So I’ve reached that point with my next book The Last Cup. The ending! While it can be quite the enormous task actually getting the reader to the ending, the ending has the potential to be the last stunning impression you leave. An ending can make or break a book. It can ruin an otherwise stellar plot. It can elevate a good book to greatness. The last thing you want to do is your end your labor of love with a big fat shrug, and that goes for every genre I can imagine: Horror, drama, sci-fi, fantasy, erotica (um, let’s not get into it), coming-of-age, YA, etc. The ending is the culmination of your story and its themes, and it also marks the end of the incredible journey that your protagonist has taken.
“My favorite part of ‘Lord of the Rings’ is when they’re in The Shire,” said absolutely no one ever.
If your protagonist has NOT taken an incredible journey, then why did you even write the book???
I was always proud of the ending to my first book, The Notice. The resolution and the twist at the end of that story was executed, I feel, as well as it could have been done. My new book has not gone so easily. I’ve run into a couple of tiny logistical hurdles in planning my ending. I actually already have the last chapter in the bag; it’s the third to last chapter that has my hands tied right now. I know how I want the book to end but I can’t rationalize my characters making the proper decisions to deliver them there. That problem might be more common that you would think. Frankly, it happens all the time. It happens in my favorite movie to knock on, “Prometheus”, where the characters behave and react completely irrationally in order to forward the final third of the story.
I know I use a lot of movie examples, lately, but I’m on another tremendous movie kick right now where I’m watching three or four movies a day. Movies fuel my writing as much as books, to be honest. In fact, I think there are about four popular plot devices that ruin endings nowadays, and I would like to address them through a handful of endings I’ve seen recently that left me groaning.
“Sean’s 6 Worst Movie Endings He Could Come Up with For This Article”
1. Prometheus – Let’s just go ahead and get it out of the way early. I’m not saying it has the worst ending of all time, but…give me a few minutes to think about how I want to finish up that sentence. I’ll get back to you. No, really, I’ll get back to you.
2. Splice
“The Happening” by M. Night ShockMeLikeAnElectricEel
3. Signs, The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening, etc. Basically, everything after “Unbreakable”
4. War of the Worlds (2005)
5. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
6. The Forgotten
DON’T Try a “Deus Ex Machina” (Unless You Have a REALLY, REALLY GOOD ONE): The most frustrating plot device in the world today, in my opinion, is the old “Deux Ex Machina” or “Hand of God”. What used to seem like an inventive way to throw off a reader and go out with a bang has been turned into the ultimate cop-out cliché by the likes of “Lost”, “Battlestar Galactica”, “Mass Effect 3”, “Signs”, etc. Wow, look at all those science fiction examples I just listed. Hmm, how about that? What exactly is a “Deus Ex Machina”? It’s when something completely out of left field happens to wrap up your story that just conveniently has all the answers to your story’s intriguing questions wrapped up with a nice big bow without you actually having to do anything, I don’t know, original or creative.
I’m sorry, you just know that when these guys got back to the mothership, someone had a nice long talk with whoever’s freaking job it was to recon Earth and make sure it didn’t have any of that “ubiquitous clear substance that instantly burns and kills us”. Oh, the whole planet’s pretty much made of it, you say??? What a stupid ending.
I’ll use “Signs” since it’s probably the most well-known example. Remember how at the end of M. Night Shylaman’s otherwise decent sci-fi drama about aliens we discover that these aliens who have come trillions and trillions of miles to take over Earth just happen to be vulnerable to water? WATER, for crying out loud! And the little girl had been randomly placing glasses of water around the house in unwitting preparation for saving her family because somehow she subconsciously knew it would kill the aliens? Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense. That’s the ultimate irony of “Deus Ex Machina”: The Hand of God is anything but “Intelligent Design”. It’s also EVERYWHERE right now, it seems. The more convoluted a TV show or movie becomes, the more insane their ideas, or the more bewildering their concept, the more you can bet your bottom that a Deux Ex Machina is on the way to finish it, because the writers couldn’t think of a logical, satisfying ending to tie up so many outrageous loose ends.
DON’T Try a Non-Sequitur Ending: If there’s one thing that pisses me off more than Deus Ex Machina, it’s non-sequitur endings. No Country For Old Men frequently gets accused of having a non-sequitur ending by people who are too lazy to actually pay attention to final monologue and THINK about why it’s there and why the movie is called No Country For Old Men. In the movie adaptation, Tommy Lee Jones gets to deliver that final monologue and I will say this right now: Tommy Lee Jones is never a non-sequitur. I could be reading Tolkien’s Return of the King and if the final page read that Tommy Lee Jones suddenly appeared out of nowhere, pimp slapped Frodo, and took his place on the ship to the Grey Havens, I would scream out to the heavens that it was the best ending of all time.
