why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#1
*sigh* it has happened once again a story i highly enjoy got worse and worse until it ended with a lacklustre ''happy ending'', i feel like an unwanted distant family member being shooed quickly out of the house.

its not like every story i have ever read ended in a terrible way it is just it has been happening a lot to me lately and it just brings to my attention how devastating a bad ending can be to a persons view of a story in hindsight. even this story i just finished even though i binged it in 3 days my greatly postive opinon of the story is now nowhere to be found. why do authors do this? intuitevly speaking a story should just keep getting better and tighter as it continues because the author will have a stronger grasp on their goal and how to get there.

Rant:
aah i just want to rant now.the story got compeltly broken by the mid point character got so overwhelmingly strong the author had to constantly come up with absolutely bullshit levels that are above the current one with no foreshadowing whatsoever no effort on the writers part. i am so angry such an enjoyable work flopped and just became a lazy no an incompetent piece of writing. damnit i wouldn't have cared if the beggining wasn't so great. i should have just dropped that garbage the second i felt something was a miss halfway through the story. why write anything if you aren't at least going to respect yourself, your work and your audience enough to put in a minimal amount of effort. i just hope this particular piece of fiction was rushed by external pressures because if that mid and end part were planned then the whole shit was a joke and i am ranting for nothing.

ps: just ignore the rant. i just want to ask some reasons why works who start out very strong and have a solid foundation to progress the story smoothly on for a good to decent fiction (almost)deliberately sabotage themselvse?

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#2
I guess it can seem that way to the reader, but it may not be because of a sudden drop of effort or a change in tack. A work can get worse towards the end for many reasons.

Perhaps the author did a lot of rewrites, which inevitably tend to mean the beginning is done multiple times. Perhaps they didn't completely rewrite but just focused their editing and improvements at the beginning (where it is hardest and most important to get a potential reader's attention). It could be that they, as a writer, are just better at beginnings than endings (I know I am).

Based on your description though, it sounds as though they threw down their best cards straight away. This has the short-lived advantage of hooking your reader; but if you don't have anything up your sleeve to follow it up with and give a satisfying conclusion, this is the kind of bitter aftertaste to be expected.
Freelance games developer and author, writing (among other things) the grim cyberpunk dystopia of Metrodome Tyran.
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RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#3
Ask Stephen King xD If one of the best-selling American authors out there can't come up with good endings half the time, what hope do we lowly proles have?

More seriously though, writing good and satisfying endings is hard - moreso because of the web-serial format, which lends itself to just continuing to write forever. Or maybe that's just the result of the common inspiration a lot of authors on this site draw from - anime and manga have the potential to go on pretty much literally forever by design, so if you ape that style and then try to tack a conclusion in there somewhere it feels awkward.

Also it sounds like the story you read suffered from some well-understood story flaws that a good writer has to find a way to write around (google 'power creep' for instance) that amateur writers might struggle with. To you it might seem like deliberate sabotage but often it's just difficult to write satisfying conclusions.

That's my opinion anyway.
~writing is hard~

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#4
Good question, here some thoughts of mine, as a hobbyist writer and story-designer/GM. I think that there are most likely three conflicts, which arises when you're working on your story, which can have the outcome you describe.

The start vs. the story vs. the end
Many people might think "that's my kind of story" and try to write it, only to experience when actually writing "I somehow need to start it!" The story in the head of an author is often already progressed to some point, it's in a finished setting condition. Like in a fantasy story, the party has gathered, in a love drama there is already an established couple to face everything coming down, in a mystery detective novel, the protagonist has faced some strange things.
Now the question comes: Do I start there, or do I start chronological. Both have their advantage, in chronological order, you follow the characters through the whole process, you don't revisit their past, you live through it in the present, which is a really appealing point, it also helps the author to concentrate and build up how characters met, interacted, and bonded.
In your case, a demerit can arise: The story at the beginning is not the story the author envisioned, it's the big prologue.
Same can go with the end because it often means to go out with a bang, or at least some sort of conclusion. How do I get there? I've only written about the characters at every moment thus far, now I need to change things to make it end in a satisfying way, the end I want isn't like the story I had in my head before...

