Makitia Thompson's Blog, page 3

✍️Makitia’s 6 Writing Rules

 

 📖The Ones I Actually Use

Writers love rules. We collect them like cats collect sunbeams, we don’t really know why, but they make us feel warm and slightly superior.

You’ve probably heard all the classics: Write every day. Show, don’t tell. Kill your darlings. And sure, those have their place. But here’s the thing nobody says out loud: most writing rules aren’t laws. They’re just someone else’s coping mechanisms dressed up as commandments.

When I started writing, I tried to follow them all. I thought if I stacked enough “good writing advice” on my desk, the book would practically write itself. Spoiler: it didn’t. What I ended up with was half a manuscript, a pile of guilt, and a sneaking suspicion that I was doing it wrong.

So I did what any stubborn writer would do: I threw most of those rules out and made my own. Rules that actually fit the way I think, write, and occasionally procrastinate by watching videos of raccoons stealing hot dogs.

These aren’t rules that will work for everyone. They’re just the six I swear by, the six that have gotten me through every book, short story, and “what if” idea that’s ever kept me up at night.

And I promise: they’re a lot more fun than “kill your darlings.”

1. Write Everything Down, Even the Ugly Bits

Every idea you’ve ever had? Write it down.
Every bad line you think you’ll “fix later”? Write it down.
Every metaphor so weird you’d be embarrassed to show it to another human? Yep, write it down.

Here’s why: your brain doesn’t hand you pure gold. It hands you gold dust sprinkled into mud. The only way to keep the gold is to scoop up the whole mess and sift through it later.

I have a document on my laptop called Graveyard of Chaos. It’s not an outline. It’s not organized. It’s just… every stray thought I’ve ever had while working on a story. A villain’s weird pet. A half-baked joke that made me laugh once at midnight. A paragraph describing the smell of rain that didn’t fit anywhere (yet).

Do I use all of it? No. But here’s the magic: the ideas I do use often start as the ones I almost threw away. The awkward dialogue, the “that’s too random” scene, the half-formed image I didn’t know how to describe, they find a home later.

One time, I jotted down this clunky, embarrassingly dramatic line about “the moon dripping like melted silver.” I hated it. I kept it anyway. Two years later, I reworked it into one of my favorite passages in a completely different novel.

💡 The takeaway: You’re not just writing for today’s book. You’re stockpiling for every book you’ll ever write.

2. Binge Your Characters 

Imagine your character’s life as a TV series. You’re not just watching Season 3, Episode 5. You’re watching from the pilot episode, the one where their awkward childhood haircut makes its debut all the way to the finale, where they’ve either found peace, revenge, or a suspiciously well-timed plot twist.

When I “binge” a character, I mean I want to know everything about them. Their favorite breakfast cereal. The sound that makes them flinch. The three things they’d save if their apartment caught fire. The fact that they once got into an argument with a vending machine and lost.

Why go that deep? Because when you know a character inside-out, you stop forcing them to do things. They start telling you what they’d do. You don’t have to think, “Would she run into the burning building or call for help?” You already know the answer.

I once had a character, a gruff, stoic type who, in my outline, was supposed to stay completely silent during a certain scene. But while writing, I suddenly heard him mutter, “Don’t you dare die on me, kid.” It wasn’t planned. But it was him. And it ended up being one of the most quoted lines in the book.

📺 Think of it like this: You’re the showrunner of your own little TV universe. The more you “watch” your characters’ lives, the easier it is to write them naturally.

3. Never Plot an Emotional Scene

This is my hill, and I will die on it.

I don’t plot emotional scenes. Not the big tearjerkers. Not the confession scenes. Not even the screaming matches.

Emotion isn’t neat. It doesn’t follow bullet points. It shows up messy, ugly, and at inconvenient times. If you try to plan it like you plan a dinner party, it ends up feeling staged.

When I know a big emotional moment is coming, I only give myself three anchors:

Why the scene exists

Where it’s coming from

Where it needs to lead

The rest? I write it in the moment, raw. If I cry while writing, good. If I have to stop and pace around my room like I’m waiting for bad news, even better.

Readers can feel when an emotional scene has been lived instead of engineered. They might not know why it hits them so hard, but they’ll know it’s real.

One of the rawest scenes I’ve ever written came out in one sitting. No outline, no plan, just a rush of typing that left me with puffy eyes and sore wrists. When my editor read it, she only left one comment: “Do. Not. Touch. This.”

🔥 My rule: let emotion drive the bus for a while. You can take the wheel back later.

4. Let Randomness Live in Your Story

Not everything in your book needs to serve the plot directly.
Yes, I said it.

Some of my favorite story moments are completely random. A character stopping to watch pigeons fight over a french fry. A conversation about the smell of old libraries. A scene where nothing “happens” except two characters laughing so hard they can’t breathe.

These moments don’t just add flavor, they add truth. Because real life is full of randomness. You don’t walk around experiencing only plot points. You live little side scenes all the time.

Here’s the trick: those random moments often pay off in unexpected ways. That french fry scene? It became a running joke that showed up in a tense moment two hundred pages later, breaking the tension perfectly.

🎯 The point: A little randomness makes your story feel alive. Don’t plan it out of existence.

5. Write It How You Hear It

If a character has an accent, I write it. If they misuse grammar, I write it. If they say “ain’t” or “y’all” or “bruh,” I write it.

The number of times I’ve had someone suggest “fixing” a character’s voice is staggering. But here’s the thing: those so-called mistakes are often the most authentic part of the story.

I once had a reader tell me they could hear one of my characters in their head because of the way I wrote his dialogue. That’s the goal. I don’t want perfect English. I want personality.

And yes, that means sometimes I leave in things that look like typos but aren’t. It’s a trust exercise with the reader. Once they get that it’s intentional, they roll with it.

🗣 Rule: Don’t clean up your character’s voice so much that you bleach out their soul.

6. Stop Chasing Drafts That Don’t Help You

Some writers swear by multiple drafts. Five, six, twelve. They thrive on it. That’s great, for them.

Me? If a draft isn’t helping, I’m not doing it. I’ve written books that needed only two solid passes and books that needed nine. The difference was purpose.

When I stopped rewriting just for the sake of it, I started finishing more books. I also stopped resenting the process. Rewriting is a tool, not a penance.

So if your book feels ready after three drafts, trust yourself. If you need twenty, that’s fine too. Just make sure each pass is moving the story forward, not keeping you stuck because you’re afraid to call it done.

These are my rules. They’re not neat, they’re not universal, but they’ve carried me through every project I’ve loved.

At the end of the day, writing is about connection. Not to rules. To people. To the imaginary ones in your head and the real ones who read your words.

The best writing advice I can give? Make your own rules and keep the ones that keep you writing. For more writing tips you can visit The Minds In Design Store and browse a few of my workbooks that offer far more insight into various topics. 

- Makitia

#Mindsindesign #Makitiathompson #Makitia #Themiduniverse #Midcontent #MID #Themindsindesignstore

📄A Letter from Burrington

 

Author: Unknown
Recipient: Mayor Silas Glaston
Recovered From: Private correspondence, Glaston family archive (handwriting does not match any known family member)
Date: Undated, pre-Burrington founding, possibly 1787

Mayor Glaston,

You will stand on that shore tomorrow and believe it is empty. You will see the water curling against the banks and think the land beyond it is waiting for you, untouched and willing. You will imagine yourself as the first to claim it.

But the land remembers, even when men do not.

It will greet you the way it greets everyone at first—still, quiet, generous with space. It will let you plant your stakes and draw your maps. It will let you take. And in that taking, you will believe you’ve won.

You have not.

There are places here where the air bends if you stand too long. There are trees that grow in patterns only visible from above. There are nights when the wind carries voices that don’t belong to the living. I tell you this not to warn you away, but to let you know that it has already chosen you.

Something will happen here that no map can prepare you for. You won’t understand it, not then. No one will. Not until it’s too late.

But the land will understand.

When you look out from the deck tomorrow, remember this: you are not discovering anything. You are being allowed in. For now.

– [signature unreadable]

#MIndsindesign #Makitiathompson #Makitia #Themiduniverse #Untiltimeremembers #Wheretimecantexist #Midcontent 

🕯️ Welcome to Burrington

 

Where Time Can't Exist

A town forgotten by maps… and remembered only by the dead.

You didn’t mean to find it.
But here you are.
Standing at the edge of a town that shouldn’t exist.
No roads lead here. No GPS dares mark it.
And yet… something pulled you in.

That’s exactly what happened to Beck Escarra.
A bold, hungry filmmaker chasing a story big enough to finally make her name—until she found one that could cost her everything.