But enough about Tommy Lee Jones. “Monty Python & The Holy Grail” is a famous comedy with a non-sequitur ending and if you’ve seen the movie, you surely know what I’m talking about. It only halfway works because it’s Monty Python. Advice Time: We’re not Monty Python. Don’t even think about trying to get away with a non-sequitur. I’m not even sure how that would work in writing fiction. I can’t think of any popular novels with true non-sequitur endings, but if you can PLEASE sound off in the comments. I’d love to have them brought to my attention and see if there are any examples where it kind of worked.
In television, I know you have The Sopranos, which definitely ended with a non-sequitur that made a bunch of people really upset. After all that story and all that gripping dialogue, the whole series ended with a random diner scene that cut to black or something like that. Which reminds me that the most important advice on non-sequiturs that I could possibly give you is to
DON’T Commit an Abrupt Tonal Shift in The Last Few Chapters: Admit it, you walked right into that gag at the end of the last paragraph, didn’t you? Moving on, I would also recommend avoiding an abrupt tonal shift in the last few chapters of your book. One reason for this is that characters tend to be very important in establishing tone. The tone of a book often matches the way a character or characters speak and behave. An abrupt tonal shift at the end, then, can work against those characters. It can make their actions suddenly seem erratic and it calls into question how a character would react to any such situation. Confusing, I know.
THIS. I’m trying to describe THIS. You didn’t need to sleep tonight anyway, right?
I’d like to highlight a movie that most of you have probably never seen. It’s called Splice and it stars Adrien Brody as a scientist working on a creature that is like a human/animal hybrid. It’s kind of like Frankenstein in that the creature, which ultimately matures into this weird abomination that is like half Russian supermodel and half goat or something, is actually quite sympathetic. The first half of the movie is a brilliantly executed meditation on the animal instincts in all of us, and it could even be viewed as a profound metaphor for parenting, believe it or not. You’d have to watch the movie to see what I mean. Too bad I’m about to ruin it for you. Where Splice comes crashing to the ground in a horrifying ball of fire is in the last ten minutes when the creature suddenly switches genders (yes, you read that right—the thing SPONTANEOUSLY SWITCHES GENDERS), rapes the female lead, and pretty much goes on a killing spree. 90 minutes of subtlety and brilliant thematic themes are completely undone because a fantastic sci-fi film decides literally at the very end that it wants to become a horror film instead.
Don’t be afraid to compromise the story that you want to tell. Believe it or not, but there was a time when I considered shoehorning a vampire into my book The Notice, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story about a girl growing up in war-torn Bosnia. It probably would have made the book more “marketable” if I could have pulled it off. Too bad I have integrity.
4. No Aliens (Oh, I’m Sorry; You Say Your Book is About Aliens? See Exhibit A. No Freaking Aliens) Let me qualify that last remark. I’m not saying you should not use aliens if they exist in the universe of the story you’re telling. I love awesome alien races, a’la “Star Trek” and “Star Wars”, etc. What I hate is when a movie or book that has nothing to do with aliens suddenly involves them at the end. I realize that this is basically Deus Ex Machina all over again, but I wanted to single aliens out specifically because I’ve seen it a lot lately. You can’t have some mysterious scenario where, say, children are disappearing in a tiny mountain town and Detective Guy Everydude, P.I. is on the case and he thinks it might be the town hobo, Seamus McFoil, who might have been responsible for those murders years back, but nope…It was all aliens. Aliens took the kids. Betcha didn’t see that coming, right?
If you need an example of what I’m talking about, go find the movie The Forgotten and watch it. You’ll understand why aliens should not just be abruptly introduced out of nowhere. You see, readers like to try guess where you’re going, and if you’re writing something that is engaging and mysterious, they will be captivated by the fact that they can’t guess what’s next. If you suddenly tell them that aliens were responsible for everything that has been happening, your readers will feel slighted because it turns out that all those awesome, mysterious things that were happening earlier weren’t actually happening for any intelligible or nefarious reason. Just…aliens. They’ll feel cheated. Why? Because you cheated them.
Pictured: An insanely graphic photo of a Frigidairian exposing himself.
On the same note, if you’re writing sci-fi and you have all these cool alien races who are fantastic characters, I say YES! GO FOR IT! MORE OF THAT! but do not have your resolution end with one of those alien races suddenly coming forth with a piece of alien technology that will magically tie up all your loose ends. There is no such thing as a “Resolution Cannon” (although there should be) that an alien can just randomly fire and, BAM!, there’s peace between the Toasterlings and the Frigidairians (sorry, I’m writing this from my kitchen…so sue me!). Once again, it’s cheap. Be better than that. Please be better than.
