This was going to be my first podcast for the site, now that I finally have the audio thing working, however I appear to have acquired Murphy’s Cold*.

I want to talk about writing your ending. This has been a problem for me for a long time. I can think of cool ways to dispatch the villain at any given second, but an actual well rounded ending…that was elusive.

So, on a whim, I looked back through my favourite novels had a look to see what my favourite writers were doing. From this extensive research (and sleep deprivation) I came up with the 60% rule.

The 60% Rule

I need to say that 60% is just an estimate**. You can use any proportion you like. The rule works something like this:

At the end of your book, your protagonist gets 60% of the things that they want.

A 60% victory could mean that they defeated the bad guy, but lost a friend in the process. Or, as happens in some of my stories, the love interest realises the protagonist is a vicious murderous bastard and moves away. This stops you from making endings that bring everything back to baseline or are too much of a victory for the hero.

You need to avoid there being to much going right at the end of any given book. The reason being that any totally happy ending finishes the series right then and there. There’s no more drama to be gotten from the ongoing situation that you imagine them to be in. However if the love interest is gone, or the best friend is dead, then it leaves the story some place else to go in the readers imagination. It also gives you scope for a second or even third book if you want one.

If you need a really happy ending, shoot for 70% of what the protagonist wants. This actually makes for a very happy ending. Just about everyone the protagonist knew is still alive, the bad guy is gone forever, just some serious real estate damage and a few minor characters lost.

If you consider any protagonist in a thriller/horror/fantasy type novel their list of needs goes something like this:

1. Survive

2. Make sure (x) character survives

3. Stop the bad guy

4. Stop anyone else from being killed

5. Make all this not be happening

6. Win the heart of the love interest

7. Get acknowledged for the good deeds

8. Don’t get injured

9. Make sure the bad guy is gone forever

10. Try to recover from the traumatic events.

Wiping out four of those goals is easy. Kill of a couple of major characters, give the protagonist an injury (a serious injury, no flesh wounds), make sure they’re blamed rather than praised for their killing spree and make sure there is no way the protagonist can go back to their old lives.

They still win, the book can still have satisfying closure, but you don’t get that “everything’s tied up with a nice bow” feeling at the end.

Winning has to cost the protagonist something, otherwise the win is meaningless.

* The cold you get when everything seems to be going well.

** Estimate = A number I made up

Tags: advice