The End

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You’ve all seen it. Those two words at the end of a book, letting you know there’s no more story to read. Sometimes there will be a page about the author, another page about other things she’s written, or even a page about how the story in the book came about, or people to thank. But the story is done: The End.

It turns out I don’t like those two little words. I don’t write them at the end of my stories, and you won’t see a book of mine with them after the story is over.

Because it turns out that the last page of the story is not the end. Did you ever think about that? Have you ever found yourself imagining more of your favorite book, even after the last page was read? I know I have. When I read a really good book that I come to love, sometimes it’s too much to think that I won’t be spending any more time in that story and with those characters, even when I reread the book. And so I make up new scenes in my mind, keep the story going in my heart, because The End is just not an option.

It’s the same with the stories I write. There is no The End. The story wraps up itself to a natural conclusion. I write romance so the natural conclusion is when the Hero and Heroine end up together. However the story starts, and whatever the middle brings to them in the form of obstacles, they will be together by the last page. It’s their reward. And it is that predictable; you may even call it cliché. It is a natural expectation, and it is what I expect from the romance novels I read.

But The End doesn’t exist in the story. You’ve seen me quote Samuel Johnson before when he says:

“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”

Now I tell you that the reader keeps the story going and there is no end to it. The writer keeps the story going even after she types the last word.

And this is why I don’t write The End, because my characters and their stories don’t have an end.

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