miffed.
 

I wonder if a lot of the Sci Fi folks aren't trying to emulate Heinlein's well known chaotic endings? I think they forget the only way he succeeded in adult fiction was he'd spent 30+ years accumulating loyal juvenille readers. Looking back on his stories I've been disappointed about how poor were the endings of everything after about 1965 but I kept reading the damned things because the beginnings were good and I kept thinking he couldn't schiz out yet another time.

The second theory is that I think that many novels originate as a few well-imagined scenes so the writers start out with a great mental picture of the opener but don't really know how to end them. Maybe it is deadlines and maybe just the process itself. It takes a pretty long time to allow a story to grow organically and produce its own good ending but most people don't seem patient enough to give their stories time to pull together.

Stephen King has written a lot about how he started off the Dark Tower Series not knowing how it would end and he had to struggle with a couple of pretty dull middle books before he got the inspiration again for the ending.

I've been lucky in my writing to try to have clear mental images of the endings before I start the stories. I think the key is to know where you're going then taking the time to figure out the pathway. If you do that things may start off slowly but they get better instead of worse.
 

If they are paying for stories with no ending, then I'm about to come into some serious money. $$$$$

Totally kidding there, I could never send out a story without some sort of ending. It would be like sending your kid to school with a "kick me" sign on his back.
 

Short fiction, to me, hasn't been worth the time it takes to read it because it's aimless, pointless, generally tries to create a cheap thrill, and leaves me feeling empty. Either I have to plug through something that doesn't engage me to arrive at a disappointing end, or I get caught up in it and it leaves me hanging, wanting to have more and there is no way to get it. The odd piece that feels satisfying when I put the book down is rare and not worth wading through mountains of drek to get to it.

IMHO.

I didn't realize this was a writing trend!

In my opinion, every story - long OR short - should have SOME sort of resolution. You can make it clear that the character's life goes on, but the mini-vignette should reach some type of conclusion.

Long ago, I had an epiphany - I realized that I am not going to live long enough to read all the books I would LIKE to read. When realization struck, I began to get more selective about what I read and quit slogging through books and stories that only barely engaged me. (It was the "eat what you put on your plate" mentality.)

If a writer isn't concerned about leaving the reader satisfied in some way, then he's writing solely for his own pleasure and shouldn't be surprised when a publisher chooses not to print his work.
 

I like short stories for what they are. I like novels for what they are. I judge each based on its merits and avoid or stop reading the ones I don't care about. What's the difference?

It's not the format, it's the reader's preference. Good stories are good regardless of length. And endings will always be a point of contention among individual readers. What works for one, doesn't work for another. This is why a writer must eventually decide to write what he/she wants to write. If you can't please yourself, then you shouldn't be writing at all.
 

Most stories don't go that far- they'll stop the story as she is about to jump off the ramp and expect the reader to make up the rest.

your story is what I would call a "slice of Life" and those are fine stories because you had a neat little package that either be the opening for a larger story or just a small snapshop "slice of life".

But when these writers expect the reader to finish it or they give some condensed ending like:

And they all drank the kool-aid and died.

Then I feel cheated.

JB Skaggs
 

Then there is the issue of the weak ending (I think someone already addressed this), where the author can't seem to find the right words so they just stop writing. This can be a challenge to get past (I'm in the middle of it myself right now).

I'm not sure what the cause is or what the solution could be, but I know for myself, I reached the end and that was it. The words came pretty easily for the whole story and then I reached the end. The story stopped and so did the words, so that is the ending that is currently attached to the story. It lacks panache, but it seems to be all my little brain can come up with -- even after 6 months or so!

I agree with whomever said that part of the problem could be that we do spend too much time working the opening, that endings are suffering as a result.
 

In other cases, I think the important issue IS resolved. For example, in those war stories, if the personal issue comes to an end, that's what feels important to me, not the war's end.

OTOH, if there's a story of taking a bridge, and they take it, but the hero loses use of his legs, we still have resolution -- this time, because the mission was completed. The injured soldier must recover, but that's another story. I think it just needs to be clear to the reader which story he's reading.