Burrington vanished from time itself.
And inside its crumbling streets and candlelit windows, something is waiting.

When Beck steps into Burrington, she doesn’t just find a forgotten place—she finds a town stuck. Trapped in 1827. Haunted not just by ghosts, but by people—families—who are forced to relive the day of their deaths over and over again.

Every night, the massacre returns.
Every morning, they forget… until Beck arrives and the loop begins to crack.

The Seinfeld family—Natalie, Millie, Johnny, and little Hannah—are just some of the souls caught in the cycle. Their secrets are buried deep. Their grief is raw. And the truth of what happened to them? It’s the kind of truth that tears through time itself.

Beck knows she should run.
But Burrington doesn’t let people go.
And the closer she gets to the truth, the more the town starts to remember her.

If you're craving:

A suspenseful, supernatural thriller

Deep emotional storytelling

A town as much a character as the people within it

History, horror, and heartbreak tied in one looping mystery

550 pages. One cursed town. No way out.

Have you ever opened a book and felt the air shift? That strange, cold quiet that makes you feel like something just stepped into the room with you?

That’s Burrington.

On the surface, it's a forgotten town. Tucked between yesterday and never, it shouldn’t exist—yet it does. And once you're in, time doesn’t just bend... it breaks.

Until Time Remembers isn’t just a story. It’s a full-body experience. A 550-page descent into the kind of mystery that steals your breath and refuses to give it back. It’s suspense laced with history. Horror stitched to heartbreak. And at the center of it all? A girl named Beck, trying to understand what Burrington wants from her—and why she might be the only one who can stop it.

But saving a town trapped outside of time means giving up the one thing she’s never had: control over her own story.

This is book one in the Where Time Can’t Exist series—a supernatural saga where history bleeds, time loops, and broken souls still haunt the land they died to protect.

So if you're ready to lose yourself in a world that rewrites the rules of time,
If you crave suspense that lingers and a mystery that unravels when you're not looking...

📖 Start with Until Time Remembers today.
Amazon link: Until Time Remembers

#Mindsindesign #Makitia #Makitiathompson #Themiduniverse #Midcontent #Untiltimeremembers #Wheretimecantexist

💬Is Self-Publishing Desperate?

 

Let’s get something out of the way.

Yes. And also… no.
That’s the whole answer.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Okay, fine. You came here for however many words and some behind-the-scenes honesty, not a one-line mic drop. So buckle in. This blog post is for the writers feeling like outsiders at the traditional publishing gates, for the readers curious about how books make it into the world, and for anyone who’s ever been tempted to slap a “DESPERATE” label on a self-published book just because it didn’t come from Penguin, Harper, or insert-your-favorite-huge-house here.

This is not just a defense of self-publishing.
It’s a portrait of it.

A little ugly, a little glorious, and absolutely covered in caffeine and deleted drafts.

☕ Chapter 1: How I Got Here (And What I Was Chasing)

Let’s start with the facts:
I didn’t always want to self-publish. In fact, for a long time, I thought it was something you did as a last resort.

To me, “self-published” used to translate as:

Couldn’t get a deal

Rushed it

Didn’t edit

Bad cover

Probably a werewolf romance with three typos in the title

Yes, I was snobby.
Yes, I was wrong.
No, I won’t apologize for the werewolf comment because I’ve read that book.

But when I started writing seriously—seriously as in: 2 a.m., cold coffee, 97 tabs open researching whether commas go before or after “however”—I realized something brutal: traditional publishing is not just about writing a great book. It’s about timing. Marketability. Networking. And sheer luck.

I submitted my work. I got rejections.
I revised. I waited. I cried (sometimes about more than the writing).
And I kept thinking: I just want this book out there. I want it to exist in the world.

That was the turning point. Not when I gave up, but when I gave in—to my real goal. 
I wanted readers more than I wanted approval.

And that’s when I stepped into the world of self-publishing.

✨ Chapter 2: The Shift That Saved Me

I didn’t walk into self-publishing like it was a palace.
I tiptoed in like it was a garage sale.

But slowly… something shifted.

I was writing what I wanted.

I was designing covers that matched my vision.

I was building a brand (hi, Minds In Design 👋).

And I was releasing my work on my own terms.

Suddenly, I wasn’t waiting anymore. I was creating. I wasn’t chasing agents; I was building a store. I wasn’t asking permission; I was printing pages.

Was it scary? YES.
Was it empowering? Even more so.

And sure, I still dream about a traditional publishing deal—who doesn’t want an advance big enough to pretend you’ll spend it wisely? But I’m no longer desperate for it. Because self-publishing gave me a home for my stories when traditional publishing kept closing the door.

🔥 Chapter 3: The Desperation Question

So… does self-publishing mean an author is desperate?

Sometimes, yes.

Sometimes we’re desperate to be heard. To be seen. To not die with 14 Word documents on our laptop that no one ever read. And that desperation? It’s valid. We live in a world where attention is currency. Wanting to share your art is not shameful.

But sometimes it’s not desperation—it’s strategy.
Sometimes it’s control.
Sometimes it’s the refusal to wait another three years for a response that starts with “While we loved your work…”

Self-publishing is not a back door. It’s a side entrance. With better snacks.

📚 Chapter 4: Readers, Let’s Talk

If you’re a reader, maybe you’ve been burned by a bad indie book.
We’ve all been there—awkward formatting, no editing, and a plot that makes less sense than a reality TV reunion.

But please know: not all self-published books are created in a creative vacuum. Some of us obsess over the craft. I published my debut novel Until Time Remembers at 560 pages of looping timelines, emotional trauma, and carefully constructed narrative structure. It was the start of a whole series (Where Time Can’t Exist)—not a quick grab for attention.

And the truth is? Many self-published books are better than the traditionally published ones getting front-table placement at bookstores.

There, I said it.
Report me to the literary police.

📈 Chapter 5: Writers, Let’s Be Honest

Writers, I know some of you feel torn.
You want the prestige of a deal, but the freedom of self-pub.
You want distribution, but you also want to name your own damn price.
You want to tell your story your way—but still get shelf space.

I feel you.
And I’m telling you: You don’t have to choose one forever.

Self-publishing can be your creative playground. It can be the launchpad for your audience. It can be your proof that your story deserves to exist.

And if you do it right? Publishers might come looking for you.

💬 Chapter 6: Trending Topics — BookTok & AI Books

Let’s spice this up with a few hot bookish topics:

1. BookTok’s New Power

Self-published authors are crushing it on BookTok right now. Some indie authors have sold hundreds of thousands of copies based on a single viral video. It’s not about who published you—it’s about how you connect. Readers want authenticity. And guess what self-pub authors often have in droves? Authenticity.

2. AI-Generated Books (The Not-So-Great Side)

AI-written books are flooding Amazon right now. Yes, some are impressive. But most? They lack the emotional truth that human authors bleed into their work. That’s where real self-publishing shines: in the raw, imperfect, soul-bearing pages of your voice.

💡 Chapter 7: The Real Flex

Here’s my flex:

I run my own company, Minds In Design, which now includes a growing online store.

I’ve published 12 books on Amazon—from fiction to poetry to gripping character studies.

My debut novel Until Time Remembers? A 560-page odyssey through time, pain, and purpose.

My latest poetry release Because I Felt Everything was followed by a new one: It Hurt Beautifully, Available on my online store.

I created a newsletter available on my blog (Issue #3 drops is out now)

A podcast is coming in late August.

And every single product in my store is between $3–$10. No catch. No fluff. Just honest storytelling.

If that’s desperation, baby, I’ll wear it like a crown.

📝 Final Thoughts: What I Hope You Take With You

Self-publishing isn’t the easy way.
It’s the brave way.

It’s messy. It’s personal. It’s hard work.
But it’s also freedom, power, and potential in your own hands.

So the next time someone asks if self-publishing means you’re desperate?

Smile. And say, “Maybe. But desperate people change the world.”

If you’re new here, welcome.
Check out my books. Read my newsletter. Browse the store. Follow the blog. Stick around. I’ve got more stories coming—on my terms.

And I’m just getting started.
💬🖤📚

#Makitiathompson #Mindsindesign #Themiduniverse #Untiltimeremembers #Midcontent

✏️M.I.D Newsletter | Issue #3

 

M.I.D Newsletter – Issue #3

From Minds In Design | August 2025

✍️ Editor’s Note:

Let’s not waste time—unless of course, you’re reading Where Time Can’t Exist, in which case time isn’t exactly cooperating anyway.

