>>> Item number 17705 from WRITERS LOG9309D --- (55 records) ----- <<< Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 11:25:48 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: TECH: To End or Not (was other names) HI, MARY! WELCOME TO THE GRUNGE WRITERS ROUNDTABLE! Mary Till (IJLL300@INDYVAX.BITNET) asked - Is a story better because it has a write-your-own ending? I'm just - wondering. I've always hated those kind, but now that I think of it, - the stories with predictable endings/or surprise improbably endings - are sometimes unsatisfying also. The story about the boy with leukemia - ended to patly for me -- I was hoping for a different outcome -- maybe - I would have preferred a write-your-own ending. better? not inherently. if you like structural notions such as a "story question" which eventually results in a "story answer" or perhaps conflict and resolution, the "write-your-own ending" format is unfinished, incomplete, and not to be tolerated. On the other hand, given the reader's own drive for closure and the ambiguity of some questions raised in stories, it may be a useful technique on occasion. Not to avoid resolving the issue, but deliberately raising an issue, developing the alternatives, and whacking the reader between the eyes with the dilemma. If the "write-your-own ending" is a simple escape from digging up a satisfying, unexpected, logical, etc. ending - then the writer is being lazy and should be chastised for it (let the critics at 'em, serves 'em write!). On the other hand, it is possible (if carefully handled) to make the "unfinished" nature a satisfying ending, embodying the dilemma, frustration, confusion (pick your own words) that the protagonist feels. How do I say this? The writer is trying (fumbling) at making the reader experience (vicariously) something, with some hope of raising some thoughts in that lump over there. One method, generally used, is to walk the reader right along the path, from beginning to end. Another method, somewhat more technically difficult, is to raise the questions and hope the reader tries to finish the path on their own (goes all the way back to Socrates, I believe). Still another approach (very tricky) is to provide the reader with an ending and trick them into finishing the path on their own in rejection of the ending given. Which is "best"? Depends - on the writer, the reader, the questions or subjects being tackled, and other cosmic influences. Personally, I have a strong desire for closure - I like endings. I'm not even too happy with the cliche "arm from the grave" horror bit, with its suggestion that the horror isn't really over. I'm with Roger - I wish I knew what I was talking about. Maybe I'll take up Tarot readings... tink