Last month I wrote about sagging middles. You will be happy to know I’ve been working out, so there is hope the problem…. Oh, sorry, wrong middle. Back to the blog.

The End

This month, I’m talking about endings. Not mine—hopefully — but in stories. Crafting endings is the bane of my writing existence. That seems strange because the first scene I write is the climax, so the ending should be a slam dunk. It’s not. Well, that’s not accurate, it is. My problem is what comes after. Villain caught followed by a full stop is not satisfying to the reader. There needs to be more. Interaction among the characters, a drawing together and tying up of the story ends, an introduction of the new normal, something. This is hard.

I spent twenty years as a paralegal. The majority of my professional life was spent writing pleadings. The formula is simple. Introduce the problem, develop the argument, tie the threads together to support your desired outcome, and get the heck out of Dodge. It’s not your place to visualize the world beyond your conclusion. It’s your job to demonstrate to the Judge that this is the only logical result. That’s the mindset that I took to my fiction writing. It’s not wrong, it’s just too…. abrupt.

In Paul Doiron’s One Last Lie, Charley and Mike confront the villain in the backwoods of the Allagash. They sort through the red herrings and clues before the world explodes and the plot, as they say, thickens. The climax takes place over three chapters. The book continues for another two. Those additional chapters reinforce Mike and Charley’s humanity. They allow the reader to step back, breathe, and remember why they like these characters. A necessary step in a continuing series.

The same is true in Maddie Day’s Batter Off Dead. This book is very different to Paul Doiron’s. It’s a cozy, the sleuth an amateur, but the stakes are still life and death. Robbie confronts the villain alone and saves herself by using her wits. The drawing together of the plot takes place after the confrontation, and the next three chapters are devoted to Robbie resuming her place in her normal world. It’s satisfying, and hopeful at the same time.

The Long Goodbye

It seems the secret to endings is the long goodbye. Convention demands not only the capture and punishment of the villains but also the restoration of the protagonists. Whether law enforcement or amateur sleuths, crime is an affront to their humanity. It’s important for readers to experience their restoration.

Readers, do you feel cheated if a story simply ends with the capture? Writers, what’s your take on the long goodbye?