Welcome to the third issue of the M.I.D newsletter. If you’re new here—welcome to the literary side of chaos. If you’ve been here since the beginning—hi again, thanks for still choosing to exist in this pocket of beautiful storytelling weirdness.

This issue? It’s loaded. Behind-the-scenes book content, sneak peeks into the next wave of projects, writing advice that actually makes space for being human, and of course, Beck Escarra’s time-warped debut as our Character of the Month.

Whether you're here for the writing tips or just trying to figure out how to feel something again through fiction—read on.

👉 Trust me. You’ll want to read this one to the end.

🧠 Company Update: Minds In Design Is Expanding (and Talking Back)

For those of you who’ve followed my books, blogs, or newsletters—you already know that Minds In Design is more than a brand. It’s a movement. A rebellion against surface-level storytelling. A home for stories that cut deep.

And now, we’re getting louder.

Coming August 2025: The Minds In Design Podcast on Spotify.
That’s right—we’re bringing these stories, ideas, behind-the-scenes breakdowns, and hard-hitting author conversations straight to your ears. Expect interviews, creative rants, writing truths no one tells you, and topics that you won’t find watered down for mainstream comfort. 

You’ll laugh. You’ll possibly cry. You’ll definitely want to write something by the end of each episode. Stay tuned. 

🔥 Book Trends for Writers Who Feel Stuck

We’ve all been there: staring at a blank page with the emotional energy of cold toast.

If you’re struggling to find what to write next, here are some current book trends that might just light the match:

Trauma-Informed Fiction: Readers are craving stories that feel real. Characters that have been through it and still get up the next day—messy, healing, and raw.

Speculative meets Literary: Think big concepts (like time breaking) but told through deeply personal lenses. Emotional sci-fi. Reality-bending romance. Existential thrillers.

Multi-format Storytelling: Books that include interviews, journal entries, transcripts, or hybrid structures are growing. (Wonder where you’ve seen that before, hmm?)

Revenge Stories with Heart: Characters taking their power back—emotionally, spiritually, or with literal fire. Readers want justice, but they want it to mean something.

💡 Need inspiration? One of my all-time favorites is Insomnia by Stephen King. It’s slow-burning, layered, unsettling, and weirdly beautiful. A masterclass in emotionally-driven storytelling that defies simple genre categories.

🌀 Where Time Can’t Exist:Book One – Until Time Remembers

📘 Grab the book on Amazon

Burrington is cursed—and Beck Escarra walked right into it.

A small town forgotten by the world. A time loop no one understands. And a woman who dares to tell the story no one was meant to hear.
Until Time Remembers is more than a debut novel. It’s the beginning of an emotional epic that blends supernatural mystery with raw, poetic emotion.

And now, for those who haven’t cracked it open yet—you can read a free chapter on my blog:
📖 A Glimpse into Burrington

But wait—there’s more.

Behind the Clock

Throughout August, I’ll be rolling out a behind-the-scenes blog series exploring how the town of Burrington was built, the rules of time in the series, and even the alternate endings that never made it into print. It’s spoiler-free—but layered for longtime fans.

And now, an exclusive reveal…

Book Two of the series is titled:

🕳️ The Day That Time Broke
Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s coming. And no—Beck’s not the only one haunted this time around.

✏️ Makitia’s Writing Corner

Here’s your reality check, wrapped in comfort and a little bit of fire:

You don’t have to write every day. Or every week.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your story is step away from it.

Let it breathe. Live a little. Go feel something. Exist in the mess of your real life. Writing without living is like painting from a blank wall—you need something to reflect.

Your characters? They need your realness.
Your plot? It needs your chaos.
And you? You need time. Not guilt.

So if your manuscript has been sitting untouched, that doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re gathering the right kind of fuel.

❓ Q&A with Makitia

We asked—you read. Here are a few brutally honest answers from behind the scenes of a working writer:

Q1: What’s the hardest part about writing emotionally-heavy stories?
Letting myself feel everything without losing myself in the process. You can’t write numb—but you also can’t stay bleeding forever. There’s a weird emotional alchemy to writing truthfully: you dig into your own pain, but you also have to know when to climb back out.

Q2: Have you ever wanted to stop writing?
Absolutely. Especially when I felt like my voice was disappearing in the noise of the industry. But every time I’ve thought about quitting, I’ve found that stories still find their way back to me. And honestly? That’s enough to keep going.

🌑 Character of the Month: Beck Escarra

First introduced in Until Time Remembers, Beck Escarra is a woman with a complicated relationship to truth. She’s a storyteller. A survivor. A little broken. A lot dangerous—especially when you give her a camera and a secret.

Beck isn’t the hero. She’s not quite the villain either.
She’s the person who walks straight into the haunted part of town and decides it deserves a documentary. And maybe that’s what makes her unforgettable.

Why readers can connect with her:

She’s layered—sometimes bold, sometimes undone.

She doesn’t always make the right choices, but she means every one of them.

She’s what happens when grief and ambition collide inside a woman who refuses to be silenced.

You don’t just read Beck—you unravel her.

📚 From the Blog:The Book Was Better (And It Always Will Be)

We’ve all said it. Now let’s talk about why it’s almost always true.

From emotional depth to character nuance, this blog post dives into the impossible task movies face when trying to cram a 400-page heartbreak into two hours of screen time.

💻 Read the blog post here

💸 Book Sale of the Month

If you’ve been waiting to dive into my work, August is the month for it. Starting August 16th and ending August 22nd these three books will be on sale. 

August’s Featured Sale Books:
📘 Until Time Remembers → Link
🖋️ Because I Felt Everything → Link
🫁 Because I’m Still Breathing → Link

A quick look at the poetry collections:

Because I Felt Everything
Told in four aching parts, this collection unpacks the survival of emotional wounds, the craving for love, and the quiet revolution of healing. Some poems scream. Others whisper. All of them tell the truth.

Because I’m Still Breathing
This is not a book about being fixed. It’s a book about existing in the in-between. With over 100 poems, this collection sits with the messy moments and small victories that keep us going—even when no one’s watching.

🗂️ Upcoming Projects

One word: Gregg.

My next project is a documentary-style book exploring the disturbing life and crimes of fictional serial killer Gregg Thorton. This won’t be your typical true crime structure. Expect a story told through interviews, survivor voices, media fragments, and hidden truths.

💀 Coming mid-September to early October.
Prepare yourselves.

🌐 Connect With Me

Let’s make this mutual. Find me, follow me, message me, obsess over fictional tragedies with me:

📸 Instagram: @mindsndesign

🎵 TikTok: @mindsndesign

🐦 Twitter/X: @mindsindesign_

📘 Facebook: Minds In Design

▶️ YouTube: Minds In Design

The  Workbook store for all of my workbooks offering insights, advice, exercises, personal writing struggles, step-by-step guides for writing a variety of books is now live. Each workbook is only 5$ and more than 40 pages of information. 

Want even more exclusive content, sneak peeks, and early access to everything?

💖 Find me on Patreon

💬 Parting Words

Thanks for being here. For reading this far. For supporting storytelling that doesn’t fit into a clean little box.

Whether you’re here for time loops, poetry, dark documentaries, or just trying to survive the creative life—we see you.

Minds In Design isn’t just a company.
It’s a promise: that you’ll always find stories here that matter.
Stories that linger. Stories that feel.

Until next time,
—Makitia

#Mindsindesign #Themiduniverse #Makitiathompson #Untiltimeremembers #Wheretimecantexist #Themidnewsletter

📰It Ended By Beginning: a 32 short story collection

 

🗣️Announcing my first short story collection: It Ended By Beginning

There’s a certain silence that settles in your chest when you finish something that cost you pieces of yourself to create. Not because it’s over. But because you now have to share it. Because when something comes from the most personal place inside you, it never truly ends. It just waits for someone else to pick it up—and feel it.

📆Today, I’m sharing that silence with you.
Today, It Ended By Beginning is available on my website.
A 32-story short fiction collection. A truth-teller. A mirror. A storm. A surrender.

Available at Minds In Design

This collection didn’t begin with fiction. It began with pain.

It began with the kind of pain you try to reason with. The kind you try to dress up, hide under ambition, bury beneath checklists and deadlines. But no matter how good you get at smiling through it, it waits. In the quiet. In the background. Until one day, it writes itself out of you.

🖤This collection was born from that—truths I couldn't say aloud but needed to see on paper. And so, I let them come. Not as essays or journal entries, but as characters. People who looked nothing like me, and yet felt everything I did. People who were flawed, selfish, brave, broken, manipulative, loyal, violent, terrified, or numb. People who could ruin lives in three sentences and then quietly ask for forgiveness without ever saying the word.

