Alternate Endings?

[Deadman]

Hey everyone,

So, I have a story that I want to post. The problem I have is that I couldn’t decide how to end the story.

As a result, I wrote two endings for the story. Not sure whether to post both or just one.

One ending sorta ends the story and the other opens up the idea to more chapters.

What’s your general view on two endings?

 

 

 

[GeorgeGlass]

I think it depends on whether you can make the second ending as interesting to read as the first one. IMO, that means that the second ending has to be pretty different from the first one yet similarly plausible given the events of the story up to that point. 

[Deadman]

@GeorgeGlass
 

Probably a good idea to think about.

For context, I wrote this story several years ago and decided to write both versions of the ending.

In one, a character wins a battle of wills between the two characters. In the other, the tables get turned.

Obviously, the one where the tables get turned has potential. When I originally wrote both endings, I didn’t have any ideas for continuing even the version where the tables are turned.

Now I’m going through it again and my thinking is there’s some fun stories I could tell in this alternate ending.

[InvidiaRed]

2 hours ago, Deadman said:

Hey everyone,

So, I have a story that I want to post. The problem I have is that I couldn’t decide how to end the story.

As a result, I wrote two endings for the story. Not sure whether to post both or just one.

One ending sorta ends the story and the other opens up the idea to more chapters.

What’s your general view on two endings?

 

 

 

Multiple Endings are interesting in my view. As long as they’re consistent and you aren’t too much of a stickler on which (if any) are the one true™ ending. If one has more potential go for it.

[Desiderius Price]

Clue, the movie, had alternate ending after alternate ending.

[Deadman]

@InvidiaRed

That’s part of the problem and the reason I had to write two.

One ending felt like the best way to end the story definitively. The other feels like what is most consistent with the characters in the fandom.

But what would happen later might not be.

[Deadman]

@Desiderius Price

So did Lord of the Rings.

[BronxWench]

As long as it doesn’t wind up the way the HBO version of Game of Thrones did, with an ending that not even the author liked. 

[Desiderius Price]

30 minutes ago, Deadman said:

@Desiderius Price

So did Lord of the Rings.

I *really* wanted to see the Scouring of the Shire… but alas, they didn’t include that.  TBH, it could’ve used six (or more) movies, and that still wouldn’t have covered all of it.

[Desiderius Price]

33 minutes ago, Deadman said:

@InvidiaRed

That’s part of the problem and the reason I had to write two.

One ending felt like the best way to end the story definitively. The other feels like what is most consistent with the characters in the fandom.

But what would happen later might not be.

Can you do both?  Maybe with different character POVs?  One thinks “all is great” while the other has some dreadful feeling?  Or… there’s the classic “first take was a dream”.

 

[InvidiaRed]

3 hours ago, BronxWench said:

As long as it doesn’t wind up the way the HBO version of Game of Thrones did, with an ending that not even the author liked. 

I’m sure his prequel soundly thrashing that rings of power abomination is a consolation prize.

[InvidiaRed]

3 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

I *really* wanted to see the Scouring of the Shire… but alas, they didn’t include that.  TBH, it could’ve used six (or more) movies, and that still wouldn’t have covered all of it.

Personally I think it would have been a little too soonish for people to handle. Considering 11^th was still fresh in the mind of everyone.

[InvidiaRed]

3 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

Can you do both?  Maybe with different character POVs?  One thinks “all is great” while the other has some dreadful feeling?  Or… there’s the classic “first take was a dream”.

 

No, the dream thing is the fastest way to lose trust of the audience. People want an experience, not want all of it shucked into the mire of lies last second rendering it all moot. The prevalence of subversion others mistake for wit has been a disaster for the medium.

[Deadman]

16 hours ago, InvidiaRed said:

No, the dream thing is the fastest way to lose trust of the audience. People want an experience, not want all of it shucked into the mire of lies last second rendering it all moot. The prevalence of subversion others mistake for wit has been a disaster for the medium.

@Desiderius Price

Yeah, I’m not thinking about it being a dream. I did that with another story.

Basically, the situation is that the main character of the fandom is very smart. The story involves another character managing to find them in a compromising position and finding ways to use that to their advantage.

The two endings involve the very smart character finding a way out by turning the tables and taking advantage themselves. It’s pretty consistent with the main character. I was thinking that I would switch POVs going forward to the main character. The story so far is told from the character who has the advantage, not the main character.

But the other ending is that the main character doesn’t turn the tables. They just kinda accept the circumstances they’ve found themselves in.

[Desiderius Price]

2 hours ago, Deadman said:

@Desiderius Price

Yeah, I’m not thinking about it being a dream. I did that with another story.

Basically, the situation is that the main character of the fandom is very smart. The story involves another character managing to find them in a compromising position and finding ways to use that to their advantage.

The two endings involve the very smart character finding a way out by turning the tables and taking advantage themselves. It’s pretty consistent with the main character. I was thinking that I would switch POVs going forward to the main character. The story so far is told from the character who has the advantage, not the main character.

But the other ending is that the main character doesn’t turn the tables. They just kinda accept the circumstances they’ve found themselves in.

In a comedy, a dream within a dream within a dream for ending after ending could be absolute gold, depending on how well it’s written.  Though in more serious dramas, less so.  (As an aside, I will use smaller dream blocks within the story to help explore a character’s unspoken fears, aspirations, etc.)

My potter story has something akin to the same dilemma, more in a couple people split off (think B-group), incommunicado (& presumed dead) until the climax.  If I stuck to “A” POV, it’d get darker and darker, with a last second Deus Ex (not great).  When I get back to that section, I intend to simply alternate between the two sides, muddle my way through it, somehow.  However, on alternate endings, I’m thinking of having it be a sim/game with Harry & Ron played by two gamers in immersive VR… it’d be fitting to their characters.

Now, in your story, you could turn it into a two parter.  You’d cover up to ending with main character feeling good about it (prelude with a few hints to the smarter character may do something), and second story would be that other character acting on the advantage and pressing forward for more chapters.

[Deadman]

36 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

Now, in your story, you could turn it into a two parter.  You’d cover up to ending with main character feeling good about it (prelude with a few hints to the smarter character may do something), and second story would be that other character acting on the advantage and pressing forward for more chapters.

I was definitely thinking that I want to cover how the main character turned the tables. Probably through internal dialogue.

The original story does have aspects that could work.

The character taking advantage of the main character has spent the story up to this point dealing with the main character trying to get out of the situation, and being punished for it.

So there are potential ways I could make it work that they did in fact find a way. Just not sure what the way will be yet.

The alternate ending does sort of give them a way out, but it’s sort’ve a 180 degree turn because up to that point, it seemed they were at the mercy of what their circumstances.

The 180 degree turn is part of why it feels weird to use that as the ending.

[Thundercloud]

Personal opinion is that posting multiple endings and ask the reader to decide is betraying the reader. Why should I bother reading the story if the author cannot decide the point of the story?

[Desiderius Price]

4 hours ago, Thundercloud said:

Personal opinion is that posting multiple endings and ask the reader to decide is betraying the reader. Why should I bother reading the story if the author cannot decide the point of the story?

Aside from “Choose Your Own Adventure” where alternative endings are expected or deliberately done in a comedy... I generally consider alternate endings as a symptom of a problem in the plot.  Now, it might be possible that there’s material for two (or more) stories and could split them up.