Endings
So, our thirty day journey of exploration is almost over. For an easier wind down, todays prompt takes the form of … an ending! Sometimes it can be easier to start a story at the end rather than the beginning. At least you know what you are working towards!
The Prompt
In no more than 600 words write the ending of a story. This is effectively the final scene, the denouement, the resolution or however you want the story to end. This is still a Tension Tuesday prompt, so we need to know how all the tension has been dealt with.
Tips
- Try to write a very short summary or synopsis of your story (50 words maximum) so that this can offer guidance to how we’ve ended up here. It will also be helpful next month (Thursday!) when you can re-visit this prompt and think about writing the rest of the story.
- It is probably advisable to limit the amount of dialogue in the conclusion. Narrative will allow you to explain more in a shorter number of words, but don’t forget to SHOW not TELL!
- Some dialogue might add power to the ending and enable you to show the main character’s feelings about the outcome.
- There is no need to explain everything, after all this is the ending and hopefully the reader will have read the rest of the story, before alighting at this point.
- The ending still needs TENSION and INTRIGUE, and DRAMA.
OK, now stop thinking about the opening paragraph and start writing!
Malcolm Richardson has been writing creatively for the last ten years. After a slow start focussing on a novel, which is still only half completed he has concentrated on short stories over the last few years. One day the novel may be resurrected, but his current focus is entering short stories in competitions. Malcolm is a latecomer to blogging, but his Story a Day stories can be found here.
Make sure to post a comment below, with a link to your story.
Almost done at last. I don’t think I hit all the notes of the prompt quite right, but I’m pretty happy with it.
https://unusualstrangeness.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/story-a-day-challenge-day-29-dust-to-dust/
Well, I had some fun with this one: https://storiesin5minutes.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/in-the-end-is-the-beginning-storyaday-post/
I often feel like my stories are often really at the end of a longer story, so this prompt was somewhat easy to tackle—and I really like what I came up with. You can read my story here: https://storiesbystolle.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/day-29-sacred-heart-scared-heart-scarred-heart. The password is 29.
This was a difficult prompt for me, as I usually write linearly. Often, I have no idea how a story will end until I get close to the end. I ended up working with a short story that I had put aside because it felt flat. Without looking at the story, I wrote a new ending.
http://susan-reads.blogspot.com/2015/09/human-shrapnel.html
Oh, I liked that, Susan! I was kind of hoping it wasn’t going where it was going (and that’s a good thing, because it showed I care)
My attempt at this can be seen here, although I am not quite sure that it is good enough to fulfil the prompt. https://angietrafford.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/story-a-day-final-scene/
I think you did a great job of ending a story that hadn’t been written here.
If you want more tension, try this exercise: trim the words anytime you’re telling us what someone’s feeling (look for words like ‘thought’, ‘decided’, ‘felt’ and try to find another way of saying it). For example, your first line could read “Alice savoured every sight along the way.” or something. Punchier.
Loved this line: “Together they walked out of the freak show grounds.”
Well done.