These 32 stories aren’t pretty. They're not meant to be.
They are not tidy or kind or comfortably resolved.
They are what it means to feel.
They are what it means to look at pain and not flinch.

💔Who this collection is for

It’s for the person who’s never been able to fully explain the damage someone did to them.

It’s for the person who’s said, “I’m fine,” too many times, and no longer believes it.

It’s for the person who still feels like they’re carrying around pieces of the people they tried to forget.

It’s for the person who wonders if the trauma they inherited will become the trauma they leave behind.

It’s for you, if you’ve ever needed a story to scream what you couldn’t.

Because It Ended By Beginning isn’t a book to comfort you. It’s a book to make you confront yourself—with honesty, with clarity, and maybe with a little more grace than you’ve given yourself before.

The truth behind the title

It Ended By Beginning.

It sounds backwards, right?
But it’s not.

This is what happens when we trace the end of something we thought we understood—only to find out it started long before us. That what we thought was the final chapter… was actually the prologue. That trauma has a bloodline. That pain is taught. That stories don’t end just because we say they do.

Some of the characters in these stories believed they were the ending.
But they weren’t.
They were just continuing a cycle someone else began.
And some of them… finally chose to be the break in that cycle.
The first crack in the glass. The whisper that says, “No more.”

That’s what the title means. The end is never the end. It’s the beginning of something else.

🚪The man behind the press: Story #32

I’ll tell you a secret.

The final story in this book, Printed Hell, isn’t really fiction.
Sure, the character is a fictional journalist. Sure, he runs a small newspaper by himself and travels to tell the stories no one else bothers to.
But really?
He’s me.
And he’s this book.

He’s tired, but still passionate.
He’s seen things that broke him, but he kept reporting anyway.
He’s shutting the doors soon, but not before publishing one last thing he knows matters.

That story is the book itself.
And he’s the reflection of what it means to write something like this—alone, deeply, fully, and knowing it may never be understood the way it was meant.

But he writes it anyway.
Because someone will.

A glimpse into the stories

Every story stands on its own. But together, they tell a larger truth. A layered one. A hard one.

Here’s just a glimpse:

The Wolf Is a Lamb: A well-loved teacher is falsely accused by a student trying to impress her friends. His life is shattered—and the truth comes too late.

Drowning From Another: A girl is pushed to her death by the one who called her best friend. Envy disguised as sisterhood. Lies that live louder than grief.

It Ended With Them: A generational cycle of trauma goes unbroken for too long. And then one child dares to ask: “What if I end it?”

Judgement for Each Day: A manipulator convinces himself he’s the victim, using charm and deceit to rewrite the past—and trap others in it.

Irreversible Temptations: A friendship is destroyed by a single betrayal that could’ve been avoided, but wasn’t. Because desire was louder than love.

And 27 others just as raw.
Each one a punch to the gut.
Each one a whisper of truth you may not want to hear—but won’t forget once you do.

Why I chose to publish it myself 🕯️

I didn’t want to hand this over to someone else to polish the pain out of it.

This collection wasn’t meant to fit inside the lines of traditional publishing.
It’s meant to bleed.

That’s why I created my own company. My own platform. My own space to tell these stories exactly the way they needed to be told.

No filters.
No softening.
No pacing changes because “the market prefers this.”
No removal of sentences because they’re “too uncomfortable.”

If it made me squirm, I kept it.
If it felt too real, I knew it belonged.
If it hurt to write, I leaned in.

That’s the kind of book It Ended By Beginning is.
And I’m proud of that.

For the storytellers who never got to speak

This isn’t just a book. It’s a voice.

For the people who were never given one.
For the ones who were told their stories were “too much,” “too personal,” “too dark.”
For the ones who stayed silent while the world misremembered them.
For the ones who told the truth and paid for it.
For the ones who never got to tell theirs at all.

This book remembers them.
It prints them.
It raises hell for them.

📖If you choose to read it…

Read it slowly.

Don’t rush through it like a checklist.
Don’t skim the endings to see if anyone gets what they deserve.
Sit with it. Let it speak.

These are stories that deserve your full attention—even when they sting.

And if something in one of them feels a little too close to your own experience…
Let it.

That’s not a flaw. That’s the point.

#Mindsindesign #Makitiathompson #Themiduniverse #Itendedbybeginning 

🏬Minds In Design is LIVE

 

Welcome to the Store: A New Chapter for Minds In Design✍️ by Makitia Thompson, Founder of Minds In Design

There’s something terrifying and exhilarating about putting a part of yourself into the world.
Not just your work—but your thoughts, your fears, your growth, and the quiet things you’ve never said out loud.

That’s what I’ve done with Minds In Design, and now… with this store.

Welcome to MindsInDesign.com — my official online store, the newest branch of a company I’ve spent years building with intention, soul, and just a little chaos.

But first, let me tell you how we got here.

🧠 Where Minds In Design Began

I started Minds In Design because I believed stories should feel like memories.
I wanted to create stories that weren’t just entertaining—but transformative.
Stories that stuck to your skin. That made you uncomfortable in all the right ways. That didn’t let you go.

I write because I know what it’s like to need an escape—and what it’s like to need to be seen.

Minds In Design was born out of that very need: to design spaces—mental, emotional, and literary—where readers could see themselves clearly, even in the dark.

Since its creation, Minds In Design has been a one-person powerhouse. I’m the writer, designer, strategist, marketer, editor, and (soon-to-be) podcast host.
Every word, every sentence, every product is me—raw, unfiltered, and deliberate.

And now, this company is expanding in ways that feel personal and powerful.

🛒 The Online Store: A Space for Work That Speaks

I wanted a place that felt more personal than just another product page.
A home for my smaller works—the workbooks, the poetry, the creative experiments, and the passion projects.
Things that didn’t always fit inside the traditional mold but still had something urgent to say.

This is where the official online store was born.

💸 Inside the shop, you’ll find poetry collections, writing guides, creative workbooks, and emotional deep-dives—all priced accessibly between $3–$10 (and never above $10).
Because I believe art shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be something we reach for when we need it most.

Whether you’re looking for something to spark your creativity, comfort your grief, or guide you through your next book idea—this is where you’ll find it.

📚 The Books That Built This

Before there was a store, there were the books.

I currently have 16 titles available on Amazon—spanning genres from haunting fiction to raw poetry to twisted, documentary-style interview books to fictional autobiographies. 
Each one is an extension of a different part of me—and of Minds In Design.

Among them, one stands out as a true milestone:

🕰️ Until Time Remembers

My debut novel.
My first full-length heartbreak.
A 560-page literary odyssey that launches the Where Time Can’t Exist series.

This book is a ghost story—just not the kind you expect.
It’s about memory. Guilt. Time loops. A cursed town that traps the broken and bends reality.
A girl who tries to leave, and the haunting truth that nothing ever ends—especially pain.

🌀 Until Time Remembers was only the beginning of something bigger.
The Where Time Can’t Exist series will continue—and the stories will only grow more intense.

You can grab Until Time Remembers or any of my 16 titles on Amazon here.

📦 What’s in the Store Right Now?

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s waiting for you in the shop:

✍️ Creative Writing Workbooks:
Dig deep into character psychology, create disturbing-yet-human killers, craft emotionally raw true crime, and build stories that actually mean something.

🖤 Poetry Collection:

💔 It Hurt Beautifully — the newest release, a nostalgic, haunting journey through depression, memory, identity, fragility, and the ache of growing up.

Made to feel like something. To leave you changed.

And if you read the M.I.D newsletter, you already know:
🗞️ Issue #3 drops August 1st—with updates, behind-the-scenes, writing advice, and special store perks.

🎙️ What’s Coming Next? A Podcast + More

This isn’t the end. Not even close.

✨ In mid to late August, I’ll be launching the Minds In Design podcast, a new space for raw conversations on creativity, trauma, memory, legacy, and what it means to write stories that refuse to let go.

This podcast will feel like a diary and a documentary at once.

More store products are also in the works:

Digital bundles

Special editions

Audio content

Reader-centered resources

And eventually… physical copies

📢 If you want to stay in the loop, sign up for the M.I.D Newsletter and follow me on social media:
Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

🧩 Why This Store Matters

This store wasn’t created to just sell.

It was created to hold space.
For art that didn’t fit the algorithm.
For honesty.
For complexity.
For readers like you—who crave stories that are strange, soft, violent, vulnerable, nostalgic, and real.

