THE END.....
'Can you just check to see if there is another book after this one?'
'Another novel by the same author?'
'No, is there another book with the same characters. Is this part of a series?'
Moments later. 'There doesn't appear to be any others, this is a stand alone book'
'So why then doesn't the ending make any sense?'
Oh if only I had a dollar for every time we get a question as above. It happens time after time. A poor puzzled and confused reader comes into the library wanting to know what happens and we can't help them, because there is no continuation. The book simply stops.
Perhaps the author had meant there to a be another, maybe this was book one in the original concept. (It happens so often with television series, so many are simply put aside after a few seasons and this leaves a very frustrated patron who wants to know why nothing was made after 2004)
I find this interesting as most writers when they begin a novel have the beginning in mind and the ending, it's often the middle part which sags and becomes a hazy hesitant creature with a mind of its own.
So why do so many novels leave the reader asking 'what just happened' and turn the page expecting to find more.
Not that readers need everything tied up in a pretty bow and 'they lived happily ever after' inscribed on the back pages.
In fact I have just finished a novel, it not only won Age book of the year it was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth writers prize a few years ago. I enjoyed it, the way it was set out and delivered intrigued me, how the author dealt with the past and the present in various forms, but at the end I did not understand what had happened.
I reread the last few pages just to see if I had missed something. I hadn't.
I know that leaving it up to the reader is a good idea. Let us live with the characters for a few hundred pages, make us feel for them, become a part of their lives...and then we can decide how we think they would act in those final moments. But we need a push in the right direction.
Not necessarily a yellow brick road to follow but a few signposts won't hurt.
Is it a modern approach to writing? To leave the reader confused and bemused.
Is it a subtle way for authors to ensure that their next novel is read just in case they do answer the questions from the previous one?
In the case of the reader above, she said she won't read another by this author. Too confusing were her words. As a reader she is one that is willing to work for an outcome, but needs a path....not merely a wasteland.
Perhaps it is time for two simple words....
Bye for now
Vicki
'Another novel by the same author?'
'No, is there another book with the same characters. Is this part of a series?'
Moments later. 'There doesn't appear to be any others, this is a stand alone book'
'So why then doesn't the ending make any sense?'
Oh if only I had a dollar for every time we get a question as above. It happens time after time. A poor puzzled and confused reader comes into the library wanting to know what happens and we can't help them, because there is no continuation. The book simply stops.
Perhaps the author had meant there to a be another, maybe this was book one in the original concept. (It happens so often with television series, so many are simply put aside after a few seasons and this leaves a very frustrated patron who wants to know why nothing was made after 2004)
I find this interesting as most writers when they begin a novel have the beginning in mind and the ending, it's often the middle part which sags and becomes a hazy hesitant creature with a mind of its own.
So why do so many novels leave the reader asking 'what just happened' and turn the page expecting to find more.
Not that readers need everything tied up in a pretty bow and 'they lived happily ever after' inscribed on the back pages.
I reread the last few pages just to see if I had missed something. I hadn't.
I know that leaving it up to the reader is a good idea. Let us live with the characters for a few hundred pages, make us feel for them, become a part of their lives...and then we can decide how we think they would act in those final moments. But we need a push in the right direction.
Not necessarily a yellow brick road to follow but a few signposts won't hurt.
Is it a modern approach to writing? To leave the reader confused and bemused.
Is it a subtle way for authors to ensure that their next novel is read just in case they do answer the questions from the previous one?
In the case of the reader above, she said she won't read another by this author. Too confusing were her words. As a reader she is one that is willing to work for an outcome, but needs a path....not merely a wasteland.
Perhaps it is time for two simple words....
Vicki
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