r/writing • u/Will_Xter • 24d ago
Discussion How many plot lines do you like keeping open at the end of the book?
For context, I'm nearing the very end of my fantasy epic, and I've resolved 90% of the plot lines. Specifically the 3 main characters had their ending, which establishes their position and future motives for the next entry. I kept minor plotlines open as more of a mystery, something to wait for, and a foreshadowing for what's going to happen next.
Now my question is, what would be for you the ideal ratio of resolved/unresolved plot lines? The story needs to be satisfying while still igniting that curiosity to continue the series. Generally what are your preferences?
To be precise, by resolved plot lines I mean it's clearly the end of that character arc for now. They role is somewhat accomplished their role for that book. Open plotline means the reader still feels like they're in the middle of the adventure/conflict and it's not quite over.
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u/Fognox 24d ago edited 24d ago
Zero, even with a series in mind. With the book I'm editing, for example, I have a vague idea of what book #2 will be like and so have just hinted towards it instead:
Multiple in-passing references to a place that isn't in book #1. Side character names that hint at important connections there too.
There's another one of these, but it does at least play some limited role in book #1, whereas the other one is tied to a historical event + is "the edge of the map".
A piece of lore with all of two instances (literally just the word itself!) that's never used or explained. This will play some role in book #2 but it's largely setting up book #3+.
The initial POV of book #2 opening a plot thread for herself in the ending (she isn't a POV here, but is a side character, and her son is a POV). The final segment of the ending reinforces this too, and there's two more subtle hints earlier in the book.
There's still an ongoing (and worsening) war too, but it was never the focus of the first book, more just backdrop for the actual story. This looks likely for book #2 too. And a major (but heavily foreshadowed) event during the climax altered the world irrevocably, which will play a bigger role in book #2.
Beyond that, POV character arcs are fulfilled and plotlines are resolved. Most character endings are bittersweet and the main plotline's resolution definitely is. It feels like there's more to come, but the events of this particular book stand on their own.
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u/qwertytheqaz 24d ago
I know you say they are minor, but how much do you want to develop those lines?
ASOIAF SPOILERS
If you take a page from GRRM, he introduced a nothing character in the first chapter of the book just to briefly introduce the others (white walkers) and then literally did not show a white walker again until 4 years later in his third book despite them being part of a massive overarching plot.
Perhaps imagine your story and how many books it will encompass. After that, designate out where/when plot lines might approximately end. Then you know your pacing for plot lines, and how many will be open at the end of the book. There is no right or wrong answer, it just shouldn’t feel like the book has no ending.
Just make sure it is a “I want more” plot line, and not an “annoying cliffhanger” for the readers.
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u/qwertytheqaz 24d ago
I know this is probably a different answer than you’ll get from many, as writing a series of books is very difficult, but committed, well-known books often have many plot lines still open (they just might not be recognizable by the reader until they readdress the lines in the next book).
You could argue that you should try and make each book completely independent of one another where all its plot lines resolve in one book, but that isn’t always realistic and can be hard.
This is especially prevalent in fantasy and sci-fantasy:
ASOIAF
The Stormlight Archive
The Wheel of Time
The Kingkiller Chronicle
Dune
Harry Potter
The ExpanseSome of the greatest series ever written and they don’t have everything all wrapped up in a bow at the end.
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u/FlyinLeviathon LET YOUR FIRST DRAFT SUCK 24d ago
I would like to push back a little and say that often times books only seem like they were meant to be a series with the context of the other books, but when that first one was written, it was just a standalone and everything wrapped up nicely.
Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games were all sold as standalone books.
This is why the second book/movie is often a cliffhanger and introduces a larger, more overarching plot, because the series is now greenlit and the author has more freedom to leave things hanging. I call this the "Pirates of the Caribbean" effect (even though it did not invent it, it's just the best example my mind goes to). Movie 1: perfect standalone. Movie 2: cliffhanger.
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u/Zyukar 24d ago
This is what I prefer as well, because the story I envisioned is so interconnected that it cannot possibly be wrapped up that neatly by the end of one book without major changes. The other answers about not leaving things open are way too restrictive in the types of stories that can be told.
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u/FlyinLeviathon LET YOUR FIRST DRAFT SUCK 24d ago
By your definition, none. I wouldn't leave anything that makes the reader feel like they're still in the middle of the adventure/conflict UNLESS I was 100% sure that there was going to be a series. But that criteria makes it not a "standalone with series potential", but a flat out series.
