I
was flipping through channels at 2:00 am the other day (I’m an insomniac :) and
I came across a director talking about how he makes movies. He said something
that just struck me, “People will forgive you a lot of mistakes IF
you don’t screw up the ending!”
I
think I messed up the quote a little (if you know it please correct me), but I
got the main gist of it. I loved this idea because, for me, if the ending is
bad it will ruin the whole book, even the whole series.
This
is what ruins an ending for me:
No consequences for
choices—I
HATE this. If you’re going to make your character choose—STICK TO THE
CONSEQUENCES! Don’t let them off the hook.
Rushed or incomplete
endings—Don’t
you hate reading and feeling like the author just gave up. As a writer I know
this is probably not the case, but make sure your readers don’t feel like this.
Dragging out the story
too long past the ending climax—This is so annoying. Please don’t do it :)
An obvious ending—It’s terrible to know
for 100 pages how things will end.
Characters suddenly
acting out of character—BOO! Don’t do this!
What
do you all think? What ruins an ending for you?
-Angie
