Episode 193: Unsatisfying Book Endings

The Pulp Writer Show

In this week's episode, we take a look at what makes a book's ending disappointing or unsatisfying, and offer tips and tricks on how to avoid that.

This week’s coupon is for the audiobook of GHOST IN THE WINDS as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy. You can get the audiobook of GHOST IN THE WINDS for 50% off at my Payhip store with this coupon code:

SPRINGWINDS

The coupon code is valid through April 12th, 2024, so if you find yourself needing an audiobook to leap into spring, you can listen to the epic conclusion of the GHOST EXILE series!

TRANSCRIPT

Spoiler Note: Please skip 11:50-12:53 if you would like to avoid a summary of the ending of the TV series Breaking Bad.

00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 193 of the Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is March the 22nd, 2024 and today we are talking about how to avoid unsatisfying endings, specifically how to avoid unsatisfying endings while writing your novel.

Before we get into all that, we will first have Coupon on the Week and some writing progress updates and then our Question of the Week. So first up, Coupon on the Week. This week's coupon is for the audiobook of Ghost in the Winds, as excellently narrated by House McCarthy. That is the epic conclusion to the Ghost Exile series. You can get the audiobook of Ghost in the Winds for 50% off at my Payhip store with this coupon code: SPRINGWINDS and that is SPRINGWINDS and of course the coupon code will be in the show notes as always. This coupon code is valid through April 12th, 2024. So if you find yourself needing an audiobook to leap into spring, you can listen to the epic conclusion of the Ghost Exile series.

Now, for an update on current writing projects. I am very pleased to report that as of this recording, Ghost in the Veils, my 150th novel, is now complete. By the time the show goes live, you should be able to get it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and Payhip. So I'm very pleased that's done, and that's out, and I hope you all enjoyed the book.

Next up, now that Ghost in the Veils is done, my main project will be Wizard Thief, the second book in the Half-Elven Thief series. I am about 42,000 words into that, so about halfway through and if all goes well, I hope that will come out towards the end of April. I am also 14,000 words into Cloak of Titans and that will be my main project once Wizard Thief is finished.

In audiobook news, we're currently proofing the audiobook of Half-Elven Thief. That will be narrated by Leanne Woodward and if all goes well, that should be out sometime in April. I'm looking forward to sharing that with you all. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects.

00:02:08: Question of the Week

Let's go into our Question of the Week. This week's question is what apps and services do you use to listen to music? No wrong answers.

Justin says: on my PC, I'll generally use YouTube. The Brave browser removes the ads so I don't have to listen to them. For when I’m away from my PC, I stuffed 128 GB chip in my phone and copied my MP3 files over to it. The basic Android music app handles the music, no problem. When driving, I'll sync the stereo to the phone with Bluetooth. It will play music, navigate, and do hands free calling. I tried connecting to it directly but it seems I can either connect the sound or the charger. Doing both makes for horrible static.

Joaquim says: I like to buy MP3 files or CDs. When buying CDs, I try to buy AudioRip CDs on Amazon, else I rip them myself. All MP3 files are on a USB stick which I use in the car audio. At home, I use my laptop with an external Sound Blaster G6 and Sennheiser headphones. I use VLC media player on the laptop.

My next comment is from Barbara, who says: Years ago, I purchased the Microsoft Zune because after my research, I determined I got more bang for my buck with it than the Apple product. I still have the Zune, which I haven't used in a while. I also have the app on my computer and that's what I use listen to my music. Unfortunately, I'll be replacing this 10 year old computer at some point and may have to find a different program. That's interesting because about 14/15 years, I used the Zune Desktop Music player as my preferred music player on my PC because I thought it worked better and was faster than any of the alternatives. But I have not thought about that in years, to be honest.

Our next comment is from Randy who says: iPhone, iPad, Intel Mac Book Pro, and an Apple Music family subscription. I also have a two terabyte library of purchased music that I keep on a couple of different portable drives, backups because I should think about rewriting my vinyl collection down to MP3 again. I personally thought it was very impressive. Two terabytes because my music library is a mere 59 gigabytes by comparison.

Juana says Pandora and Amazon Music.

Michael says: I stream from YouTube Music, sadly. Oh well, good to support small independent companies. ( Original response had emojis here to indicate the last sentence was a joke/tongue in cheek).