Also, I call dibs on Frigidairians.
Excellent advice brought with a sense of humor! Love it
I try to focus on “humor” first and “advice” second, but I’m glad you enjoyed it!
If you can’t get your characters to your ending … maybe it’s the wrong ending. It might be the right ending for a different book, or a sequel or something entirely different?
My last two books, I was like, YAY, time to write THE END and it seriously turned into the characters going, yeah, we’re not done yet. Sorry for that, guess you better get used to us.
Oh, it’s the right ending. Like I said, it’s the third-to-last chapter that’s giving me trouble. That’s nothing TOO heavy to worry about and I just figured out the problem a few minutes ago. I knew I’d written down the answer somewhere, but I just needed to go through the outline and find it
(clarification, “sorry” was from character to me, not me to you.)
You always leave food for thought, even in the fridge or refree as we asy down here in Ol’ Mexico. I truly appreciate your efforts. It helps fledglings…Graxias
That means so much to me. I started this website as an experiment, with my only objective being to vent my frustrations as an author while maintaining a sense of humor. I feel truly honored that other people are taking something away from this. Thanks for the kind words
Great post. The whole “suddenly ALIENS” thing reminds me of the Ancient Aliens guy, haha.
Man, I LOVE “Ancient Aliens”. Stone Henge: We can’t really explain it, but you know what? Aliens.
Haha right? It’s hilarious. “Some believe in the possibility that eggzaturrestials built the Easter Island Heads. So because aliens definitely did this, we are all alien babies.”
Ha, when I was a teenager and asked my old man whether he really believed there was such a thing as a god out there somewhere, he gave me a funny look and gave me a book by Erich von Daniken — the Ancient Aliens guy I assume you’re referring to. It’s nutty stuff, impossible to take seriously unless you’re a teenager trying to extricate himself from an even less believable theological cosmology. But it was just what I needed, and led me, finally, to a very fine appreciation of HP Lovecraft’s work.
All of which has nothing to do with this post, though I’m motivated to comment mainly because of the caption you put under the snap from LOTR. In fact, my favorite part of The Lord of the Rings (the books) *is* when they’re in the Shire… but I mean when they’re *back* in the Shire, in that long ending section where, after saving the whole damned world and journeying the distance home, they get back only to find that the Shire is still a bloody mess needing a lot of cleaning up and fixing, with decent hobbits imprisoned and their land grabbed by nastier neighbours under the direction of — wasn’t it Saruman? I was sad that they didn’t have a 20-minute long epilogue on the Director’s Cut version of the film with that longer ending, even though I knew it would never make it into the movie. But it’s such a nice counter to the whole, “Ah, we’ve saved the world and beaten the big bad guy, now everything is set to rights and good has prevailed so we can all sit back and smoke a pipe,” sort of ending one often sees in fiction and film. Nope: those Hobbits have got to rebuild the decency and peace the Shire once had, and it takes work and struggle and risk. I like that…
Also, at a glance, I thought your name was “Taylor Rampage” and my head almost exploded. You might want to consider that.
I actually get that ALL the time, XDD. It’s funny, but sadly not true. If I ever write an anger management book, though, I’ll use it ironically.
Ha ha ha, Tommy Lee Jones can never be a non sequiteur. So true. I have him in my book. He’s coming in on a spacecraft.
Good luck with your ending. I feel your woe. I have the sense that you’ll nail it, though.
When I set out to make this website, I knew I would find success as long as I mentioned Seal and Tommy Lee Jones as often as possible.
I actually had the ending breakthrough I’ve been waiting two weeks for this afternoon. Sometimes you just have to step away. I would have an idea here and there along the way and write them down, but the “Eureka” moment took just a little bit longer.
Thanks for the kind words!
The movie, Blind” drove me crazy! Everyone in the world, except one woman, went blind for no reason. Then, at the end, started getting their sight back. For no reason. I was mad that I sat through it.
I’ve always said the exact same thing about the ending of “Signs.” Speaking of aliens…
Have you ever seen the play, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.” It uses aliens as deux ex machina. But it was written by Steve Martin. So it works, coming from him.
Good points — because I’m not sure anyone has truly liked a Deus Ex ending since the Greeks invented it.
I thought Splice’s ending was a logical progression, though. There was plenty of horrifying content to suggest that this was only going to get worse, and that parenting doesn’t stop — or become easier — just because the child stops being a baby. The other test creatures mutating and violently killing each other set up Dren’s mutation. And Dren’s birth was awfully horror-like, I thought, with the scientist blindly sticking her hands into the birth chamber and getting sudden, aggressive, venomous stings that nearly killed her. I’m not sure how that part would play into the parenthood metaphor (but maybe I should ask my mother!).
