THANK YOU! I really appreciate that ((HUGS)).

Yeah he had BETTER have had an ending for the core problem. After 75 hours of reading time, LOL.

Yes it makes good sense thank you. SK’s “The Stand” had an ending that drove me nuts wondering what was going to happen to the two main characters. SK didn’t say. The book just ended, leaving their fate unknown. But you’re right, the main good-versus-evil conflict was resolved so “The Stand” fits the Ending-First approach just fine now that I rethink the whole issue. Like you said, there’s a minimal duty authors owe to readers who have come along for a long ride.

Oops.

Endings should be surprising and inevitable. Never mentioned tidy 😉 . The core problem needs to be resolved. To riff a handful of examples since you mentioned Stephen King. In S.K.’s ‘IT’, the creature is ultimately defeated, and Derry freed. In ‘Carrie,’ Carrie finally accepts what she is and embraces her raw power. Her tormentors pay dearly…and so do a lot of innocent bystanders and the entire town.

In ‘1408’ the grieving and jaded writer is adrift, his marriage imploded and career a joke. It’s only when he’s held prisoner in the room, subjected to its unending torment, that he finally overcomes his bitterness, selfishness, and relinquishes control.

He faces his guilt over his own powerlessness to save his daughter, comes to terms with his rage at a ‘God’ who would permit her death as if ‘good’ were the only supernatural force on the board. When he finally admits if that room is HELL, then evil exists. If there’s hell, then this suggests perhaps there is also a heaven. Regardless, he changes enough as a person where he willingly sacrifices himself so the room can never have another victim. He might have been powerless to do anything to save his daughter’s life, but he DOES have the power to end 1408’s capacity to claim more lives/souls.

Endings can be scrubby, rough round the edges and leave one wondering about this or that and should. These little fuzzy threads are what generate conversation, debate and all-in-good-fun division among fans. But when we take an audience along for THAT long, the major problem should be resolved even if tragically (I.e. Hamlet).

You can gain a general IDEA of a reasonable way the problem could be solved and use that. You’ll find your subconscious will be at play along the way and surprise even you 😉 . I hope that helps.