I was writing a short story and had planned for it to end on a cliffhanger. Once I finished the story, I went back to edit it, but then realized that the story needed to continue–that there was a lot more potential for the plot and the characters.
So I added a couple of sentences to the ending to see how that would work, but I still wasn’t satisfied with it. I added another scene, but felt like it had to keep going. Before I knew it, I was writing several scenes and exploring the characters more thoroughly.
I continued writing the story until I reached a satisfying conclusion. It was an unusual process, since I had planned for it to end on a cliffhanger. Yet, here was a story which shouldn’t have been limited by one.
Some stories can end on a cliffhanger because their strength lies in the climax of the story. But other stories need time to evolve, and need more depth and history to the characters, as well as development to the plot. Essentially, each story needs to have its own kind of ending.
Fallton Havenstonne 