Written Interviews on Endings

Julie Bertagna

Do you find writing endings hard?

I don't find endings hard at all because by the time it comes to writing it, I've imagined it many, many times in my head. I visualise possible endings as I'm working on other parts of the story, until one settles in my head and feels very strong. I am like my own film director, trying out different possibilities. Sometimes I've written an ending very early on while I'm in the middle of a story or even when struggling to begin. I have no idea why! It's as if I want to see where I'm heading, but the big mystery is how I'm going to get there and what happens on the way. And of course, I know I can change the ending if I need to - but in every single book the ending that I visualise and direct in my head like a scene from a film is more or less the one that stays. 

How do you know when to end your story?

It's an instinctive thing. It's like asking 'how do you know when you have had enough to eat or need to go to sleep?' You begin to see all the strands of the story come together, heading to one point like roads meeting on a map, and you 'feel' in your bones that you have reached the end of that particular journey. But it's not wafty and airy-fairy at all - I work very hard to make sure that my ending is a satisfying conclusion to everything that's gone before. 

How do you plan your endings?

I don't plan endings on paper. What I think happens is that while I'm working hard at a story, writing on my laptop, the ending has been growing at the back of my head like a seed under the earth, and suddenly one day it bursts through. So the best thing is not to worry about an ending. As long as you work on the story you are telling, an ending will sprout out of that. 

One trick that helps if you can't see what the ending should be is to think of endings of books and films that you love, and some that you hate, and try to see why some work for you and some don't. That makes you see that there are lots of possible ways that a story might end - and you can 'steal' a style of ending, but change it to fit your own original story.

What's your favourite ending in a book you have read?

I want an ending that makes my heart beat faster as I head towards it, that leaves me thinking and wondering, sometimes for years! One of the most brilliant endings ever is The Time Machine by HG Wells. The time traveller of the story vanishes in his time machine after telling the most mind-blowing tales of what he has seen on his amazing travels. You are left forever wondering... Where has he gone? Where is he time-travelling to now? What's happened to him? And will he ever return?  

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Do you find it hard to write your endings?

Murder.

How do you know when to end your story?

When it’s a good ending! I like a big finish.

How do you plan your endings?

I don't. I think all good endings should be surprising and the best way to make sure you surprise other people is to surprise yourself first. It's scary writing without knowing where you're headed but it does work.

What is your favourite ending from a book you have read?

Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson – so cool when you realize why the butterfly seemed so... Dim. The Third Policeman – best ending ever. And the story of the prodigal son by Jesus – one paragraph long and it tears you apart – absolutely amazing.

Kevin Brooks

Do you find it hard to write your endings?

Sometimes it can take a long time to get the ending right, but other times it just happens – a bit like writing in general really. The hardest ending I've ever written was for a book called BEING. I wrote the ending about a million times, changing it over and over again, and the whole thing took me about a month. Then, when the book came out, I had an email from someone who said they loved the book but they wished I'd spent more than five minutes on the ending ... doh!

How do you know when to end your story?

I think about a story for a long time before I actually start writing it, and by the time I finally get round to writing, the ending is already there. It just seems to appear, magically, in my head – ie, this is where the story ends. 

How do you plan your endings?

I don't really plan them, as such. As I said in the last answer, the story knows where to end itself. So although I might not know exactly how the story is going to end, I always know when it's going to end.

What is your favourite ending from a book you have read?

It's the ending of a western novel called Hombre by Elmore Leonard. The hero, a man called John Russell, deliberately sacrifices his own life in order to save the lives of some other people who he doesn't even like. "He did what he felt had to be done. Even if it meant dying."

Andy Stanton

Do you find it hard to write your endings?

In some ways I find it the easiest part of all. It's the start and middle that are hard work for me!

How do you know when to end your story?

Usually I end my stories when the chips are down for the heroes. They are at their lowest point and everything seems hopeless. Then suddenly - inspiration strikes and they find a way out of it and triumph over the baddies. It's not the only way to end stories but it works for the type of books I write.

How do you plan your endings?

Sometimes I have the ending in mind before I begin, but usually it suggests itself as I start to write. An ending usually grows out of one or more of the earlier elements in the story. For instance, if you were writing a story about a girl who always breaks other people's toys, perhaps the ending is that someone breaks her toys. Or perhaps the broken toys gang up to teach her a lesson and break her. So the ending is usually hidden in what's gone before it. Having said that, I try not to make my endings too obvious. It's about using what's gone before, but doing it in a surprising and satisfying way.

What is your favourite ending from a book you have read?

The best books are the ones you never want to end.

Graham Marks

Do you find it hard to write your endings?

So far, no...they seem to be there waiting for me; I do plan my books out, so I always know vaguely where I’m going, although I never know the exact way a book will end – I like the fact that it has to be as much of a surprise to me as I hope it will be for the reader.

How do you know when to end your story?

It’s a very weird moment, that instant you just know that you’ve just typed the final full stop, that to write any more would be a mistake. This moment is, of course, before an editor has got their hands on your story; they may well disagree and you may have a fight on your hands.

How do you plan your endings?

Like I said before, usually very roughly. With some books, like Omega Place, I know the exact structure of the book and how I want the book to finish and the job then is to make sure that I keep the story going in that general direction so it all works out in the end; with others, like I Spy: The Constantinople Caper, all I had was a beginning and a very sketchy middle, which made that book something of a voyage of discovery.

What is your favourite ending from a book you have read?

Oh god...no idea. I can tell you that my favourite author, beating John Irving by a whisker, is Tom Robbins; he is the most humorous, imaginative, poetic, surreal and heart-lifting of storytellers and the call to arms at the end of Jitterbug Perfume is all those things. And what more could you want from an ending?

Keith Gray

Do you find writing endings hard?

I find endings often seem to sort themselves out. They're nowhere near as difficult as beginnings. When getting a story going there seems to be hundreds of different ways to begin. But as the story progresses the possible endings become fewer and fewer, the outcomes for the characters become clearer, until finally I find there can only really be one way to end.

How do you know when to end your story?

The story has to end at a high point of satisfaction for both the reader and the writer. I usually think of my stories in terms of puzzles or journeys or conflicts. When the puzzle has been solved, the journey completed, or the conflict resolved, that's when the story can come to an end.

How do you plan your endings?

I don't plan. I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite...

What your favourite ending in a book you have read?

It has to be Pet Semetary by Stephen King  - surprising, scary, punch-in-the-face genius.