A - Maybe the hardest task of your job as an author/illustrator is to end a story.
The end of history is rarely neutral. Particularly when we read fictions. The end impregnates, describes the story. It’s the last moment spent with the story, just before leaving.
Long after, when the reader will remember your story, he will remember that feeling he had when he closed the book.
Suggestions:
- Prefer good end suggested, subtle. It’s better if the end tickles our ideas.
- Avoid sloppy ending. Under the pretext of gross total freedom to the reader, do not let all doors open. Your story could be causing drafts!
- Do not confuse a suggested end, infinitely difficult to concoct, and an end without taking a position.
B - During the narrative process, when you select, the importance of the fall will appear. Why?
- If you have the end of your story, or just the idea of the end, it would facilitate the construction of the narrative.
- The end can decide for your narrative strategy. The end can illuminate the first image, the first sentences of your story.
- Information placed at the beginning of the story will come into "resonance" when it’s found at the end.
Like a Lawyer practicing in a court, the last word of the last sentence must to hit the bull’s eye.
C - But, an end properly conducted is not only the expression of a good narrative technique. It is something else, something that can become embarrassing.
The end indirectly affects the author: Yourself!
Quickly, the reader will guess if you are a moralist, a philosopher, or if you just want to have fun.
If you are afraid to be too obvious or to be cataloged, the result can produce a neutral ending, slightly blurred.
Reminder: The reader doesn’t have to be free!
He has only one desire: Precisely, he wants to be "embedded" with an author. Also if you drive him/her to some places where maybe he doesn’t want to go.
The reader doesn’t care about a freedom too easily given.
As an author, it’s better to commit yourself. Maybe, the reader will disagree with you, he will applaud or react. That’s fine.
Of course, when you work that way, you will be more vulnerable. Probably, people will heap criticism on you. That’s fine too! You must take your choice.
Do not remain in obscurity, avoiding any “involving” purpose.
It’s so much better if you can deliver a lot of your ideas, your philosophy of life, your delusions, and your madness. I am pretty sure you will do that with skill, subtlety, and lightness.
