Ideas for an Ending? http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774 ClassicCrime22 I've crossposted from plot doctoring to here, but the title says it all! I'm out of ideas. Here's the premise: "Dennis Hart is a 54-year-old father of two from suburban Atlanta, Georgia. For thirty years he was a risk adjuster, but lost his job a few months back. Subsequently, he decides to try his hand at daytrading -- though it quickly becomes an obsession. After taking bad advice from investing "gurus" and making disasterous investments in penny stocks, Dennis gambles away his retirement funds. With one daughter in college, another suddenly pregnant and a wife suffering from MS, Dennis is desperate to find a way to recover his losses. While all this is happening, the only true friend Dennis has is Augustus Sparks, a prisoner who he meets/talks with on a weekly basis. When Augustus gets out of prison, he moves in with Dennis and his wife Melanie to try and start a new life. Still unemployed and with his marriage on the rocks, Dennis decides to become a scam artist himself. Utilizing online trading/message boards, he first creates and spreads a fake merger document. Another time, he distributes fake press releases. Lastly, he poses as an investor willing to buy a company. But along the way, he leaves a trail. Enter Lewis Greenwich. Lewis, a never-married daytrader from Oklahoma, is badly burned by one of the scams and vows to exact revenge. He contacts the Securities and Exchange Commission and Gloria Hart gets involved. Gloria, assigned to the case, begins to collect evidence and, using a fake identity, forms a relationship with Dennis trying to get him to accidentally confess. However, along the way, she realizes she suddenly has feelings for Dennis. When Melanie catches him nearly cheating on her with Gloria, the marriage crumbles." This is where I am stuck. I don't know where my characters should go from here. Some possibilities: 1) Lewis -- who vowed revenge -- could come directly to Dennis and demand the money. 2) Dennis could find out who Gloria is and form a relationship, while vowing no more scams. 3) Dennis' daughter could have medical complications with her pregnancy, "requiring" Dennis to do another scam. I want an exciting ending of course, but I'm afraid I will come up with something bland. I have Dennis, Melanie, Gloria, Augustus and Lewis to do something with. I also haven't come up with a solid backstory for Augustus the prisoner, but I think he could come into play stronger toward the end. I'd LOVE any thoughts or ideas! Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:04:57 -0700 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_249571 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_249571 daqu I like the 3rd ending best. The 1st one makes it sound more like Lewis's story, and the 2nd one is too cliche AFAIC. Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:47:06 -0700 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_251104 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_251104 Admelior I tried to write a response several times and kept bumping up against something. You've got a complicated story here, and there's no real good way out. Here's what I came up with: Lewis comes to Melanie for help in getting the dirt on Dennis. Gloria, finding herself falling in love with Dennis, goes out of her way to help him hide, erase evidence, and in general try and avoid jail (or worse). Augustus knows people who know people, so he helps as he can. The daughters...eh, keep 'em in the background. At the end of the tale, Gloria lets Dennis walk away. After all, he was just a good guy in a bad situation. Lewis gets his come-uppance--two wrongs don't make a right, after all. Melanie simply led Lewis on and was actually faithful to Dennis the whole time. In turn, Dennis goes back to his family and they will do what they can to make everything right and good with their family again. Now, the problem I have is that anything else and Dennis is going to be a dick. He can't be anything OTHER than a good guy or he ends up screwing over a wife with MS, or maybe leaving her (if she's a bitch) and then he screws over his daughters. Lewis and Melanie could end up in cahoots, even sleeping together, driving Dennis and Gloria together. Augustus uses his contacts to get Dennis a new ID and he and Gloria ride off into the white-collar-crime sunset together, leaving Melanie and the girls to fend for themselves. Blech. I don't know. I'm just riffing. Hopefully you can find a way out, but the family background is a tad too messy for my brain. I'd rather complicate the story than the characters. Good luck, though. Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:03:51 -0700 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_258575 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_258575 ClassicCrime22 Admelior (and daqu) -- really appreciated the input. I like the idea of Lewis coming to Melanie. Hadn't thought of that possibility yet. And in general, I want Gloria to help Dennis escape conviction. I had also considered the "one final scam" being Dennis framing Lewis with Gloria assisting and making the arrest. Totally felt the same way about Dennis coming out a dick in the end (as you so aptly described it). I believe he will be a sympathetic character, with readers understanding why he resorts to scams, etc...but if he *keeps* screwing people over and comes out unscathed in the end, it may be disappointing to readers. I have to find the perfect balance. Still working on figuring out where Augustus comes in to play, but I truly appreciate this feedback. I'm excited to start writing in a few hours and hopefully things will work themselves out. Thanks! Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:17:24 -0700 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_322270 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_322270 Madkat2 I think that Augustus should have some kind of redemptiveness. Maybe in that despite Denis' efforts to pursuade Augustus to help him with stealing Augustus refuse and try to explain to Denis the destructiveness of his habits - as Augustus would know from experience. Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:27:58 -0700 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_331709 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_331709 C.J. Edwards Denis's daughter has complications so he has to do another scam even though he vowed not to. Lewis comes to demand money, the same amount he needs for his daughter.... Augustus swoops in to take out Lewis and save Denis' butt at the end. Which he didn't mind doing since Lewis is the guy that put him in the pen anyway. Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:25:39 -0800 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_611943 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_611943 Addy Silver Go for the first half of this! I think it'd be a really great way to end the story. It makes sense, after all. As for the 'coming out unscathed'... I mean, he could feel guilty about what he's done. I mean, from what you've described in the summary, there's a LOT of guilt that's going to be going on inside his head. He does it because he HAS to, not because he wants to. The scams could amount to little. Don't make him too rich, but also, make sure that at the end, he realizes he has options instead of scamming. Oh, and at the end, his last scam could make a lot, and he could pay back some of the money he's stolen. So yeah! Hope this helped. Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:54:51 -0800 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_646264 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_646264 GreenSkeleton I hate to say it, perhaps the best ending is a bad one? This guys life has gone almost completely off the rails. In reality, no one comes back from this without paying some serious consequences. Perhaps, you can use the third option, but instead of ripping off the innocent, he picks a corrupt company to rip off for some serious cash. Gives Lewis back the money he's lost, and makes an anonymous donation to a victims of crime group, puts the rest of the money away to take care of his family, and gives himself up to Gloria. Obviously, this will mean that he goes to prison for his crimes, and because he gives himself up he can still remain sympathetic to an audience (and a jury). So, the end of the story would be, his family is provided for, his marriage could be salvaged, and he and Augustus go to prison... Like I said, no one goes that far off the rails and comes back without paying consequences. Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:20:49 -0800 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_682663 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/12774?page=1#forum_thread_comment_682663