{ My second-favorite French word }

Normally I don't have much trouble writing endings, but the ending of Ghosts of Fallen Leaves has always stumped me. In past drafts, I've always spent so much of my time making my characters hate each other, that I found it very difficult for them to get past the events of the climax of the book...and yet I desperately needed them to. 

The ending of the story is all a matter of forgiveness and where things stood, whenever I sat down and really thought about how my characters would react, I knew that forgiveness was next to impossible. And yet, if there wasn't forgiveness, then there wouldn't be a story. And that would suck. 

In order to mitigate this problem, I've changed some of the things that are revealed during the climax, as well as changed the characters themselves so that they react to these situations in a better, more cooperative way. No longer are the secrets revealed completely earth-shattering. 

The problem I'm having now is keeping the denouement to a reasonable length so that's satisfying, informative and engaging enough to make the reader want to read the next installment in the series, while also keeping it from being too sappy. 

I'm a sucker for happy endings, so that's the way my writing naturally inclines. I'm also a sucker for neat endings. The more that gets wrapped up, the better. Since GOFL is the first book in a series, it wouldn't make sense to have this sort of ending. I can't answer all of the questions and I came to terms with that a long time ago. 

I also love me a good twisty cliffhanger, as anyone who's read the current draft up on Inkpop knows. I think this is something that good, gripping television writing accomplishes in every episode. Finish up a decent chunk of the day's story, but always end the episode with a teaser of a cliffhanger that leads into the next episode. Lost was good at it, as well as shows as different as 24, Fringe, Burn Notice and Teen Wolf. (Yes, I watched Teen Wolf. Don't judge me. :P) 

GOFL no longer ends at that particular cliffhanger, but it will end on one nonetheless. There's no doubt about that. Cliffhangers are just too juicy to resist. 

What I'm having trouble with is where to leave off the main characters' relationship at the end. So many things happen by the end of the story, that's its been very difficult wrapping everything up neatly with a bow. It's very frustrating, not having things turn out the way you want them to. 

I think, for writers, the key word to keep in mind for any ending is 'satisfying'. An ending doesn't have to be happy to be satisfying. Some endings to stories just make sense, even though they're not necessarily what you would have wanted. 

True, it is possible to write an unsatisfying ending. Some might say this route is 'daring' or 'edgy', but it's not for me. I've read a few unsatisfying endings and they ruin the whole story in my opinion. I don't want people to say that about my stories. You know, "It was amazing...until the end. Then it sucked." 

And just to challenge myself, I'm going to end this on an unsatisfying note and not tell you what my favorite French word is. Denouement is only second-favorite. You have no idea how much it pains me to do this.