🖤 Everything in the shop is between $3 and $10. Always.
Not because it’s worth less—but because healing doesn’t have to be expensive.
It just needs to be honest.

This is for:

The reader who feels too much

The writer who doesn’t know where to begin

The creative spirit who wants to reclaim their story

The person still healing, quietly, in the dark

This is for you.

👋🏽 In Case You’re New Here… Who Am I?

Hi, I’m Makitia Thompson—an independent author, creative strategist, emotional storyteller, and the founder of Minds In Design.

I believe in raw stories, nontraditional formats, and emotionally intelligent writing that haunts you (in the best way).

I built Minds In Design as a safe space for creatives and readers who don’t feel at home in the mainstream—and now, I’ve expanded that space with this store.

So if you’ve made it this far into this post, thank you.

You’re exactly the kind of reader I made this for.

✨ Final Thoughts

Here’s what’s happening now—and next:

✅ The store is live → Shop now
✅ 16 books available on Amazon
✅ M.I.D Newsletter Issue #3 coming August 1st
🎧 New podcast launching mid to late August
🛒 Every product: $3–$10. Always.

💬 Explore. Read. Feel something.
Then tell someone else about it.

Because stories don’t just live on pages.
They live in us.

Welcome to the next chapter of Minds In Design.

#Mindsindesign #Makitiathompson #Themiduniverse #Themidnewsletter #Midnewsletter #Midstories #Makitia #Midcontent

🎉Minds In Design is LIVE

 

Welcome to the Store: A New Chapter for Minds In Design✍️ by Makitia Thompson, Founder of Minds In Design

There’s something terrifying and exhilarating about putting a part of yourself into the world.
Not just your work—but your thoughts, your fears, your growth, and the quiet things you’ve never said out loud.

That’s what I’ve done with Minds In Design, and now… with this store.

Welcome to MindsInDesign.com — my official online store, the newest branch of a company I’ve spent years building with intention, soul, and just a little chaos.

But first, let me tell you how we got here.

🧠 Where Minds In Design Began

I started Minds In Design because I believed stories should feel like memories.
I wanted to create stories that weren’t just entertaining—but transformative.
Stories that stuck to your skin. That made you uncomfortable in all the right ways. That didn’t let you go.

I write because I know what it’s like to need an escape—and what it’s like to need to be seen.

Minds In Design was born out of that very need: to design spaces—mental, emotional, and literary—where readers could see themselves clearly, even in the dark.

Since its creation, Minds In Design has been a one-person powerhouse. I’m the writer, designer, strategist, marketer, editor, and (soon-to-be) podcast host.
Every word, every sentence, every product is me—raw, unfiltered, and deliberate.

And now, this company is expanding in ways that feel personal and powerful.

🛒 The Online Store: A Space for Work That Speaks

I wanted a place that felt more personal than just another product page.
A home for my smaller works—the workbooks, the poetry, the creative experiments, and the passion projects.
Things that didn’t always fit inside the traditional mold but still had something urgent to say.

This is where the official online store was born.

💸 Inside the shop, you’ll find poetry collections, writing guides, creative workbooks, and emotional deep-dives—all priced accessibly between $5–$10 (and never above $10).
Because I believe art shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be something we reach for when we need it most.

Whether you’re looking for something to spark your creativity, comfort your grief, or guide you through your next book idea—this is where you’ll find it.

📚 The Books That Built This

Before there was a store, there were the books.

I currently have 16 titles available on Amazon—spanning genres from haunting fiction to raw poetry to twisted, documentary-style interview books to fictional autobiographies. 
Each one is an extension of a different part of me—and of Minds In Design.

Among them, one stands out as a true milestone:

🕰️ Until Time Remembers

My debut novel.
My first full-length heartbreak.
A 560-page literary odyssey that launches the Where Time Can’t Exist series.

This book is a ghost story—just not the kind you expect.
It’s about memory. Guilt. Time loops. A cursed town that traps the broken and bends reality.
A girl who tries to leave, and the haunting truth that nothing ever ends—especially pain.

🌀 Until Time Remembers was only the beginning of something bigger.
The Where Time Can’t Exist series will continue—and the stories will only grow more intense.

You can grab Until Time Remembers or any of my 16 titles on Amazon here.

📦 What’s in the Store Right Now?

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s waiting for you in the shop:

✍️ Creative Writing Workbooks:
Dig deep into character psychology, create disturbing-yet-human killers, craft emotionally raw true crime, and build stories that actually mean something.

🖤 Poetry Collection:

💔 It Hurt Beautifully — the newest release, a nostalgic, haunting journey through depression, memory, identity, fragility, and the ache of growing up.

Made to feel like something. To leave you changed.

And if you read the M.I.D newsletter, you already know:
🗞️ Issue #3 drops August 1st—with updates, behind-the-scenes, writing advice, and special store perks.

🎙️ What’s Coming Next? A Podcast + More

This isn’t the end. Not even close.

✨ In mid to late August, I’ll be launching the Minds In Design podcast, a new space for raw conversations on creativity, trauma, memory, legacy, and what it means to write stories that refuse to let go.

This podcast will feel like a diary and a documentary at once.

More store products are also in the works:

Digital bundles

Special editions

Audio content

Reader-centered resources

And eventually… physical copies

📢 If you want to stay in the loop, sign up for the M.I.D Newsletter and follow me on social media:
Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

🧩 Why This Store Matters

This store wasn’t created to just sell.

It was created to hold space.
For art that didn’t fit the algorithm.
For honesty.
For complexity.
For readers like you—who crave stories that are strange, soft, violent, vulnerable, nostalgic, and real.

🖤 Everything in the shop is between $5 and $10. Always.
Not because it’s worth less—but because healing doesn’t have to be expensive.
It just needs to be honest.

This is for:

The reader who feels too much

The writer who doesn’t know where to begin

The creative spirit who wants to reclaim their story

The person still healing, quietly, in the dark

This is for you.

👋🏽 In Case You’re New Here… Who Am I?

Hi, I’m Makitia Thompson—an independent author, creative strategist, emotional storyteller, and the founder of Minds In Design.

I believe in raw stories, nontraditional formats, and emotionally intelligent writing that haunts you (in the best way).

I built Minds In Design as a safe space for creatives and readers who don’t feel at home in the mainstream—and now, I’ve expanded that space with this store.

So if you’ve made it this far into this post, thank you.

You’re exactly the kind of reader I made this for.

✨ Final Thoughts

Here’s what’s happening now—and next:

✅ The store is live → Shop now
✅ 16 books available on Amazon
✅ M.I.D Newsletter Issue #3 coming August 1st
🎧 New podcast launching mid to late August
🛒 Every product: $5–$10. Always.

💬 Explore. Read. Feel something.
Then tell someone else about it.

Because stories don’t just live on pages.
They live in us.

Welcome to the next chapter of Minds In Design.

#Mindsindesign #Makitiathompson #Themiduniverse #Themidnewsletter #Midnewsletter #Midstories

🎉Minds In Design has expanded

 

Welcome to the Store: A New Chapter for Minds In Design✍️ by Makitia Thompson, Founder of Minds In Design

There’s something terrifying and exhilarating about putting a part of yourself into the world.
Not just your work—but your thoughts, your fears, your growth, and the quiet things you’ve never said out loud.

That’s what I’ve done with Minds In Design, and now… with this store.

Welcome to MindsInDesign.com — my official online store, the newest branch of a company I’ve spent years building with intention, soul, and just a little chaos.

But first, let me tell you how we got here.

🧠 Where Minds In Design Began

I started Minds In Design because I believed stories should feel like memories.
I wanted to create stories that weren’t just entertaining—but transformative.
Stories that stuck to your skin. That made you uncomfortable in all the right ways. That didn’t let you go.

I write because I know what it’s like to need an escape—and what it’s like to need to be seen.

Minds In Design was born out of that very need: to design spaces—mental, emotional, and literary—where readers could see themselves clearly, even in the dark.

Since its creation, Minds In Design has been a one-person powerhouse. I’m the writer, designer, strategist, marketer, editor, and (soon-to-be) podcast host.
Every word, every sentence, every product is me—raw, unfiltered, and deliberate.

And now, this company is expanding in ways that feel personal and powerful.

🛒 The Online Store: A Space for Work That Speaks

I wanted a place that felt more personal than just another product page.
A home for my smaller works—the workbooks, the poetry, the creative experiments, and the passion projects.
Things that didn’t always fit inside the traditional mold but still had something urgent to say.

This is where the official online store was born.

💸 Inside the shop, you’ll find poetry collections, writing guides, creative workbooks, and emotional deep-dives—all priced accessibly between $5–$10 (and never above $10).
Because I believe art shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be something we reach for when we need it most.