(Not sure if my previous comment went through, so here’s me trying again.)
Good points — because I’m not sure anyone has truly liked a Deus Ex ending since the Greeks invented it.
I thought Splice’s ending was a logical progression, though. There was plenty of horrifying content to suggest that this was only going to get worse, and that parenting doesn’t stop or become easier just because the child stops being a baby. The other test creatures mutating and violently killing each other set up Dren’s mutation and violent actions. And her birth scene was awfully horror-like, I thought, with the scientist blindly sticking her hands into the birth chamber and getting suddenly, aggressively stung to an extent that nearly killed her. I’m not sure how that part would play into the parenting metaphor (but maybe I should ask my mother!).
Awesome post! This was my favorite line: “What I hate is when a movie or book that has nothing to do with aliens suddenly involves them at the end.” I mean, seriously!
Very well said! I like the Frigidarians, but was pretty shocked at the end of your post to see one flashing its diddles at me. Couldn’t you have at least put a thong on him? I mean, I could practically see his cubes, for crying out loud. The last time I saw anything this explicit was in a Sears appliance department on a dim Thursday evening when I strolled the aisles alone (I should have known better). What’s next? Spewing Salad-Shooterites? LOLOLOL
Ending are so tough to get right. I think some healthy advice is that no matter what ending you had planned you should allow the book to lead you to it’s logical conclusion. Sometimes I feel like a writer is so hell bent on their ending they ignore what the story was logically leading them towards. A recent example of this is the movie Savages. Terrible ending. I was also very upset by the ending to Life of Pi. Your ending should never suck the life out of the rest of your book.
I also have to disagree though with your assessment of the ending to Splice. It seemed very logical to me.
about “splice”, I found it the most useless movie ever, for more reasons than what you cite. For example, a scientist, SCIENTIST who splices DNA for a living, thinks nothing bad will happen if he has sex with a hybrid creature AFTER its predessors violently destroyed each other. Even ignoring the possibility of recombinant RNA and DNA and brand new diseases WHICH EVERY HOBO ON THE STREET COULD WARN YOU ABOUT, but no, mr. scientist opts to get a little something something. And the very end, was really stupid, after all the horrifying things that happened, MRS. SCIENTIST decides to bring the further hybrid full term in her belly for money.
hello…… I think splice was messed up all the way through, frankly
Fantastic article here. Deus ex machina makes me very disappointed.
Speaking of aliens… Or not really? I don’t even know what to call it. Anyway, the first book that really pissed me off was Phantoms by Dean Koontz. I read it when I was maybe 15 or so. Anyway, there are all of these mysterious, creepy murders. Nearly everyone in the town has vanished. No one quite knows who or what has caused all of it.
What is it? Black slime. Slime that can inhabit bodies and control them. Slime that somehow managed to cleverly rig bodies to pop out and surprise people, like Jason Voorhees does in the Friday 13th films. Slime that can imitate voices and sings from the bathroom and kitchen pipes, with the voice of a creepy child. I was expecting something more interesting than black slime. Maybe the ending was clever and I was not cool enough to get it. I don’t even know what I was expecting at this point. What was the slimes motivation? I couldn’t be arsed to tell you, because I didn’t care enough to remember if it was explained.
Oh, The Forgotten…the aliens pissed me off to no end, partly because that is indeed a stupid way to end a movie (especially when everything went back to normal immediately after as if it had never happened), and partly because I’m a nerd: The aliens told her she “ruined” their experiment (to see if the bond between mother and child could be broken) by remembering her child and refusing to forget…but that’s not ruining the experiment, that’s simply disproving their hypothesis. I mean, what kind of lame scientist-alien race are these guys?
But maybe I was the only one who was bothered by that specific detail…
Well frak, I was totally going to steal “Frigidairians” and then you called dibs. You don’t hold the copyright on “Micro-Wavians”, do you? (They are, obviously, a specially bred miniature version of the Wavian race.)
I actually poke a little fun at Deus Ex Machina endings in my sci-fi novel “Dremiks”. An ore they were supposed to have to drill for turns up magically on the surface. One character ask another if he believes it was “Deus Ex Machina. The response: “I gave up believing in a benevolent God long ago.” Come to think of it, the answer to that plot point ends up being aliens. Since it is a space opera filled with aliens, though, I’m ok–right?
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‘Believe it or not, but there was a time when I considered shoehorning a vampire into my book .’ me too me too – and I am trying to write women’s fiction.
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I have to disagree with about Signs. The father was a priest for Gods sake. (pun intended). There had to be a spiritual ending. Now I do agree the aliens were dumb for invading a planet with water…IF IT’S YOUR KRYPTONITE.