[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Writing Excuses Season Two Episode 29: How Not to End Your Book

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2009/04/26/we-talk-about-how-not-to-end-books-with-the-goal-of-helping-you-fix-them/

Key points: good endings go beyond the reader expects. You need to fulfill promises that you made in the first part of the book. Get help identifying promises that you have made. Avoid the third act Hollywood wimpout -- big action set pieces are not automatically good endings. A book in a series should fulfill its promises while opening up new problems for the future. Make your plots fit your books first. Bad endings usually mean bad foreshadowing. Revise to fit.
the meat )
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. Writing prompt?
[Dan] Write an ending in which everybody dies and it works.
[Brandon] Start your book with an ending where everyone dies. This has been Writing Excuses. Thanks for listening.

Profile

Writing Excuses Transcripts

February 2026

S M T W T F S
1234 567
891011 121314
15161718 192021
22232425262728

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 19th, 2026 10:13 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios