Fic thoughts

[shapinglight]

Probably not a good time to post this, but I've been mulling it over all day - endings are tricky, aren't they?



This isn't apropos of anything I've read recently, btw, unless it's something to do with the ridiculous amount of angst I inflicted on you all when I was unable to get the ending of my noel_of_spike story to my satisfaction. But endings are tricky, aren't they?

Back when I read a lot of sci-fi (very long ago now), one of my favourite authors was CJ Cherryh. Don't know if any of you are familiar with her? Anyway, despite the fact I did at that time love her books to distraction, I don't think I ever read one with a wholly satisfactory ending. And she's a published author, with 40 books or more under her belt. What chance do we poor, benighted fanfic writers have?

So tell me, have you ever read anything where the end was 100% (or let's say 99%) satisfying, and if so, what was it?

Once I've thought of something myself, I'll come back and ETA this post.

Comments

[snickfic]

Clifford Simak! I dearly love Simak, especially from my early days reading SF, and his collection City (which includes "Desertion") is one of my absolute favorites.

I wonder if maybe short stories in general don't tend to have stronger endings than novels, just because the ending is so much larger a percentage of the story. Also, I think it's a lot easier to control and fine-tune the elements of a short story. I can think of a number of SF short stories with truly outstanding endings: "Light of Other Days" by Bob Shaw, "Comes Now the Power" by Roger Zelazny (as well as a number of other stories - Zelazny was a true master of the short form), "The Gunner's Mate" by Gene Wolfe (which isn't a story I'd expect anyone to have read, but I am very fond of it), "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. All with endings right up to the last line that fit just perfectly.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

I wonder if maybe short stories in general don't tend to have stronger endings than novels, just because the ending is so much larger a percentage of the story.

You may be right. Also, short stories are often built around an idea, while longer stories deal with characters' journeys. And once a writer delves into the characters' inner world, it's hard to part with them, you want to go on and on.

I remember some scriptwriter or director saying that today's novelists are writers who don't have enough self-discipline to write movie scripts. :)

[shapinglight]

It's a very long time since I read much sci-fi, but I seem to remember being very impressed by Thomas M Disch.

I'm sure you're right about the endings of short stories having the potential to be a lot more satisfying. In fact, it's pretty crucial that they do, I suppose.