Summing It All Up...

The first thing I need to say is that to write to the best of your ability you have to be self-indulgent... 

Definition of SELF-INDULGENCE

: excessive or unrestrained gratification of one's own appetites, desires, or whims

— self–in·dul·gent \-jənt\ adjective

— self–in·dul·gent·ly adverb

Now you don't have to start your morning like Tennessee Williams with a pot of triple strength coffee, followed by a pitcher of martinis...  But he made it a habit to get up and begin writing at 7:30am every day  in his writing studio - either in the French Quarter or in Key West until about 11 am.  He made a point to have something to work on all the time, several works in progress and would just reach in and pick out something.  He made his living as a writer.  He would take a break and try somedays to start again in the afternoon about 1:30, but he stated he usually was too mentally spent to make much progress. 

Writing requires the ability to tap into your imagination with wild abandon.  Everyone has a time during the day when they are at their peak performance.  Make this time your writing time.  Let people know that this is a do not disturb time for you to focus on your writing career.  You will start to accomplish great things!

In summing up the process of where to begin, to how to structure and submit your work; I hope that you found the organizational ideas helpful.  I received many accolades on the format of this basic lesson plan when I was a teacher.  Even if you haven't kept up with your writing, I hope you see that pre-structuring the plot helps immensely with focus and determination. 

In explaining writing concepts I have accessed the internet generously to find the best explainations for my lessons.  Writing techniques have not changed much over the years. 

Here is a video interview with Tennessee Williams reading some of his writings.
http://www.everywritersresource.com/writingsense/2010/11/tennessee-williams-talks-interview/

Here is a video collection for Ernest Hemingway about his writing and life.  It also connects to other great writers; http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=ernest+hemingway

Never stop reading the works of great writers.  It will generate ideas for your works.

SO HOW DO WE END THIS BLOG ABOUT WRITING A SHORT STORY OR PLAY?

By, discussing how to end a story effectively:

Basic Tips:

Make sure your story is written in a consistent style, such as with one part being shallowly described while the rest of the story is described in even the most minute details.

Sometimes if you're blocked in regard to creating ideas, it helps you think to make a web of characters and randomly draw lines to show that different characters are connected and imagine odd ways they could know each other. If nothing else it'll help you relax.

Avoid deus ex machina, a plot device where something just-so-happens to occur in the nick of time to help a character overcome a difficult and otherwise impossible-to-overcome obstacle.

Don't overuse (or use, for that matter) ellipses, which are the three periods separated by spaces meant to show trailing off, or build suspense. (There are four periods when the sentence ends and then trails off. . . .)

Your story's ending, of course, should be related to the rest of your story. It can be intricate and unexpected, or simple and sweet as long as it ties your story together.

Brainstorm and freewrite. You might know what direction you want your story to take, so write any and all ideas, no matter how vague, silly or unconventional, in this specific direction. If you don't have a clue what to do, think of several possible endings.

Choose your favorite ideas and smooth the kinks. Check their consistency against the rest of the story and weave the two together as best you can.

Roughly write the final events in concise sentences, such as "Millie walked to the closet. She listened to the tapping within and tried to overcome her fear. Suddenly she grabbed the handle and opened the door." going back to add descriptive language or describe one particular occurrence, such as the repetitive tapping and what she imagined could be within the closet that stirred her fear.

Go back and proofread your entire story!

 

Four Ways To End A Short Story

The Twist Ending

Add something a bit unexpected right near the end. If you have listened to or read Edward G. Talbot, you'll know that we like to end stories this way. It works for many genres. The one thing you have to be careful about is not making it too unexpected so the reader feels like you just threw it in there. The reader needs to feel that it's consistent with everything else in the story
There are so many ways to implement this concept. You see it all the time in suspense movies. Jeffrey Deaver is a master of this with his thrillers. A really good example is in James Patterson's second Alex Cross thriller, Kiss The Girls. The killer turns out to be the FBI agent who was working the case. It's just possible enough that the reader buys it and feels a chill at the betrayal.
The twist can also be subtle. My friend and fellow podcaster Scott Roche recently released an e-book short story called Bitter Release about a soldier trapped in a cave with only memories and a case of absinthe. Roche gives us a subtle twist literally in the last line that ties the surreal feel of the story together very effectively. I can't say more without spoiling the story.

The Resolving Action

In action, mystery, thriller, and suspense genres, this is probably the most common ending. The line between a resolving action and a twist ending can be blurry, but a resolving action to my mind tends to be more expected, more like a traditional climax. This can be a major action like a bombing or a killing, or it can be something simple that punctuates the story.
A good example is in Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor", where a plane crashes into a joint session of Congress, making Jack Ryan the President. That's one serious resolving action. Or in our own audiobook New World Orders we resolve the chase that has at one level been going on for the entire book. I won't give the details, but it definitely ends with a Resolving Action.
On the other hand, you could have a story where a woman has killed an abusive husband and is struggling with guilt and the story could end with some symbolic gesture regarding letting go of it. That is a bit of a cliche, but it wouldn't seem like it if done right. You get the idea.

The "Story" ends itself

This is very common in literary stories. Ask yourself, "What is the story I am telling the reader?" Stephen King in his book on writing talks about knowing what the story is as the key to all good writing. What is it on a high level that is interesting enough to make people keep reading? The story itself may have a built-in ending.
Seth Harwood uses this technique to perfection in his short story collection A Long Way From Disney. In story after story he has characters or feelings or some tension (or all three) to tell you about, and they end when he has finished telling you that particular story.
Another example is the movie Titanic. There are basically two stories, one how all the characters react to the sinking/tragedy and the other is how that tragedy impacts Jack and Rose, who have fallen in love. The movie ends with Rose casting the necklace away (a resolving action), but it could have simply ended with Rose finishing her tale and the viewers really understanding how that brief time impacted the whole rest of her life.
So once you understand what the story is you are telling, the ending may simply present itself. In some ways it can be easier in a short story because there are usually not very many threads in the story. The flash story that Jason wrote for our Intercast podcast - "Alive" - ends with the main character jumping out of a building. That is no surprise to readers, as the whole story builds to it. You could call it a resolving action, but in this case it's more of a simple completion of the only place the story could have gone. James Melzer's ebook story PTS does something similar. Nothing in that story is a surprise, and it ends with action, but again, it's the only place the story could have gone.

The Intentionally Ambiguous ending

I like this one, but in my opinion it is the hardest to pull off. The problem is that most of the time the reader wants resolution. In a longer work, it's possible to leave questions unanswered for a sequel, but that's not the same thing - that's not really the ending. It generally only works when the "story" is the tension or some interpaly between characters, and the resolution doesn't matter.
I tried it in my short story "Transition" in the Intercast Audiobook, where the tension between outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations and several different middle eastern governments led to a climax where one group in the U.S. government was about to launch a nuclear strike and another was trying to stop them. The story is about how close we could get to nuclear holocaust with only one or two overt acts leading to it - whether nuclear holocaust actually occurs or not is irrelevant to the story. I actually got a couple of extremely positive comments about how I did this, but I also got one negative for not telling people exactly what happened. This kind of ending will not please everyone, but I do think it can be done effectively.
There are many other ways to end a story, or variations on the above techniques. Tell me about some of your favorites in the comments.
This is a cross-posting from the Edward G. Talbot site.

The End

"This is the end. My only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end"
- from "The End" by The Doors, 1967