Whether you’re looking for something to spark your creativity, comfort your grief, or guide you through your next book idea—this is where you’ll find it.

📚 The Books That Built This

Before there was a store, there were the books.

I currently have 16 titles available on Amazon—spanning genres from haunting fiction to raw poetry to twisted, documentary-style interview books to fictional autobiographies. 
Each one is an extension of a different part of me—and of Minds In Design.

Among them, one stands out as a true milestone:

🕰️ Until Time Remembers

My debut novel.
My first full-length heartbreak.
A 560-page literary odyssey that launches the Where Time Can’t Exist series.

This book is a ghost story—just not the kind you expect.
It’s about memory. Guilt. Time loops. A cursed town that traps the broken and bends reality.
A girl who tries to leave, and the haunting truth that nothing ever ends—especially pain.

🌀 Until Time Remembers was only the beginning of something bigger.
The Where Time Can’t Exist series will continue—and the stories will only grow more intense.

You can grab Until Time Remembers or any of my 16 titles on Amazon here.

📦 What’s in the Store Right Now?

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s waiting for you in the shop:

✍️ Creative Writing Workbooks:
Dig deep into character psychology, create disturbing-yet-human killers, craft emotionally raw true crime, and build stories that actually mean something.

🖤 Poetry Collection:

💔 It Hurt Beautifully — the newest release, a nostalgic, haunting journey through depression, memory, identity, fragility, and the ache of growing up.

Made to feel like something. To leave you changed.

And if you read the M.I.D newsletter, you already know:
🗞️ Issue #3 drops August 1st—with updates, behind-the-scenes, writing advice, and special store perks.

🎙️ What’s Coming Next? A Podcast + More

This isn’t the end. Not even close.

✨ In mid to late August, I’ll be launching the Minds In Design podcast, a new space for raw conversations on creativity, trauma, memory, legacy, and what it means to write stories that refuse to let go.

This podcast will feel like a diary and a documentary at once.

More store products are also in the works:

Digital bundles

Special editions

Audio content

Reader-centered resources

And eventually… physical copies

📢 If you want to stay in the loop, sign up for the M.I.D Newsletter and follow me on social media:
Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

🧩 Why This Store Matters

This store wasn’t created to just sell.

It was created to hold space.
For art that didn’t fit the algorithm.
For honesty.
For complexity.
For readers like you—who crave stories that are strange, soft, violent, vulnerable, nostalgic, and real.

🖤 Everything in the shop is between $5 and $10. Always.
Not because it’s worth less—but because healing doesn’t have to be expensive.
It just needs to be honest.

This is for:

The reader who feels too much

The writer who doesn’t know where to begin

The creative spirit who wants to reclaim their story

The person still healing, quietly, in the dark

This is for you.

👋🏽 In Case You’re New Here… Who Am I?

Hi, I’m Makitia Thompson—an independent author, creative strategist, emotional storyteller, and the founder of Minds In Design.

I believe in raw stories, nontraditional formats, and emotionally intelligent writing that haunts you (in the best way).

I built Minds In Design as a safe space for creatives and readers who don’t feel at home in the mainstream—and now, I’ve expanded that space with this store.

So if you’ve made it this far into this post, thank you.

You’re exactly the kind of reader I made this for.

✨ Final Thoughts

Here’s what’s happening now—and next:

✅ The store is live → Shop now
✅ 16 books available on Amazon
✅ M.I.D Newsletter Issue #3 coming August 1st
🎧 New podcast launching mid to late August
🛒 Every product: $5–$10. Always.

💬 Explore. Read. Feel something.
Then tell someone else about it.

Because stories don’t just live on pages.
They live in us.

Welcome to the next chapter of Minds In Design.

#Mindsindesign #Makitiathompson #Themiduniverse #Themidnewsletter #Midnewsletter #Midstories

💥Happy Endings in Books Are Overrated: Sometimes Let the Story Implode

 

Why not every story deserves a neat, tidy bow — and how breaking the rules can create unforgettable fiction.

Meta Description:
Discover why happy endings aren’t a must in fiction, how to write endings that truly resonate, and why sometimes letting your story implode is the most honest choice you can make as a writer. Perfect for fiction writers, book lovers, and anyone ready to break the happy ending mold.

Introduction: Why the Obsession with Happy Endings?

You know that feeling when you finish a book and everything just… works out? The lovers kiss under a soft sunset, the villain tumbles conveniently off a cliff, and the dog lives (again).

Comfort reads are important. They soothe, reassure, and bring joy. But let’s be honest for a second: not every story deserves a bow-wrapped ending. Some need to crumble. Some need to tear your heart out, slap it on the page, and whisper, “This is what it cost.”

Yet there’s an unspoken pressure in fiction—especially commercial fiction—to tidy everything up like the story is an Airbnb rental that has to be sparkling before check-out. And if your ending doesn’t send readers off with warm fuzzies, you might feel like you’re doing it wrong.

But here’s the truth: you’re not.

Not every story is meant to heal. Not every character arc is about redemption. Some endings are jagged for a reason.

Sometimes, the best thing a story can do is implode—spectacularly, painfully, honestly. 💥

This article isn’t here to trash happy endings. It’s here to remind you that you don’t owe your story a happily ever after. You owe it the ending it needs.

Let’s unpack that.

1. Where Did the “Happy Ending Rule” Even Come From?

Let’s blame the Victorians. (Okay, not just them, but they definitely helped.)

For centuries, storytelling traditions across cultures offered a mixed bag of endings—some tragic (Oedipus Rex, anyone?), some hopeful, some chaotic. But around the time stories became marketable commodities—serialized novels, mass publishing, movie deals—audiences started expecting payoffs. Emotional ones. Romantic ones. Moral ones.

Fast forward to modern publishing, and a “good ending” became synonymous with a “happy” one. Commercial genres like romance, fantasy, and thrillers were expected to deliver closure wrapped in satisfaction—villains punished, heroes rewarded, lovers reunited.

And look, there’s nothing wrong with that formula when it fits. But somewhere along the way, the idea that an “unhappy” ending is bad craft crept into our collective writer-brain.

We started hearing things like:

“Readers will feel cheated.”

“No one wants to feel sad at the end.”

“You’ll get one-star reviews if you kill the dog.”

So we play it safe. We sand down the sharp edges. We resurrect characters who probably should’ve stayed dead. We pretend trauma can be healed in a single page.

But here’s the thing: writing a painful ending isn’t a betrayal of your reader. It’s a gift of truth.

Your story doesn’t need to be pleasant. It needs to be honest.

And that honesty? It starts with ignoring the rule that says everything must end in sunshine.

2. But Readers Want Closure!

Here’s a secret most readers won’t admit out loud: they don’t actually need happy endings.

What they crave is closure—and those are not the same thing.

Closure is about emotional payoff. It's about resolution. It's the moment a character’s arc clicks into place and you realize, yes, this is how it had to end—even if it hurts. It’s the feeling of being wrecked but also… satisfied. Like your heart just got punched in the face, but at least it meant something.

A happy ending is just one flavor of that.

But we’ve been conditioned to confuse the two. So much so that some readers think they’ve been “cheated” when a story dares to leave things messy.

Let’s be clear: leaving your reader feeling emotionally gutted ≠ poor writing.

You are not breaking some sacred storytelling law by writing an ending that hurts.

Because real closure isn’t about making everything better. It’s about making everything matter.

Think about it:

When a deeply flawed character finally makes the right choice—but too late.

When a story ends in sacrifice, and no one gets a parade.

When the last chapter feels like silence after a scream.

Those are not happy endings. But they are true ones.

The closure lies in the earned outcome—not in how “nice” the ending looks when gift-wrapped.

So yes, readers want closure. But more importantly, they want honesty. And sometimes that means your story doesn’t end in kisses and rainbows—it ends in quiet ruin… and it’s perfect.

3. Imploding the Story Isn’t Laziness—It’s Craft

Let’s bust a myth right now: tragic or bleak endings are not the “easy way out.”

Actually, it’s often the harder path. Because when you write a story that implodes, it means you’ve built something complex enough to fall apart meaningfully.

It takes serious narrative courage to say, “No, this doesn’t get fixed.”

You have to:

Resist the urge to protect your characters from pain.

Trust your reader to handle emotional devastation.

Stay loyal to the emotional truth of your story—not the expected arc.

And trust me, that’s not lazy writing. That’s deliberate devastation. 😈

Think of it like this: A happy ending is like building a bridge. An implosive ending is like detonating the bridge—and showing the audience why the explosion was inevitable.

