Young Writers Society

How do you feel about stories that end in a "what's next?" manner?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have an idea for a story that I want to call "The Admirer." The tagline for it would read "He is her best friend; she is the love of his life." The story opens at a high school graduation party and there might be drinks involved, I haven't decided. The male character confronts the female about his feelings towards her. What are those feelings? Um, did you read the tagline? Basically this guy has loved this girl since childhood; I plan on making the chapters in the story based on a "here and then" sequence. Chapter A is the present, chapter b is a memory, chapter c is the present, and so on. And the memory chapters take place from both character's point of views while the present takes place only from the guy's point of view. Anyway, back to my question.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to leave the story off with the guy asking the girl how she feels towards him and she, in a moment of shock, responds with "I don't know." and I want to leave the ending of the story open to the interpretation of the reader.
How does that technique sound? Feel free to judge the plot too.

Bit of a loaded question here!

The premise: So, the "friend zone" guy, eh? I take it this would be a teen romance kind of story? You should be aware that this is a very typical story idea, and you haven't mentioned anything that's a particularly unique spin on it. But don't let that stop you. Go ahead and write the book, by all means! You just always want to be aware of the cliches and tropes you're using.

The ending: I kind of like that response for an ending. It's going to depend on how it's built up, and the context around it. The most important thing is that there's satisfaction and resolution for the readers. You can leave questions open, as long as we "feel" like we got what we wanted. If you spend the whole book hinting that they'll get together, that might be a let-down of an ending. If you spend the whole book showing her strongly against the idea, and then in the end has this moment of hesitation, it's like a spark of hope, a spark of change--you're essentially hinting that was wasn't possible now MAY be in the cards, and implying that the reader should imagine them potentially getting together. That would be fine, I think. As you can see, there are a LOT of ways to play it.

The meat of the story: I thought you were describing a short story at first. There doesn't seem to be a lot to go on for a whole novel. What happens after the party? Or is the whole present timeline during the party? The "A" plot still needs, well, a plot. Maybe you can explain a little more about the events that will happen during the story?

The alternating timelines: Heh, funny you should mention this, because this is how one of my novels is structured. Let me tell you, it was a headache. I keep complaining to myself I managed to pick the most miserably difficult structure for a first novel... it's been sooooo much work. It's soooo delicate keeping everything in balance, and planning the order of information, and intertwining the timelines, and blah di blah. And if I have to change or delete a chapter? The WHOLE novel gets thrown off and I have to go fix it all. So like, if you're going to go this route... allow me to be the voice that *I* didn't have and say: it's going to be a challenge! Make sure you know what you're getting into.

The "B" story will also need its own plot and momentum, and need to interact intelligently with the "A" story. Ideally they come together beautifully/heartwrenchingly/excitingly at the end.

If you're going for an open ending, please don't leave it on the "I don't know" line. That leaves way too much unanswered and doesn't give us the satisfaction we're looking for at the end of a novel. Obviously we aren't going to get that satisfaction no matter what if you go with the open ending, but we'd at least need to have a bit of an educated guess as to what happens. Either end it with a definite yes/no or leave us hanging right before she responds.

From the plot you're describing, it sounds like your readers will be able to guess the ending based on these memories. That's where their information will come from. It's like the ultimate "show don't tell" situation. The story is in the here and now, but we're being transported to the past. We're learning about their relationship from what they've already done. Based on how the two of them act in those memories we'll come to the conclusion that the girl will say she likes him or not. Knowing that someone has feelings for another person doesn't come from that single moment where they admit it; it's something that is built up over time. That's what you have to execute in your novel.

Personally, I wouldn't make the chapters a pattern. Sure it's predictable for the readers, but it'll get old quick. Mix it up. You could even mix the past and the present in the same chapter. That way we'd get everything at once. If you've ever read "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman that's a perfect example. It's a different situation the main character is in, but it jumps back to the past quite often. If you haven't read it yet I recommend you do. Reading books that are like what you're writing is a great way to help hash out your own ideas.

I think it's a great idea for a novel. The plot sounds good, even if it is a bit cliché. I always say though, that clichés are only cliché when they're written as a cliché. Make the story your own, as I'm sure you will. Good luck!

It sounds a lot like Looking for Alaska, as a general premise. Some chapters before An Event, some chapters after An Event. I agree it sounded way more like a short story, because unless you are really really good at drawing out tension without making it boring, that single event just isn't long enough. Unless you learn a lot while you write.

This type of plot can be done well, but because you're going present/past, it's got such a structure that won't really be as open ended as you think. It honestly might be better to have a linear narrative, but this back and forth could work. You'd just have to plan it out to the extent it's both not super obvious (if you want to keep things ambiguous) or you're trying to create a fairly obvious but only grain od doubt ending.

I would be really, really careful around what you show as reasons why she's the love of his life. It's happened to me a few times where people take me simply being friendly as signs I'm obviously into them, and my story isn't particularly unique.

So you have some choices choices: you can play with that, making it relatively obvious to the reader that the guy is in love with what he imagines; you can discredit it and show in no uncertain terms that she does love him; or you can make it somewhere in the blurry space between where some people would see the former, others, the latter.

A true open ended ending is harder to pull off than it looks, because you have to build in enough tension and stakes we want to keep reading, while also not cranking them up too high that people want to toss the novel across the room when we go through all of that emotional roller coaster without a resolution. Because that's really what resolutions provide: a reward for slogging through the whole book. If there isn't a sense of finality, a sense of everything being paid off, then people will feel cheated.

So, I would caution to resolve something. It doesn't have to be the main plot, but give some sort of payoff that feels satisfying. Because if you spend this whole time playing "will they or won't they", then readers don't get an answer, you will have a lot of dissatisfied readers on your hands.

Books I recommend to you:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black - this is a vampire book but it tells its story - its main stem story - from the point where the main character wakes up at a party and everyone is dead. Good times. Then it goes back in alternating chapters to the events that led up to the party, to other flashbacks, occasionally to other PoVs, and the main character's main A storyline continues in alternate timelines. I really liked it, and I love this structure, but crucially you have to make both storylines interesting. Like the "Before" one can't just be pages and pages of him pining, something has to happen that makes us want to race to the next flash-back chapter, and the same with the flash-forward chapters. Like have you ever read A Song of Ice and Fire or any other multi-PoV book? I remember in ASOIAF how much I hated, for instance, chapters about Catelyn. I wanted to skip them and get to the interesting parts. And that's an issue.

The other book is Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. I won't spoil it for you, but it has a really good open ending. (The movie is also good, but it closes the ending, so read the book first!)