February Writing Endings
How to write endings that will leave your readers wanting your next book.
Understanding how to end novels and short stories in every genre.
An old truth about fiction and selling books: Your opening sells the book the reader has in their hands. Your ending sells your next book.
Most writers don't understand how to write a satisfying ending. And there is a ton of misinformation about endings as well. A satisfying ending for a mystery would be completely wrong for a romance novel. And so on.
One basic area that will be covered is end-matter, since so many writers are indie publishing their own books these days. And making some horrid mistakes with their end matter, actually turning people off after their story satisfied the reader. This workshop will make sure you are not doing that to start with. A basic thing.
Another old truth in fiction is that if something is wrong in your ending, look to your beginning. This workshop will cover how endings need to build from and often wrap back to the beginning of your story.
So, basically, this workshop will deal with a lot of plotting from genre ending to genre ending.
This workshop will be designed to give you a foundation of knowledge to stand on when writing endings. You will know what is needed to help your readers finish your novel and look for more work from you.
Endings are not a mystic art and they are not necessarily formulaic on the other side either.
The knowledge of how to end a story can be learned. That's what this workshop is all about.
This workshop will be an eye-opener and jump your writing skills forward, as well as your sales, we can promise that.
Your Instructor
With over twenty-three million copies of his books in print, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith now brings you original fiction every month for the past three years in his own magazine, Smith’s Monthly.
Dean wrote over twenty-five original Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, plus Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man novels, and others. He wrote many gaming novels including Final Fantasy.
He wrote novels and stories under almost fifty pen names and did scripts for Hollywood as well as being an editor for various magazines. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch. You can follow his writing life at www.deanwesleysmith.com
Course Curriculum
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StartEndings Week #1, Session #1... The reason in general that endings are important. (4:23)
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StartEndings Week #1, Session #2... What is an ending? (5:23)
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StartEndings Week #1, Session #3... Genre specific endings. (3:30)
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StartEndings Week #1, Session #4... The volume of an ending is critical to getting it right. (4:25)
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StartEndings Week #1, Session #5... Climax is not an ending. (4:57)
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StartEndings Assignment #1 (2:05)
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StartAssignment #1 Response (6:20)
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StartEndings Week #2, Session #1... Endings never stand alone. (4:47)
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StartEndings Week #2, Session #2... Pacing... some basics. (5:36)
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StartEndings Week #2, Session #3... Pacing set up in the book for the ending. (5:34)
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StartEndings Week #2, Session #4...Pacing to genre and sub-genre. (5:45)
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StartEndings Week #2, Session #5... Telling the readers the book is done through pacing. (6:08)
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StartEndings Assignment #2 (2:21)