Done well, it’s breathtaking.

Let’s look at a few examples where the author lets the story collapse beautifully:

In The Road, the world ends. Hope flickers, but survival is a scar.

In We Were Liars, the twist doesn’t “fix” anything. It makes the grief echo harder.

In Atonement, the truth is devastating—and the character lies to us to cope with it.

These stories implode because the plot demands it. The characters demand it. The emotional reality demands it.

It’s not a gimmick.

It’s craft.

And when you pull it off, your reader doesn’t just remember your ending—they feel it, long after they close the book.

4. When You Should Let It All Burn 🔥

Alright. Let’s talk about the red flags that scream: “Hey writer… maybe this doesn’t deserve a happy ending.”

1. You’re forcing a redemption that wasn’t earned.

Not every villain needs to become a martyr. Not every terrible choice deserves forgiveness. If your character arc only bends toward “goodness” because you’re scared readers will be mad, it’s time to step back.

Sometimes the most powerful ending is refusing redemption. Let the villain die as the villain. Let the hero fail. Let the consequences hit like a freight train.

2. You’re resurrecting characters to make people feel better.

We all love a good fake-out death. But if you’re bringing someone back just because it hurts too much to let them go… stop. Grief is a story, too. And sometimes, letting the death stand is the most honest thing you can do.

3. You’re writing the “Hollywood montage” out of guilt.

If you catch yourself stapling a feel-good epilogue onto a story that was emotionally devastating just pages earlier, ask why. Is it really the ending that fits? Or are you just afraid of leaving readers uncomfortable?

Because here’s a hard truth: comfort is not always your job as a storyteller.

Sometimes your job is to deliver the heartbreak—and walk away.

5. Famous Books That Said “No Thanks” to a Neat Ending

Want proof that implosive endings don’t kill stories? They define them. Some of the most powerful, unforgettable books said “nope” to happily-ever-afters and became iconic because of it.

Let’s name names. 📚

🖤 The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Brutal. Sparse. Unforgiving. And yet… deeply human. It ends not with salvation, but with the ache of survival. There's no real “win” here—just the cost of carrying hope through ash.

🧠 We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

What starts as a breezy, summer-luxury drama explodes into a twist that redefines the entire narrative. You are meant to feel punched. That’s the point.

😭 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Is it trauma porn or literary brilliance? That’s up for debate. But one thing’s for sure: it does not care about your emotional well-being. And that’s why it works—it doesn’t flinch away.

🕰️ Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

You want to scream at the injustice. You want someone to fight back. But the quiet resignation in this book is the horror. Its tragedy is quiet, relentless, and unforgettable.

These stories are not afraid of leaving you wounded. Because they know something important:

👉 If the reader finishes the book and still feels the pain, you did your job.

6. How to Write an Implosive Ending Without Ruining Everything

There’s a fine line between powerfully devastating and what the hell did I just read?

Yes, implosive endings are bold. But that doesn’t mean you get to blow everything up for shock value. If the ending doesn’t feel earned, readers will call it what it is: cheap drama.

So, how do you write an emotionally wrecking ending that feels intentional instead of accidental arson?

Let’s break it down. 🧨

✅ 1. Make the Fallout Inevitable

An implosive ending works best when the story builds toward it. You’re not pulling the rug out from under the reader—you’re letting them slowly realize the rug is soaked in gasoline.

Plant the emotional seeds early:

If your protagonist loses everything, foreshadow the obsession or flaw that leads them there.

If your lovers are doomed, sprinkle hints of what keeps them apart—not just what brings them together.

If someone must die, show us the cost of them living.

Good implosions feel like fate—not a writer with a flamethrower.

✅ 2. Stick the Emotional Landing

Even the messiest endings need emotional clarity. Your reader doesn’t need all the answers—but they do need to understand how they’re supposed to feel.

Is this devastation meant to be peaceful? Infuriating? Beautifully pointless?

Tell us without telling us.

✨ Example: Instead of writing, “She died, and it was sad,” show us the way a coffee cup stays full on the counter. The way the house forgets how to breathe without her.

That’s sticking the emotional landing. That’s giving your reader a bruise they won’t want to cover.

✅ 3. Use Ambiguity With Purpose, Not Fear

You can leave things open-ended—but do it on purpose, not because you didn’t know how to end your story.

Ambiguity isn’t the same as confusion. It’s about trusting your reader to live in uncertainty with you.

Think:

A last page that raises one final, aching question

A character who walks away instead of explaining

A moment where the future is both possible and impossible

Let readers sit with the ache. Don’t cushion the fall. 😶‍🌫️

✅ 4. Don’t Undercut the Ending With a Cop-Out Epilogue

Let me be blunt: if you write a soul-wrecking ending and then slap on a “five years later, everything’s fine now!” chapter just to smooth it over...

🚨 You're breaking your own emotional contract. 🚨

This doesn’t mean you can’t do time jumps or reflective closings. Just ask yourself:

Does this epilogue deepen the emotional impact?

Or does it deflate it?

If the answer is the latter, delete it. Or save it as a bonus scene. Or burn it like a deleted prophecy. 🔥

✅ 5. Give Your Ending Breathing Room

Implosions need space to echo.

Don’t cram your most emotional scenes into the last 300 words. Let your ending breathe. Let the silence between words hurt.

Pacing matters. The last few chapters are where your reader’s chest tightens, not just where the plot finishes.

You’re not landing a plane—you’re crashing it beautifully.

Bottom line? If you want to break your readers’ hearts, earn it. Make the devastation come from truth, not gimmick. Build toward it with grace. Land it with meaning.

Because an implosion without purpose is just rubble.

But an implosion with soul? That’s unforgettable.

7. Why Writers Feel Pressured to Keep it Light

Let’s get honest for a second.

You’ve written a beautiful, tragic, gut-punch of an ending. The kind that echoes in the silence. The kind that costs something. You lean back, proud and emotionally drained.

And then it starts.

“But will people like this?”
“What if it’s too dark?”
“Is it… depressing?”
“What if someone leaves a 1-star review that just says ‘RUDE’?”

Welcome to the emotional purgatory of modern storytelling: you’re allowed to write darkness, but not too much. You're allowed to hurt readers, but only if you cheer them up after. You're allowed to break your characters—as long as you patch them up before the credits roll.

This is where the pressure comes from—and it’s real.

🎯 The Review Culture Monster

Let’s be blunt: reviews shape behavior. We’ve all seen a reviewer trash a beautifully written book because “the ending was too sad,” or “I didn’t like how unresolved I felt.”

And hey, that’s valid feedback—for that reader. But it shouldn’t dictate your entire creative compass.

Readers have different thresholds for emotional devastation. Some want a tidy bow, some want scorched earth. You’re never going to please everyone. So don’t try.

Please your story first.

🏷️ Genre Expectations and Market Molds

Genres like romance, cozy mysteries, and certain flavors of fantasy have rules. They promise a kind of emotional safety net. And if you’re writing in those genres, your readers might riot if you end your story with, say… death by betrayal and loneliness.

But if you're not writing genre-bound fiction, you're not required to protect your characters—or your readers—from heartbreak.

That’s your lane. Use it. No seatbelts necessary. 🛣️

🧠 Writer Guilt Is a Real Thing

Here’s something no one talks about enough: it feels weirdly personal to write something devastating and then hand it to the world.

It’s like saying, “Here’s this very raw emotional experience I created—hope it hurts you in all the right ways!”

And the guilt creeps in:

Am I too cruel?

Should I soften this?

Is this just trauma dumping disguised as plot?

You second-guess your instincts because you don’t want to be “that author.”

But here’s the truth:

👉 You’re not cruel for telling a hard story.

You’re not heartless for writing heartbreak.

You’re an emotional architect, and sometimes your blueprints include collapse.

💌 Your Job Isn’t to Make People Feel Good—It’s to Make Them Feel

We read books to feel. Not just joy, but sorrow. Not just relief, but grief. Not just victory, but consequence.

If your story leads to devastation, go there. With intention. With care. With guts.

Because sugarcoating a story just to dodge bad reviews or keep everyone comfy?

That’s the real betrayal.

8. Happy Endings Still Exist—They’re Just Not Mandatory

Let’s get one thing straight: this article isn’t a manifesto against joy. You’re allowed to write happy endings.

You're even allowed to write very happy endings.

Characters kissing in the rain? Sure. Found families finally finding each other? Absolutely. The underdog saves the world and gets a puppy? Let’s go.

But here’s the key difference:

👉 Happy endings should be earned, not expected.