The vision vs. the change of heart
When writers put stories online, they'll get feedback. It's actually what they want, they just aren't prepared for what to come, no matter how experienced. For many web novelist on RRL, it may be the first feedback they get from the story or any story of them in general.
Things can change with feedback. How an author feel about choices, what kind of things are popular, all this feedback, and there is a wish to make things as best as possible. At some point, there may be a conflict to whether the story stays how it was at heart if the vision the writer had is still intact and clear. Do I need that unpopular character, or should I remove or change it? Is the plot-twist I thought of really alright this way, the readers will hate it... Should I be stubborn and just write like I wanted to, even though I may overlook possibilities to make a great story, I'll really enjoy, just because I ignore feedback?
Even without feedback from the readers, a writer will start second-guessing: How is the story I wrote so far? Do I like it that way? Why can't I write certain things well anymore? Oh god, what did I write there? What about my afterthoughts, months after I decided upon a course? Do I still even like it?
It's alright to make changes, I change my ideas while writing constantly, but there is a fine line of losing the vision and making appropriate changes and developments. At some point, things may just go out of hand, or are just blurry, things aren't as foreboding as they used to be because the writer knows, that there may be more changes in the future, and don't like to retcon stuff every week.
In your stated case, it may just be, that the writer didn't even know anymore what to write, because things are different from the initial thoughts, or maybe because the ideas just weren't able to hit the plot anymore.

The RL vs. writing
If you're analyzing a book on an academic level, there is usually the analysis of the author and their life circumstances. Like how Tolkien and WWI correlated, etc. Personal circumstances have a great impact on the writing style, interest, and design of authors, or any creative worker. What gives writers the furnace and endurance to keep writing is easily influenced, writing also acts as a vent, even if some people don't realize it. The joy of reading fictions comes not from the intellectual department of the brain, there are a lot of reasons to read fictions, it can help through the day by mirroring the own conflicts, it can keep us invested by grabbing or curiosity, it can help us forget bad things by being funny. So an author who knows and lives what we're looking for has more chances to make the story enjoyable for the reader.
But circumstances changes. If a writer is in love, there may be a more lively and dreamy tone, after a hard-felt breakup, things look darker, no matter how funny it is, there is just something sad, desperate, something dark.
Maybe the author had some major changes in life, which changes the personal outlook for a while, or maybe writing at that point became more of a task.

There are sure a lot of other reasons, though I'm sure that these points are things you can think about. If everything fails, try writing a story. Will be an experience. ;)

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#5
I think the reason is simple. Just like one can learn all good opening strategies in chess and perform poorly in the endgame.

Starting is easier than finishing. And you'll practice the start more often than you'll practice the end.

In the case of a novel, one might think about a cool concept and how to make it, but not think on how to end the story. It happens even in big budget works. It's complicated by the fact that we all are different, and each of us might expect something different, and an ending will not please all of the audience.

Personally, I worked out the overall story and the ending of all three arcs of the story before I started posting the first chapter in my novel. it's no garantuee that people will lke or even care about it, but I think that going from A to Z is easier if you know where Z is, rather than working things out along the way.
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RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#6
'Tanaka Tomoyuki' pid='826843' dateline='1502019331' Wrote: You are all working on the assumption that nasir05 is correct in judging the stories as "sabotaging" themselves. Why not ask nasir05 to give us examples and let us judge whether those stories truly fell apart after a strong start, or if nasir05 was being biased and was upset that the story didn't go the way he/she wanted?

True, but only because no example was given; so the critique and assessment was of a hypothetical author, in a sense. Put another way, you could preface my post with "assuming what you say is true...". I have nothing to go on about this specific case in that regard and I felt the question was more directed at generalisations. Nevertheless, it's fair to point this out as it is very possible the fault is simply that the reader and the author disagree. 

I'd be hesitant to call for direct examples, though, in case it is misconstrued that these "general author pitfalls" listed here are directed specifically at them.
Freelance games developer and author, writing (among other things) the grim cyberpunk dystopia of Metrodome Tyran.
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Author of Cloudgazer, a scifi/dieselpunk adventure. Available now on Amazon and Kobo!



RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#7
for some, it's simply because things become cliche'
a type of fiction, or a trope, or storyline, plotline that u come across & feel that it's great a while ago can drop rock bottom after a few seires
i, for example, 'd read around 3/4 the fictions i can find on the internet, plus the books on Amazon orin stores, if it was around a year or 2 ago, now? i couldn't find any that i feel satisfied to read eventhough all those tropes, plotlines, etc. 're still the same as ever, if not sometimes better than the fictions i read a while ago xD

