HAPPY ENDINGS TOUR: HOW DO I MAKE MY STORY ENDING SELL MY STORY? BY ALICE ORR

  

WELCOME TO RWA/NYC’s HAPPY ENDINGS BLOG TOUR!

June being the month of Brides,

we thought it apropos to talk about Happy Endings. 

Visit us daily this week and learn what some of our members think about the much sought after and often elusive “Happily Ever After.”

The ending of your story doesn’t sell this story as much as it sells your next story. Have you ever finished a book and wanted to throw it across the room? Or maybe actually did throw it across the room? Very often the book’s ending made you do that. And also made certain you wouldn’t buy that author’s next book.

Avoid being thrown across the room. Avoid losing a reader for your next book and the ones after it. Create a story ending that doesn’t frustrate. Create an ending that satisfies.

The end game of your story is a danger zone. Partly because you’re most likely tired of these people and their situation by now. In fact your head and heart are already deep into your next story. So you must be careful not to write the ending in this rhythm. Gallop – Gallop – Gallop – The End. That ending does not satisfy. That ending lacks the essential Big Bang.

The purposes of a Big Bang ending are – to reverberate after the last page has been turned – to lodge in the psyche of the reader – and most emphatically to be remembered. All the way to the bookstore or the Buy Now button and a purchase of your next title.

To create a Big Bang ending you must plan the climactic scene in detail. Don’t write a word till that plan is perfect. Plan mostly action and dialogue and keep all of this action on stage in the immediate present. There are more steps as well. More steps than this individual column length allows. You will find those steps at my blog at www.aliceorrbooks.com.

You must stage your final scene step-by-step – the way a choreographer stages a dance. The result will be a powerful climax for your story. A Dramatic Ending at full circle from what will have to have been your Dramatic Opening. And equally or even more thrilling. Secrets to writing that Dramatic Opening are also at my blog.

Now, you must recognize that your story is over. You and your protagonist have exploded out of the explosive situation you exploded into on page one. You absolutely must resist the temptation to hang around a while longer.

You’ve taken your reader on an unforgettable ride. Leave before she has a chance to catch her breath. Leave before he’s had enough. Leave them wanting more.  No Epilogues, please.♥

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Alice Orr’s latest story is A WRONG WAY HOME – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series, Book #1 – Matt & Kara’s Story.  This is her 12^th novel and it does have a dramatic ending.  Visit Alice at www.aliceorrbooks.com.