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Pif Magazine
ISSN: 1094-2726
Published by:
Pif, LLC
PMB 248
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Endings : Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
After examining so many various endings for what makes each of them unique, it’s important to close with an idea of what all good endings share. I said earlier, in speaking of a particular closing, that what assured it its life, its resonant vitality, was that it left readers feeling that we still had some work to do.
Maybe that’s it, the single factor which unites all successful closings – that they leave readers feeling they’ve some work still to do. More obviously, this quality could apply to those that end partially. But it might just as much characterize those of summation, with their patterned echoings and final connections that create new last sparks of current, like a web of hot wires touching everywhere.
However, readers do not resent the remaining work which closings demand. Not at all. Indeed, it’s work they are eager to do. Or at least that they’re unable not to do.
Work they’re unable not to do. Like writing.
Tell us what you think. Email talkback@pifmagazine.com
Douglas Bauer's novels include The Book of Famous Iowans, The Very Air, and Dexterity.
He teaches in the Bennington College MFA Program.
An expanded version of this essay will appear in his book, The Stuff of Fiction: Thoughts and Advice on Aspects of Craft, to be published by the University of Michigan Press in November, 2000.