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#8
I think it's because stories get far more complex towards the end, with many errant plotlines which may or may not lead anywhere. Perhaps the author didn't plan for all of them and couldn't come up with an ending that didn't leave plotholes besides the generic "happy end".
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RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#9
this was just a minor rant about how some fictions fall apart towards the mid/end part and what could be the reasons behind that. this particular story i am ranting about in the initial post brought that fact to my attention. and by ''falling apart'' i don't mean plotholes start sprining up or the author starts contradicting their initial premise in a sloppy way (that is bad by its own right) i mean the story comes to a sudden stop in the middle of a long built up confrontation and rushes into what at first seems like a mino frustrating minor arc to power up the characters but turns out to be the arc that takes up the bulk of the story and everything beforehand gets completely discarded or forgoten and never brough up again. (as an example, this is what happened in the story i am ranting about.) that level of falling apart. a complete shift of the intitial premise of the story and a complete disregard to almost everything that came beforehand and from there a total devolution into gibberish in the last few chapters with a nonsensical ending. that kind of falling apart.
not all authors trip that hard towards the mid/end part but a suprising amount (for me at least) do to varying degree, and i am just wondering about the reasons for that.
it almost feels like authors just say ''fuck itt'' and write another story within the same one you were reading.

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#10
Depending on how quickly all that happened it may well have been the author saying "fuck it, any ending is better than no ending" and rushing something out so they could move on to their next project. Really it just sounds like the author lost the story they were initially writing and wanted to write something else, I've noticed that crop up from time to time here - people just have a good idea and work with it for an afternoon - or a week, or a month - and then drop it to move on to something else.
~writing is hard~

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#11
I really think it comes down to one word I remember someone else posting about on RRL that I had never really thought of before: vision. Too often authors, including myself, become enamored by what is that they forgot or even don't care about what will be, or what was.

For game design (as a comparison), the 'vision' would be the game's scope. It is a center piece of game development, for scope both defines the game's (or in this case the stories) limitations and the its focus. What is the core, the heart of this that will make it fun? Anything beyond that is superfluous and is only added if it doesn't take from the original scope or hold it back.

Most of what I'm writing here is superfluous, but essentially it boils down into one single thing that I believe in. Vision grounds your story. As long as you have that stable foundation, that vision, you won't veer from your original design - no matter how lopsided it becomes. But without it, it is inevitable you'll collapse.

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#12
I think sometimes writers don't know how to outline their plot and haven't worked up outlines of all the major characters or of the nature of the important organizations that play important roles in the story so things just start falling apart.

If you at least think of an ending that you would be happy with before you start writing you know where you're going and can adjust your course to make sure you are heading in the right direction.
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RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#13
Looking at it from a purely objective level, my guess is that the ending is often either rushed or failing to address critical plot points. 

On the former...

When you're writing a long story and you've already drained the "good stuff" out of your head through your fingers, the ending can feel a bit like an afterthought. This isn't helped if it doesn't feel like the stakes are high enough, if characters have to make stupid decisions for the ending to make sense, or if the author completely forgets their own pre-established rules. Pacing can go down the drain. It becomes clear that the author is just trying to end the story without caring how well it goes. If you already read through the beginning and middle, you might as well stick around for the end... right? 
And some, like old me, simply have no clue how to properly end to end a story. I had this pretty bad myself back in the day. And that's mostly because...

On the latter...
Tying up loose ends is not the same as conclusively ending a story or installment in a series. You don't have to make sure every single loose end is part of a stronger rope when you're finished with a particular book unless it's a standalone— but it should be stated that the threads still have to be part of a rope. They can't just spread out leading to nowhere or just purely personal character stories. I mentioned this on another forum and I'll bring it up again: Chrono Trigger did this perfectly. Sidequests weren't just "do this to learn a little backstory and help out a character". They mattered to the overarching plot.

When it comes to ending a story, you have to consider all of these plot threads. Then you tie them up or let some hang.

And then you have to resolve this story. That used to be a nightmare for me because I kept on overthinking it. Resolutions have to be like the icing on the cake, right? No, not at all. Resolutions are the cake. You've eaten a wonderful 4-course meal, and now it's time for dessert. And then someone brings out burned cake. And even if it wasn't burned, there are eggshells sticking out of the side and the icing is nonexistent. 

Wow, this is getting bloated.

TLDR: Endings collapse because writers tend to rush them. They ruin the story's pacing.

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#14
'Yuli Ban' pid='828532' dateline='1507920014' Wrote: This isn't helped if it doesn't feel like the stakes are high enough,

Be VERY carefull with this. Making stakes higher often doesn't actually increase the tension but decrease it. It's often what sequels try to do and fail partly because of it.