Brandy says: I listen to Pandora or iHeart radio stations from places where I've lived. It probably dates me, but I like either music with limited to no commercials but similar genre groups (and I refuse to give money to Apple if I can help it) or just a straight radio station. Both I leave on the background while I'm reading, cooking, cleaning or painting, etcetera.

Jacob says iTunes for the longest time. Then I made the switch to Spotify using a phone, PC, and TV.

Jesse says desktop Rhythmbox on Ubuntu for MP3s. If I'm using Pandora, Pithos or Pianobar. Back when I did a lot more Linux stuff, personally I used Rhythmbox a lot on all my Ubuntu computers, so good to see it still being used out there.

Elizabeth says: I'm a Spotify gal. It's got almost anything I could look up. It's got some great rain and classical playlist for sleeping.

Jake says: I use iTunes on my phone and computer. Finally, Bonnie says: old fashioned FM radio. Hard to beat free, I have to admit.

For myself, I use iTunes for PCs, and I prefer to buy MP3 files and music whenever possible. Since I work on my PC for most of the day while writing or editing, that's what I usually use for listening to music. When I'm away from my computer, I use an iPod touch I got in 2021, and when that little device finally dies, I'm going to be very disappointed since Apple doesn't make them anymore and I will have to choose a new service for my portable music playing. I have played Spotify on my phone a bit, but I still prefer having the actual files. Very good discussion, I thought, on this week's Question of the Week.

00:05:50 Main Topic: How to Avoid Unsatisfying Endings for Your Novel

So now let's move on to our main topic this week: how to avoid unsatisfying endings for your novel. I've said it before on this podcast and on my various websites, but I think the ending is a lot like the punchline to a joke. The ending ties everything together and makes what happens before makes sense. If you don't have a satisfying ending to your story then that is like a joke with a bad punchline. People just get annoyed by it. People will remember the end of the series (even a very long series) more than the entire rest of the series, and it will ultimately determine how they feel about the entire series.

The most famous recent example, I think, is the Game of Thrones show, with Season 8 ending in a way that many people did not enjoy. In many ways, I think the ending of Game of Thrones with Season 8 sort of killed the show’s pop culture dominance. I mean, for a while when the show was at its peak, that was the show to watch. It was the example of prestige television and it was all a lot of people could talk about, but the ending just, you know, really ruined that and sort of subverted and undid the rest of the show. It destroyed the show's popular culture dominance and really led to reduced merchandise sales and tie in games and may be a factor why George R.R. Martin will probably never finish the series because of how badly the show turned out. This is a reminder that a bad ending will make the reader cheated and worse yet, make them feel mocked for ever caring about the characters at all. The Game of Thrones shows is a good example of that.

With that in mind, let's look at some of the common problems with endings. One is bad writing. To some extent, bad writing can be subjective. One person's bad writing is another person's brilliant prose. However, there are certain structural things with bad writing and bad plotting that can lead to an unsatisfying ending. For one thing, there are examples where the author doesn't know what the ending is and hasn't been able to figure it out, so it sputters out or ends weakly, or dodges any sort of final battle and event, and it just sort of fizzles out at the end. No one enjoys reading that.

Another example of bad writing is a twist that doesn't fit the logic of the book or doesn't make sense. It is possible to do a surprise ending that's satisfying, but it has to be written in a way that resonates with the rest of the story and if you look back at the rest of the story, there is foreshadowing that accurately leads to this ending. If the twist ending comes totally out of left field and makes no sense whatsoever, that is going to lead to some unsatisfied readers.

Another big problem is an unfinished series or abandoned cliffhanger, which is why readers have trust issues with unfinished series. With every single series I've written, whether Frostborn, Sevenfold Sword, Dragontiarna, The Ghosts, Cloak Games, or Silent Order, I frequently have people email me every single time a new book comes out to tell them when the series is finished because they only read finished series. Some of that is the fault of publishers who will sometimes kill a series after the second book and leave it permanently unfinished if the second book doesn't meet their sales expectations. Some of this is the fault of certain high name writers who've had every opportunity and all the money in the world to finish their series, yet just can't seem to get around to it. This is a good example of why you need to have a satisfying ending and not leave things hanging.

