Tying the knots

Ending a story can be hard, especially if you've been writing the story for a while now. Here are some ways on how you can officially tie the knot.

What do you want the ending of the story to be?
Identify the end of your story - In which you decide that that's enough, everything's resolved and whatnot.
Consider your environmental factors. Is it too early? Too late? Are you tired? Is it peaceful or do you like it noisy?
Ask yourself questions. For example, these could be, 'What is the main point of my story?" "What is the main conflict?" "Is everything satisfactory?"
Ask someone to read over your work. Feedback is important, trust me! Or you can always read it yourself and edit the hell out of it.
REVISE! REVISE! REVISE!

There are many 'types' of endings for a story. However, we can narrow these few down.

1. Resolved ending - All conflicts and the loose ends are tied up neatly. It's a satisfactory ending for the readers and the author. This denotes that this will only be a singular book or the very last one.

2. Unresolved - Main conflict of that part is tied up, but there are still loose ends. In saying this, it is unfinished. This ending leaves readers on edge and also hints that there will be a second part of the sorts.

3. Twist - The ending is not what many people think and turns people's worlds upside down.

4. Back to the beginning - The ending goes right back to the beginning. Gives the story a sense of completeness. This ending uses the same 'format' in terms of dialogue, setting, description and point of view. (To me, this is one of the most satisfactfory)

5. To the future - The ending depicts what happens to the characters in future. For example, the ending can skip five years ahead.

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LuAnn98 #1 Aug 14, 2014 14:09:19

And for kissing scenes, talk about HARD! In one of my stories, the kissing scene was in the rain, and writing it took a tremendous amount of brain cells because I had to consider their body language, emotions, actions, etc. To me, a kissing scene isn't just connecting lips, like you said, but it's the hands, the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the feels, and more. And because a lot of readers like a real intense kissing scene, knowing how to deliver is not an easy task.
Character development is different for everyone, I guess. I have read literature classics that have literally very little character development, but are praised for their prose and diction. Some are highly respected just simply for the realism of the novel, and not exactly the characters. While I do think characters play a big role in a story, their development is shaped by the events that happen, and sometimes they don't grow at all. I'm honestly fine with reading static characters, as long as they are well-rounded and not just a typical Mary Sue or Gary Stu.
And can I just tell you how much I love the words you listed? My personal favorites are eloquence, connive, and ephemeral. Chide is nice too.

LuAnn98 #2 Aug 14, 2014 14:02:29

Hiya! I'm going to be writing a really long comment so please don't mind me! I just wanted to give you my thoughts on what you said, and I agree with most of the points you made!
Honestly, when it comes to point of views, I like to stick to first or third person. Second person to me is so underdeveloped character-wise, and I hate being told what *I have to do, what *I have to say, etc. A lot of inexperienced authors go down the 2nd POV path, which is a terrible choice if you don't know how to work around it. In the end, it only makes your story seem really immature. While I have read great stories written in 2nd POV, not all authors have the ability to achieve that kind of success, so I mostly ignore those stories for that reason.
I do like first person, because you do get in touch with the main character's emotions and such on a personal level. The only drawback is that exact same reason. Instead of getting a roundabout view of the situation, you only see what the MC sees, in which the view may be distorted according to a prejudice or bias. So for that reason, I tend to prefer to write in third person (limited). In this POV, writing emotions is pretty hard, but I feel like third does so much better in conveying a whole story.
As for author's notes, I do hate them when they appear randomly during a chapter. However, I do like placing my author's notes at the bottom, mostly just to thank my readers or share a thought with them that I may have, or even ask questions. I find that my readers are really nice and have great replies, so author notes are quite fun.