First villian tried to destory the city. Then next one must try to destroy the country. Then the planet (usually Earth). What's left? The universe?
Also do you really believe that the bad guys will get to blow up the Earth?
IMHO It's one of the bigget problems with the marvel universe movies.
Compare that to The Dark Knight. *SPOILERS* at the climax Joker plans to blow up one or two ferries with people. Not Gotham, not the Earth, just a couple thousand people. And you are afraid that those people might actually die - because it would be a tragedy, but it wouldn't be a game ending tragedy of "EVERYONE DIES."

In short raise the stakes but not in a "I will put every single human into an eternal slumber and thus end the world and thus I will never be able to get away with this" but rather in a "If I fail here my dreams will be crushed and my life will be forever changed and maybe not in a good way".

RE: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#15
'DieEasy' pid='828555' dateline='1507985361' Wrote:
'Yuli Ban' pid='828532' dateline='1507920014' Wrote: This isn't helped if it doesn't feel like the stakes are high enough,

Be VERY carefull with this. Making stakes higher often doesn't actually increase the tension but decrease it. It's often what sequels try to do and fail partly because of it.

First villian tried to destory the city. Then next one must try to destroy the country. Then the planet (usually Earth). What's left? The universe?
Also do you really believe that the bad guys will get to blow up the Earth?
IMHO It's one of the bigget problems with the marvel universe movies.
Compare that to The Dark Knight. *SPOILERS* at the climax Joker plans to blow up one or two ferries with people. Not Gotham, not the Earth, just a couple thousand people. And you are afraid that those people might actually die - because it would be a tragedy, but it wouldn't be a game ending tragedy of "EVERYONE DIES."

In short raise the stakes but not in a "I will put every single human into an eternal slumber and thus end the world and thus I will never be able to get away with this" but rather in a "If I fail here my dreams will be crushed and my life will be forever changed and maybe not in a good way".

I have to agree and disagree at the same time. Strange... Well, putting the stakes higher is a common trope for any story, it works fine. The real question is, what stakes make the story work.

The Dark Knight, for example, is a story which revolves around humanity, so the stakes at the final are quite high and keep climbing, but not in terms of action, destruction, or similar: It's the stakes of humanity and morality.

So if a story is more about saving the day, putting the stakes higher on that end works fine. Though it's easy to mess up the pacing, be sure to keep a certain level, it's not like the same kingdom only needs to be saved once, enough villainous plots (by the same or several villains) can be satisfying for a while without upping the scales. Or (if possible) let the MCs travel a bit, there are a lot of places, which are in need of a saved day.

Looking at your story and finding out what you and your readers love about it, is an important part to get to a good ending (even if it's a "bad end"). It also helps to discern when and how to end it: If your story is all about your MC, you need to resolve the character-arc. If it's about the action, you need a big climax. If it's about the romance, everything should be sorted out in a way.

Well, just my 2 cents.

Re: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#16

'Yuuji Everyleaf' Wrote:
'Yuli Ban' pid='828532' dateline='1507920014' Wrote: This isn't helped if it doesn't feel like the stakes are high enough,

Be VERY carefull with this. Making stakes higher often doesn't actually increase the tension but decrease it. It's often what sequels try to do and fail partly because of it.
What I meant by stakes was more "can the story end here and feel like a satisfying closure to all preceding events?" It's the protagonist pulling all the threads to make a rope so they can climb it.
What you mention is more "escalation".  The difference between raw stakes and escalation is how it matters to the protagonist. Indeed, a lot of stories make the mistake of thinking that raising the stakes means bigger and bigger threats that impact more people. From my point of view, the world ends with the protagonists. If they don't actually care about the rest of the world, fighting to save it means nothing. There were no actual stakes other than "save the world." Raising the stakes from a saving the world plot, to me, can mean "save your teammate's life". It's now only one life but it's something that actually matters to the hero. Losing it means the hero collapses. If the hero collapses, the story doesn't necessarily end but you've fundamentally changed its course in a major way. If the world ends, that's it; that's the end of the story, and we all die anyway. 

Except it's the same thing if the next plot involves the end of the galaxy, and the next involves the end of the universe. After that, it's the multiverse and then the omniverse. 

And this is partially the root of why endings can fall apart— in trying to make the stakes literally bigger, writers tend to forget personal tension. The difference between destroying a city and the world means something because there could be a world of reasons why the villain wants to do such a thing. Unless the next threat is a visibly much larger force, destroying the world is an omnicidal action. But even then, you're just forced to escalate the threat in a different way. To me, there's no difference between destroying the planet and the solar system. I'm dead either way.


