Glimmers and Starbursts and Hopeful Endings

 

You may remember my big summer news:  After a particularly nasty fall, I underwentsurgery to replace a very sad hip.  I couldn’ttake my walks. I couldn’t go into the woods or see my favorite trees or feed myfavorite turtles.  The news was overwhelmingly depressing. I’ve watchedevery season of Doc Martin and The Witcher. And you know Whoooo!

And just about that time, a meme made its way to my page,defining the nature of glimmers. A glimmer is that micro-moment of happiness; asign of hope.

So, I decided enough is enough. I pulled out an old storyand made it new again.  Working at the desk, while doing my leg exercises,o! the possibilities!

A month later, I could bike ½ mile (albeit, it’s a PT bike.But a bike is a bike!)

I walked 45 minutes (albeit, I stopped to practice mybalance, with my trusty cane – Miss Purple Bess – by my side.)

O, big glimmer. My eighth book, this one from Charlesbridge,is scheduled for Spring 2026! 

So how does this relate to our topic on endings? Ending issuch a particularly good concept for me these days. I went to my Doc appt recently.I'm at the halfway mark. Only 6 more weeks of PT.  Endings. And newbeginnings!

In other words, hope is the core ingredient for a satisfyingending to a story. There are many ways to end a story. There’s the happily everafter, common in romance stories and other fairy tales. There’s the “therestoration of honor through sacrifice; the bolstering of friendship andaltruism through earned humility.” As Vaughn Roycroft noted in his article,Good Story Endings: Happy or Sad, or Something Else?” 

There’s the tragic ending, epitomized by Jack’s death inTitanic. And the open ending, when nothing is really resolved, andthe murderer seems to have escaped. Then there's the redemption at the end ofthe story. In each scenario,  hope allows the character to move forward, and the possibilities are endless. After Jack died, Rose’s ‘heart lived on'to love again and have a family. Darth Vader found redemption and therebellion found new hope.  

 Hope means thestory didn’t end with the tragedy, or even with the ecstasy. It is, in essence,the beginning to the next chapter – the sequel, if you will.

David Means, author of Two Nurses, Smoking, said, “A goodending doesn’t answer a question. It opens up the deeper mystery of the storyitself.”

In other words, through dark moments and tragic scenes, andhappy reunions, the most memorable ending invites readers to glean meaning fromthe story and, in so doing, becomes inspired, as noted by Hannah Gullickson in herarticle, “Imagination and Writing: The “Hopeful Ending” vs. the“Happy Ending”.  

And to end this reflection with a starburst: this morning Isubmitted the revision to my agent. 

“Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazingagain. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane androutine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax andexhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing,amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful.” -- L.R.Knost

-- Bobbi Miller