I also recall a story I read in college. College boy's home for the weekend. Hhe grew a beard; his parents are giving him grief; then he sunbathes in the backyard, nude, to further annoy them; they give him more grief.

Sunday morning, he shows up at breakfast, clean-shaven. Lots of cuts on his face -- he deliberately hurt himself in shaving it off. His parents see it and say nothing.

The resolution there is that there IS no resolution. We're no longer wondering if this twisted family is going to be untwisted -- it isn't.

 

Keep in mind, the only thing I actually know about this "beautiful woman" is that she's been hand selected by a guy that would just as soon see me get eaten by a tiger.
 

Poison Dart frogs are beautiful too.

[This message has been edited by JBSkaggs (edited March 30, 2005).]
 

JB, I'm with you. I get very irritated with short stories lately becuase they simply seem to "stop" at some random point and that's it. And the most frustrating part is they generally stop just as the story is beginning to get interesting.

I think this happens with short stories more than anywhere else, and I think it happens for a couple reasons: 1) word limits, 2) publishing trends (one author does it and sells like crazy, so suddenly ALL authors think that will work for them as well), and 3) ego. Really, I think a lot of authors get a kick out of creating this huge setup then leaving the reader out in the cold in a sort of "Let's see if they can figure THIS one out" scenario.

I hate that. It's one thing to leave a couple threads open for future exploration, it's quite another to leave the entire story unfinished.

My 2 pennies. When I read something, I expect to see some sort of resolution.
 

You know if I had an editor say hey I like your story and I'd publish it if you tweaked the ending, I would not try and justify my writing I would either say Thanks but no thanks and move to the next magazine or I'd try a rewrite and see if I liked it. But I would not argue with the guy whose is going to pay me for the thing.

Let me give a summary of this story:

In the future there are no seasons, no holidays. A man longs for a holiday. He gets a animated greeting card in the mail that has a cheerful sunrise. The man goes to work where he is downtrodden and depressed. He begins to think about change and the culture... then the story ends with the guy mailing himself more greeting cards.

2/3 of this story had a great orwellian setup I mean it pulled you in! You wanted to see what the man did... but then nothing.
 

Speaking of endings -- what is our collective opinion on ending on the climax or ending with a gentle summary/winding-down? Assume the ending is good, by the way. Do we want to see what happens after the bad guy(s) lose, or do we just the story to end with the protrag succeeding (or whatever).

[This message has been edited by HSO (edited April 03, 2005).]
 

On the whole, though, once the central conflict has been resolved the story is over, and should end very soon. You can take a little time to tie up loose ends, but the longer the denoument the more it feels like the book should have been over by now. Some authors choose to end right after the climax but include a short epilogue that may take place at a different time, to show how everything else turned out.

If there is still a lot of ground to cover after the 'end' perhaps it is time for a sequel!

[This message has been edited by autumnmuse (edited April 03, 2005).]
 

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2005/20050328/street-f.shtml

I thought it was quite a riot, actually.
 

It also brought up another question to mind- many of these endings have murky meanings.

Am I suppossed to guess what happens or just feel muddled and confused?

 

Just a hint, the story isn't about the stolen garbage cans. It's really about politics and government in general. It "doesn't end" in the same sense that 1984 "doesn't end", but that's one heck of an ending, don't you think?
 

Of course, this is from the same people who told me that there was no such thing as guidelines about how to submit a story to a publisher: "I've never heard of that. Your internet friends [meaning all of you on Hatrack] must not have ever actually published anything, because publishers don't care what your story looks like as long as it reads well." WHAT? So I don't put a whole lot of stock in what they say.
 

My father often has this complaint about stories and I think it is because he is interested in plot-driven stories. Plot-driven stories have very clear beginning, middle and ends while character- or idea-driven stories do not. I've been avoiding responding to this topic because I tend to like stories about which other people say, "It has no ending." While there are definitely stories in which nothing happens, I don't think that all the loose ends have to be wrapped up for a story to have a clear ending as long as there is a resolution to whatever the story is about. In the case in point, I don't care who took the garbage cans, because that's not what that story is about.