The reason I loved Max Payne's story wasn't because I stopped a corporate conspiracy that threatened to take over the nation; it's because I shot and blasted my way to avenging the murder of my wife and child. You could have replaced that ending with one far less over-the-top and it still would have been satisfying because the stakes were raised no matter what. 

Re: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#17
I'm kind of late to join the thread but I do feel that I needed to write something. 

Now, The OP (@nasir05) has a legit question. 'Why did the story go bad after a great start' - is his premise. His rant just showed how frustrated he is towards something that he first enjoyed and then dropped off from a 1000 feet cliff. I can feel that because I have read many heavyweight titles that have this problem too.

In my post, I will take a different take and view. Many others had pointed out the weakness in the skills of the authors in this thread and I feel that all of them are right. But that is half truth. The other half is the community that grows the author; the readers. 

In the OP's rant, herein lies the problems. Not just the OP, but majority of the readers populations either here in RR or anywhere else. And the problem is called the 'Entitlement Problem'.
The readers demand this and that (including what the OP wants) from the author knowing full well that:
1. He did not pay for it
2. He did not contribute to the building of the stories (I will explain more)
3. He thinks by spending his time reading, it is sufficient to give opinions that does not help the authors in any way whatsoever.

But tell me something, does any author came to post their works in public says 'I wanna do a story that pissed people off at the end with a lousy storyline and ending'?

The answer is: NO.

No author that I'd known would do that purposely. All of them wanted to post their stories in such a way that it would make him/her proud. Look at the amount of thread starters that wanted reviews before posting anything here. All of them wanted to give the best. Most authors in RRL are indie authors. Authors who are young (less that 18 years old) and new in the field of writing. And there are some like me who is older but still new in writing. 99% of us are aspiring writers, not professionals. 

But what happened next?

The moment an author posted his works online, all his vision of the story will most likely be destroyed in the next few days. The readers here are some of the most toxic that I have ever known. They reviewed the story, give opinions and critism with their bias in full view. As if the all the readers that read the story suddenly become the utmost expert in the field of whatever the author is writing. 

They complaint about the grammar, but they themselves can't construct a proper sentence in their reviews/comments.

They complaint about the storyline, about plot holes, about every single thing about the story. Like I said, these readers suddenly become the Professor of Literatures.

They complaint about the MC, the world, the characters, etc. just because they don't 'feel' it was right. 

Or the schedule of the update just because they want MOAR!

And do these readers take time and to understand what will the author feels? Again, the answer is NO.  The readers want their fix and they want it NOW.

And this create a cycle. The author, who have his vision of the story in mind are now in dilemma. Should I continue writing the way I want or do what the readers want? 

"Write what you love, and you will love what you write" was always our mantra. But does most readers understand this?

If I have no love to write, why should I write? Every story need commitment from the author. It is like our pledge to see our child grows well. And most authors here - especially those that started well -  have an idea how they want to see their stories bloom. I refused to believe that the author decided one day to make the story bad for no reason whatsoever. 

Most authors who don't want to continue to write, HIATUS-fied himself. Maybe the real life got to them. But in most cases, it is just an excuse not to write anymore because it goes unrewarded and unappreciated. Remember, writing does not pay much, if at all to the new and aspiring writers. Veteran authors, published and professionals authors will be another topic together.

Others who continued to sludge on will have their works deteriorate. Trying to appease the readers will be futile. And in this futility that the author now become the poison of his own works. And this will complete the cycle. 

And in the end, they say 'Fuck it. Why should I write that piece of shit anymore?"

And what will most authors do? Begin anew or changing their work altogether. Or in the most pitiful way, they lost and give up what they love to do.

So, this is my take on the other half which none here has shared their views yet. The authors and the readers need to work hand in hand. A deteriorating plot line is one of the indicator that the author is either giving up, losing his interest, doesn't feel appreciated and does not feel it is rewarding enough to continue. 

Skills and techniques can be trained, learned and practiced. The rest, the points I am talking about cannot. The moment we see an author grow from his mistakes and become a good writer, that moment will make all of us proud. 


Re: why do stories fall apart towards the end?

#18
I can't say this about most authors but for me it is a combination of bad planning and being intimidated by an ending
I put a lot of energy into just writing and building this world that it is hard to change gears some times. Also it is difficult to fix up all the loopholes for a book, coming up with new material, and even authors have no idea how they get their characters into these predicaments.
The real downfall of a series is often the first chapter, the artist so focused on starting something that he doesn't know how when he should end it.