The problem isn’t happy endings themselves—it’s the obligation to create them, even when they don’t fit the emotional journey your story has taken.

☀️ When a Happy Ending Is the Right Choice

Not all stories want to implode. Some naturally lean toward healing, growth, forgiveness, or full-circle moments that genuinely feel right.

Here’s when you should embrace the light:

Your characters have earned their peace after actual struggle—not just because you want to protect them.

Your plot centers on resilience or hope rather than consequence or loss.

You want the reader to walk away uplifted—but not numb.

The best happy endings feel like quiet exhalations, not Hallmark explosions.

They don’t need glitter. They just need truth.

🍬 Bittersweet Is the Most Underrated Flavor in Fiction

If imploding a story feels too harsh, but tying everything up in bows feels fake, allow me to introduce you to the king of endings: bittersweet.

This is where:

The lovers don’t end up together, but they changed each other forever.

The world isn’t saved, but one corner of it is better.

The main character loses what they wanted—but gains what they needed.

Bittersweet endings are like bruises that don’t hurt anymore—just little reminders that something mattered.

They linger. They haunt softly. And they are, in many ways, more realistic than pure tragedy or pure joy.

🌱 Open-Ended Peace: The Gentle Fade-Out

Not every story needs a mic drop. Some need a quiet light dimming. These are endings that don’t explain everything but feel emotionally complete.

Think:

A character walking away, no future spelled out, but their arc finished.

A final image that leaves the reader with hope, unease, or reflection.

A conversation left unsaid—but no longer necessary.

Open endings don’t lack resolution—they just trust the reader to live in the afterspace.

🧭 You’re Writing Toward Truth, Not Tropes

Every story has an emotional core. Your job as the writer is to stay loyal to it.

That might lead to:

A joyful embrace after surviving hell

A whispered goodbye with no return

A final page that makes someone throw your book across the room (and then pick it up again)

There’s no “correct” emotion to leave readers with—only the right one for your story.

So if your truth ends in light, let it shine. If it ends in fire, let it burn. 🔥

Just don’t fake either.

9. Advice for Writers Who Are Scared to Go There

You’ve written the story. You know how it ends. And…it’s not sunshine and daisies. It’s not even a cloud with silver lining.

It’s more like a landslide. Or a funeral. Or a truth that leaves teeth marks.

But still, you hesitate.

What if it’s too sad?
What if people get mad?
What if this ending ruins everything?

Here’s your gentle, slightly sarcastic reminder: you are allowed to finish your story the way it needs to be finished.

Still scared? Let’s talk about how to do it well—without setting your reader’s soul on fire just for the sake of drama.

🛠️ 1. Build Toward Emotional Impact Early

Don’t drop tragedy on your reader like a falling piano.

Let the emotional tone of your story foreshadow the fall. Drop hints. Let unease simmer. If a character’s fate is tragic, plant moments of vulnerability or risk early on—not just in the final chapter.

Think of the story like a heartbeat: if it flatlines only at the end, it feels like a glitch. But if the tension builds gradually, readers expect the crash—and brace for it.

💬 2. Let Characters Say the Thing (Or Deliberately Not Say It)

Implosive endings feel worst (read: best) when the emotional stakes are clear.

Let your characters:

Say what they’ve been too scared to say.

Realize the truth too late.

Almost get what they want—then lose it.

Sometimes it’s the sentence that never gets said that hits hardest. Or the one that comes too late.

Write those moments with precision. Don’t rush through the climax emotionally. Sit in the wreckage.

🎯 3. Kill the Fear of Disappointing Everyone

You will disappoint some people. That’s a guarantee.

But here’s another guarantee: writing something powerful, truthful, and gutting will also make you someone’s favorite author forever.

People don’t tattoo quotes from books that made them feel “eh, that was nice.” They tattoo words that gutted them. That broke something open.

If your story ends in fire, and a reader finishes it saying, “I feel destroyed but I loved it”—you won.

So stop trying to please everyone. Aim for meaning, not approval.

🧪 4. Test Darker Endings With Trusted Readers

Still nervous? Test it.

Send your darker or implosive ending to a trusted reader or critique partner. Ask them:

Did this feel emotionally honest?

Was the ending earned?

Did it hit you the way it was meant to?

This gives you feedback on tone and execution—not permission to tone it down.

You’re not asking if you should change the ending. You’re asking if it landed right.

🔧 5. Edit for Emotional Precision, Not Softness

Once you commit to a powerful ending, don’t sand it down. Sharpen it.

Use revision to clarify:

Internal character emotions

Symbolism or metaphor

Emotional callbacks to earlier scenes

The ending doesn’t need to be softer. It needs to be clearer.

Let every word in your final pages carry the weight of everything that came before.

Don’t dull the blade. Polish it.

🧠 6. Accept That Some Readers Will Say “Too Much”

Guess what? That’s not a flaw.

There’s a reason some readers say, “This broke me,” and still give five stars.

There’s also a reason others say, “Too dark, DNF,” and walk away.

You’re not writing for everyone. You’re writing for people who want to feel something real.

Trust your voice. Stand by your ending. Let it be what it needs to be.

10. Letting Stories End Honestly Is an Act of Respect

Here’s the part no one tells you:

Writing an emotionally honest ending isn’t just brave.

It’s respectful.

Respectful to your story.
Respectful to your characters.
And above all, respectful to your reader.

Letting a story implode doesn’t mean you’re being edgy or cruel for the sake of it. It means you’re honoring the weight of everything that came before. You’re acknowledging that actions have consequences, that not every arc bends toward redemption, and that some truths can’t be rewritten just to make things feel prettier.

🧱 Respect for Your Story

You’ve spent tens of thousands of words building a world with stakes, with flaws, with tension, with damage. If your plot unravels toward devastation, and you force a clean ending just to make people smile, what message are you sending?

You’re saying:

“None of this mattered. Don’t worry, we fixed it off-page.”

But when you allow the story to finish as it must, you’re keeping the promise you made at the start. You’re honoring the emotional tone. You’re saying:

“Yes, this is what it cost—and it was worth telling.”

That’s integrity. That’s storytelling.

🧍 Respect for Your Characters

Characters aren’t toys. They’re not puppets built to act out the ending you want—they’re people shaped by trauma, failure, longing, and consequence.

Sometimes, the kindest thing you can do is let them go.
Sometimes, it’s letting them fail.
Sometimes, it’s letting them get what they want and realize it’s not enough.

When you betray their truth just to keep them “likable” or to force an out-of-character moment of happiness… they feel it. And so do your readers.

Characters don’t have to be happy to be complete. They just have to be true.

🧠 Respect for Your Readers

Here’s the wild part: your readers can handle more than you think.

They don’t need to be coddled. They don’t need everything to end with a moral or a hug. They want to be moved.

And you don’t move people by keeping things safe. You move them by writing what hurts on purpose.

By saying:

“This is the ending that fits. I know it might make you cry. I wrote it anyway.”

When you do that, you’re not being cruel.

You’re saying, “I trust you.”

And that is one of the most powerful acts of storytelling there is.

🕯️ Letting Go of the Ending You Think You “Should” Write

You don’t owe your reader a happy ending.
You don’t owe your character a neat solution.
You don’t owe your story anything but honesty.

And the honest ending?
That’s the one you’ve probably already written in your head.

Maybe it feels too raw. Too harsh. Too unresolved.

That’s okay.

Let it feel that way.

Let it matter.

Let it end.

Conclusion: Burn the Map and Let the Heart Break

If there’s one thing I hope you take away from this whole glorious implosion of an article, it’s this:

👉 You are allowed to end your story however the hell it needs to end.

Happy. Tragic. Bittersweet. Ambiguous. Quiet. Explosive. Open. Closed. Gutted. Glowing.

Whatever it is—let it be true.

Don’t smother the fire just because someone might not like the smoke.
Don’t hide the pain because you’re afraid of the echo.
Don’t rewrite the final chapter just to play it safe.

Because the truth is:
The stories that linger are the ones that break something.

And if your story ends in ash, let it.
If it ends in grief, trust it.
If it ends in beauty, let it ache.

Readers don’t remember the neatness. They remember the feeling.

So go ahead.

💥 Let the story implode.

Let it ruin someone beautifully.

Let it ruin you.

And when you type “The End,” let it mean something.

Thanks for reading! If you’re a writer ready to lean into honest, messy, devastating endings, I’m cheering for you. Sometimes, breaking the rules is the only way to write a story worth remembering.

#Makitiathompson #Mindsindesign #Themiduniverse #Themidnewsletter #Midcontent