Endings

[John Dean]

I am a big football fan, and just as big a rugby fan, and it has always been clear that the teams that can finish are the ones that succeed. Without producing too twee a link, it is the same with writers and writing. Why do I say this? Well, twice in recent weeks, I have read stories which promised much and did not quite deliver.

One was a novel which had a terrific idea but which announced an even better one in the final pages - then stopped without developing it. The second was a short story that set itself up really well, set the scene for a terrific climax, had me engrossed, then stopped without developing it. Now I know that sometimes an open ending can be very effective, and sometimes a story that ends without finishing can work as well, but in those two cases, they just did not finish. Get that right, don't waste the opportunity created by all your good work, and your story has so much more to offer.