Do you want the story to end?

#1
I don't. I hate it when the story ends. It's why I like the web serial / web novel / light novel format in the first place, they are stories not really designed to conclude but rather to just roll on and on forever (or at least until enough of the audience loses interest).

When I started writing my story on this site my idea was never really to bring it to a conclusion, but just to create characters I enjoyed and play with them forever and ever until the end of time. I like those web novels that have 400 chapters and feel like there is no end in sight, like the party will never stop... and at first I really wanted to emulate that style. My own neuroses seems to have gotten the better of me though because now I do have a conclusion plotted on the distant horizon...

What about you? How important is a final conclusion? Not just wrapping up an arc or a chapter but getting all the way to the back of the book? I'm curious how other people feel.
~writing is hard~

RE: Do you want the story to end?

#2
I'd like there to be a plot and a resolution of that plot. Just because a specific story ends doesn't mean the author can't write another story featuring that character.

Think of it as a TV show. There's a difference between a single show having a hundred episodes, most of which have their own story, which is part of a larger narrative, and a TV show with one episode that's a hundred hours long.
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RE: Do you want the story to end?

#3
I think it depends on the story. I do write my stuff with a resolution because I don't want it to go on. Stories have a beginning and ending to me. If I can continue using said characters for another story, then I will do so. However, even I have a point where I just want it to end and move on to something different.

Reason being is because there are  a few traps when you write for something to continuously to go on endlessly especially when you are dealing with a story that isn't designed to be drawn out in that manner. You start having to make less than ideal plot choices  just to extend it, not to mention the longer something starts going on, things like plot holes and retconing  occurs which are two things as a writer, I don't like.

RE: Do you want the story to end?

#4
That's definitely fair. As the story goes longer and longer you get closer and closer to 100% certainty that there is some brain-breaking plothole in there - and your characters start to have to hold the idiot ball to keep the story moving.

I guess I just haven't reached a point where I'm ready to put my characters away - but I suppose that day will come.

Probably the two of you are right though, the best method is to just continue in the same universe - with or without the same characters. If you just set more stories in the same world you can get the best of both worlds, an endless story with any number of conclusions scattered throughout. The only alternative I can think of would be something endless and slice of life - with a rigidly enforced status quo, like longer running comics, tv shows, and the like.

I still don't like it when things have to end though x)
~writing is hard~

RE: Do you want the story to end?

#5
I'd like it for the author to know when the story is going to end and have events planned up until the ending. If you don't, it feels very obvious that you're just writing chapter by chapter and the series loses several points of quality.

My example would be Mother of Learning. An extremely refined series in my opinion. You can tell that the series can only go on for so long, that we're building towards an ending. That all of the abilities Zorian is training will be useful for something. Everything is building towards a singular goal. It's a very effective method of writing.

However, in that same example, no I don't want that series to end. I want the current story to end, but I want a new one after it extending the series indefinitely. So let's say they beat the timeloop and stop the invasion. I want a new enemy to pop up after that and start another story because I think there is a lot of material left unexplored in that series.

On another note, those series like Everyone Else is a Returnee or Seoul Station's Necromancer where they're building the protagonist to such extreme heights of power that there's soon to be nothing that even competes with them. Those I will probably stop reading before the ending. That's how those series usually go for me. At a certain point, there's just nothing left that's interesting anymore. They've been overtapped their stories and they're pulling blanks out of their asses trying to keep it interesting.

RE: Do you want the story to end?

#6
I love a good ending, always have. For me a story is just then a story when it ends. There is nothing worse than a story with a bad ending and I have had plenty of stories like that: Bleach, Naruto, Otherwold, Hataraku Mao sama, Berserk(the writter is probably gonna die before it is finished), and so on you know the type

I even stopped watching and reading stories when I was under the impression the ending was fine that way: Legend of the seeker, dead like me, Vikings

When I started writting my story I started at the end. I know exactly what will happen that ends my story. That being said anyone that has read the Chain Worlds books I got on RRL knows there is a shit tone of things happening before there can be a satisfying ending. I mean the series basicly reaches all the way back to the middle ages and ends after a milenia worth of things happening.

I got smaller arcs but everything leads to a final conclusion. How well that conclusion will be recieved is another story but for now I got about 48 books to write... so no rush.

RE: Do you want the story to end?

#7
I'm writing on a infinity story right now, no end is planned. I will however drop the main character once his contribution to the world is done, And then swap him out for a new character to follow for a while.
It's written in third person singular btw, so a swap will be a permanent change of MC, not just adding a new pov.
Dunno if it will be separated out as a separate "book", or just make a break chapter and say it's season 2, and keep writing under the same submissionr. I think separating it out into it's own submission is best. Giving out a new synopsis and prologue is best I think. Will cross that bridge when it's there.
My fiction

Cheers!

RE: Do you want the story to end?

#8
Personally, I like to see a resolution to a story. If a novel goes on for too long, quality suffers. The author usually runs out of ideas, writes side plots that contribute nothing to the main plot and becomes repetitive. A short story with excellent quality is better than a long story with average quality. I am not saying that long stories are of worse quality; some of the best novels are quite long. But the author needs to know when to end his/her story and how to provide a satisfying resolution. While it is the journey that is most enjoyable, it is the resolution that most satisfies the reader because it is the fruit of all of the MC's labor during his journey. Without a resolution, all the tribulations the MC went through seem pointless.
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