Another good example of bad writing is a good ending that is undone or awkwardly avoided in order to stretch it out to another book or relaunch the series. You have a happy ending. Everyone lives happily ever after, and then you change one of the characters suddenly so that the series can continue. That is something to avoid and to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes from one of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, the supreme gift of the artist is the knowledge of when to stop and that includes writing long series.

Another potential problem is a confusing ending. Even a well written ending can be a problem if it's confusing. Ambiguous endings can leave the reader, especially casual ones, feeling confused or feeling like they missed something or are disconnected from the characters. Introducing new characters or plot threads too close to the ending so the ending feels crammed, or like it doesn't focus on the main characters or plot, can also be confusing for the reader. Themes and character arcs need to be clear throughout the book, and those need to be resolved with an equal amount of clarity. One potential reason for a confusing ending is things are left unresolved and that can inspire dissatisfaction in the reader. So when you reach the end of your story, it's good to have as much resolved as possible, even if you want to leave something open for the sequel.

Another potential problem with the ending is if the ending is too unhappy or too dark. Depending on the genre and the kind of book you're writing, the time to put your characters through hardship and tragedy in order to develop them is in the middle of the plot, not abruptly at the end. If you want your characters to be happy in the end, true, they do have to suffer for it and earn it, but depending on the kind of book you're writing, having them end the book while being miserable and defeated is probably not the best way to go about it. Ambiguous or bittersweet or sad endings have a much higher burden to be extremely well written, and that's one of the reasons tragedy was seen as the highest form of playwriting in Ancient Greek and Elizabethan cultures.

A sad ending for the sake of simply having the sad ending isn't as original or edgy as many writers think it is. That said, unhappy endings can work if it fulfills the character arc or set themes of the book, especially if these are well established throughout the story. I think the ending of the TV show Breaking Bad probably is an excellent example of this, because Breaking Bad is the account of mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walter White degenerating into a ruthless drug lord. The series ends with Walter White killed in a shootout while rescuing his former protege and then he dies surrounded by his beloved meth manufacturing machines.

By any stretch, this is a very grim and relatively unhappy ending, with the protagonist getting shot to death but it works because it resolves the themes of the story, where White essentially chose this life of violence, and so he brought upon own head. In a sense, it's not happy so much as it is satisfying in that he got to go out on his own terms, defeating his enemies and freeing his former protege from being imprisoned.

Another potential good way to have a satisfying unhappy ending is if it moves the other characters to a happy ending or resolution. In other words, the death is not pointless. In the play Romeo and Juliet, obviously Romeo and Juliet both die at the end, but their deaths permit their feuding families to reconcile and put aside their generations-long feud that has caused so much suffering. So while their deaths were tragic, they were not pointless and wasted.

Let’s go to the opposite side of an unsatisfying unhappy ending. An unsatisfying, unearned, or abrupt happy ending can be just as unsatisfactory. A forced happily ever after that doesn't feel earned, is rushed at the end, and not explained can be very unsatisfying. One recent example I can think of is a while back, I saw the movie My Man Godfrey from 1936. It's a good comedy movie, a good progenitor of the screwball comedy genre, but I think the ending is kind of weak because the main character and the main female character kind of get together at the end, so it would go well, it's the end of the movie, so I guess they should get get together and get engaged. They seem very ill suited for each other and spent most of the movie bickering, but it was just, you know, the genre convention that the male lead and the female lead were going to get together at the end of the movie. So I think that's one flaw and one unsatisfying part in an otherwise very good movie.

Deus Ex Machina is also something to avoid because it leaves the reader feeling cheated or like the suffering of the characters didn't matter. An unearned ending where there are dire consequences throughout the book, but they don't show up, feels, you know, like a cheat where the characters got away with something that they shouldn’t have been able to get away with. Another unsatisfying example of a happy ending is if it all ties up too neatly, where everything just falls into place for no particular reason.

Happy endings are generally the most satisfying when they're earned, when the characters really have to suffer and strive and struggle to get to them. So both unhappy and happy endings have their own pitfalls, though in general I do think happy endings are usually easier to do unless you really know what you're doing.

So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found this show useful. A quick note of thanks to my transcriptionist for helping me to pull together with the research for this episode. A reminder that you can listen to all back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.