Fic Talk > General Discussion
Questions to ponder part 12
mare:
I loved how he ended the Dark Tower Series! A friend of mine is reading it now and I can't wait until he gets to the end so I can see his reaction. LOL
I tend to leave many of my endings very open purposely. I'm not a fan of neat bows on things unless it's a genre that needs them. I am more prone to tie everything up in a regular drama than I am in a suspense. When it comes to the suspense stuff I like to leave a few unanswered questions in the air that the reader can try to fill in the blanks themselves. Like I did with Hope and whatever happened to Tim. As a writer, it's great to sit back and see people wonder, "Does that mean that he killed himself?" "Did he get the death penalty?" "Did he just not have any more visitors ever again?" "Did he escape?" Only Tim and I know the answer and neither of us will ever spill! LOL
I think leaving those unanswered questions though sometimes leads to pressure to create a sequel. This is where I went horribly wrong with Mizpah (Which I know I've said a ton of times! lol) That story was meant to be left with a totally opened ending. No one was supposed to ever know what happens to Nick at the end. Only thing I didn't count on was so many people begging me to find out and insisting that I write a sequel for it. Which I did. And then the same thing happened after the sequel. I left it opened and once again got more "You need to write a sequel!!" So I did...again. LOL It all came about purely because of peer pressure. The problem with that is I didn't really "feel" those sequels so to me, the writing wasn't as good. Which is horrifying to think after going back and reading a little of Mizpah. Yikes!!
The older and wiser me now says, sorry! No sequel unless I had intended for there to be one from the get-go like I did with Protect and Serve. Even then I wasn't happy with the outcome of that one either. LOL Maybe I'm just not made for sequels although one of my favorite stories I've written is a sequel (Seasons of Change)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on August 03, 2014, 08:10:52 PM ---So here is my question: How do you feel about open endings? Do you like everything to be tied in a neat bow before you actually consider a story to be finished or do you enjoy leaving some of it out for interpretation?
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I personally prefer endings that tie up the loose ends and wrap them up in a nice neat bow, whether they are happy or sad. But I also think open endings lend themselves well to certain types of stories, especially suspense and horror. I'm more likely to leave those stories open to interpretation, whereas in a drama or romance I want to see the characters come to some kind of resolution.
--- Quote from: mare on August 03, 2014, 08:10:52 PM ---Another one: How do you feel about sequels? (kind of in regards to the first question and open endings) When you write a sequel do you know you're going to do it at the beginning or it is something you don't realize until you are done with the first story? What's the motivation behind your writing a series or a sequel to a story and have you ever regretted your decision to do it?
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I am not a big fan of sequels, I've decided. I think if it's planned out at the beginning that the story will take place across several installments, like Harry Potter, then sequels work, but when they're written after the fact, almost as an afterthought, they're rarely as good as the first and sometimes even ruin the first by taking it too far. I'm speaking as a reader and a writer with this. I have been there, done that with writing sequels, and I don't think I will ever write another one.
There are stories that I've written where I planned to have a sequel from the beginning, but most of my sequels were not planned until the first story was almost finished, which might explain why most of them suck LOL. The only sequels I regret writing are the ones I never finished (a couple that were collaborations way back in the day), but the only one that was actually worth writing was By My Side. With that one, I didn't plan to write a sequel until I was almost done with Broken and realized there was more story to tell if I went the romance route. I don't think it needed a sequel, but I also don't think it was hurt by having one. I just don't see myself doing any more unless I was going to go the J.K. Rowling route and write a big fantasy epic... which will never happen. LOL
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on August 03, 2014, 09:11:34 PM ---I think leaving those unanswered questions though sometimes leads to pressure to create a sequel. This is where I went horribly wrong with Mizpah (Which I know I've said a ton of times! lol) That story was meant to be left with a totally opened ending. No one was supposed to ever know what happens to Nick at the end. Only thing I didn't count on was so many people begging me to find out and insisting that I write a sequel for it. Which I did. And then the same thing happened after the sequel. I left it opened and once again got more "You need to write a sequel!!" So I did...again. LOL It all came about purely because of peer pressure. The problem with that is I didn't really "feel" those sequels so to me, the writing wasn't as good. Which is horrifying to think after going back and reading a little of Mizpah. Yikes!!
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That has happened to me, too, and I agree - it's hard to feel the same sense of pride and ownership in a story that you didn't come up with on your own and maybe didn't even really want to write.
Kind of the opposite of this, but one time I had a reader email me a story idea that she thought I should write. It was AU, which I didn't like to read and had never written, and a long list sibling storyline, which I hate, but something about it intrigued me, and I thought, "Well, maybe I should give it a shot for something different." So I did, and I liked it for a few chapters... until I got bored with it and started to hate it. But I had already started posting it on my site, so I felt obligated to finish it. I had an ending in mind, but I hated writing it so much that I decided to wrap it up early and save the rest for a sequel... which I never wrote. LOL I had people asking me about the sequel for years, but that was not even enough to motivate me to write it, and it probably wouldn't have been any good anyway. I shouldn't have written the original story in the first place.
mare:
I have had that happen to. I've had people write me with full blown ideas that they wanted me to write for them. The plot, characters everything. LOL Some of them I couldn't help but think, wow this is a pretty great idea, maybe you should do this yourself! I don't think I ever actually went ahead and wrote any of them though.
I could never do that. Give someone else my idea and ask them to write it because the entire time I would be reading it, I'd be thinking "Hey! This was my idea!" lol And if I were to write someone else's idea I would feel like I would need to give them the credit and feel oogey for taking it for myself. Too weird!
RokofAges75:
I think I would require monetary compensation to write on demand like that again LOL. If you want to HIRE me to write your fanfic, fine... I'll do it for money. But otherwise, no way.
I have never given someone else a whole story idea and asked them to write it. I don't know how I would feel about that. I guess maybe if it was something I'd want to read, but didn't feel I could do it justice, it might be worth it, but then I'd always wonder, "Would I have been able to write it this well or even better?"
I won't lie, though, Mare - if you offered to finish Guilty Roads for me, I'd probably be like, "Here, have at it!" Perfect example of a story that would probably be a lot better in someone else's hands, someone who was better with the suspense part than me. I could keep writing about Koma Kevin and let someone else take over Nick LOL.
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