Tuesday's Inspiration ala Phyllis A. Whitney #aminspired

Many years ago, I read a lot of books by Phyllis A. Whitney. So when I came across this esay, I decided to look to see what could inspire me today. What she talks about is Endings. Everyone knows if the opening of a story doesn't pull the reader in, no one will read the story. Here's one thing Phyllis A. Whitney said about the ending. This inspired me to look at mine.

"If we don't provide an ending that will seem right, our story or novel will bring no satisfaction to the reader." She goes on to mention that the satisfactory ending is what brings the reader to look for more stories from the same author.

Having read this, I'll save some of her remarks on what compromises a satisfactory ending for later posts.

Have you ever read a book by an author you've never read before and suddenly gone on a binge of reading everything that author wrote? Or have you ever read a story by a new author and decided you would never read another thing they wrote?

The opening drew you in. The middle was interesting and exciting but the end was blah. I've often found this to be the case since I read almost as much as I write. Some of the things that bother me when I choose not to read a book by the same author is that the end left me cold. I suddenly didn't care about the characters or that they had met their goal. Another thing that always sends me to find another author is the epilogue that talks about six months later, a year later the hero and heroine are not getting married, having the baby or the detective sits down and explains what he or she have done, step by step by step. For me if the punch, happy or sad when the characters reach their goal isn't there, I don't need the author to add a note.

So I'm now thinking about the endings of my stories in a new light. How about you?