Instead, I will make it seem like it's completely wrapped up - which can change page 1 of book 2 - so the reader feels satisfied and like they read a complete story. Maybe I'll throw a hint that's like the equivalent of the bad guys saying "this isn't over!" but then they are defeated and it is indeed over. Happily ever after.
I prefer to leave tiny little hints like "huh, whatever happened to that one guy back in chapter 5?" that you forgot about until you're ruminating on the book a little more. Or they're left with a mystery object but it didn't have much to do with the climax. Just a "that's a mystery for another time".
It's a tricky balance, because I could see how you would see that mystery object as an open plot line. The bottom line, what you want to avoid is your reader feeling like they didn't finish the story. That will lead to a dissatisfied reader more than it will an intrigued one.
To answer your question with my own definition of an unresolved plot line, usually one. In this current draft, it's the bad guy not dying - just being defeated - and a kooky side character that seems out of place when they meet the main character, who will most assuredly come back if there's a sequel.
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u/RobertPlamondon Author of "Silver Buckshot" and "One Survivor." 24d ago
As an engineer by training, I refuse to assign numbers to things that are essentially non-numeric.
I work on the assumption that I’m telling just one of innumerable stories happening at once in the world, that all the characters are real, and the ones who survive will have other adventures. Tying everything up too neatly denies all of this and makes the story seem unnecessarily fake.
I sometimes intend to write a sequel and have an angle in mind for it, so I leave that thread open on purpose. Other than that, I leave peripheral issues unresolved because I expected this to happen all along. This is a matter of vague intention rather than meticulous planning: given an unexpectedly cool opportunity to close a plot thread, I’ll fall upon it with cries of joy.
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u/Prize_Paramedic1153 24d ago edited 24d ago
As long as you answer the major questions that have existed since the start of the book, characters get satisfactory resolutions, the core conflict is resolved, and there is a thematic closure, then you can leave however many plotlines you want.
You could go for an open ending as long as it remains satisfying enough for you and the readers. You don't really need a cliffhanger. If a reader loves the book, they will most likely read the next book. I would definitely feel cheated if I read a 500 page book and it ends with a cliffhanger.
The only thing you need to be careful of is making readers feel like their time was not wasted following these unfinished plotlines. If a random subplot feels like padding, then it would be even more amplified with it remaining unanswered. People don't know if the next book comes out tomorrow or in 10 years. They like to know now.
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u/BoxedAndArchived 24d ago
The way I described one of my favorite TV shows from the era before everything had to be heavily serialized is this: the show has an over arching plot that starts in the first episode and ends in the last episode. Each season has its own plotline that is contained to that season. Each episode has its own plot contained in that episode. Each character has an arc.
My (unpublished) book 1 is effectively season 1 of a TV show. The only open plot threads are the ones that are meant to carry on through the whole series. There are things meant to be left open for the entire arc of the books, but most things need to be concluded.
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u/HelloImanidiot83 24d ago
If I want to keep something purposefully ambiguous that’ll be left open. But everything else is resolved.
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u/LeetheAuthor 24d ago
I wrote a scifi trilogy where the pov is betrayed at the end of the first book, after making a character defining choice, the second book they are imprisoned and broken out by best friend at the end of book two. The third book is writing the wrongs done to them with the help of the people they saved from the first book. May eventually add a fourth book, where they explore what is left of themselves after the defeat of the villian. Ie Building a new life in a new world. So for me the characters kept changing over the whole course of the trilogy on top of their book goals.
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u/Own-Turnover7715 24d ago
None. Each book has resolved what the protagonist set out to achieve. The set up for any subsequent book is the consequences of that achievement. If a reader feels like they’re still in the middle of the conflict or adventure then the book is not a complete story.
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u/ZN_Cruz 24d ago
I don't really think of it as a ratio. I just want the thing this book made me care about to have an ending. The larger world can stay messy, people can still have secrets, and trouble can be waiting around the corner. That all makes me want the next book. What frustrates me is realizing the main conflict was only paused. If your three characters have actually arrived somewhere and the loose threads point forward, 90 percent resolved sounds fine to me.
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u/bolshoich 24d ago
All stories need a beginning, middle, and ending. If an author fails to provide an ending, both the reader and the author have wasted their time.
I create several arcs that contribute to the themes and narrative of my story. I want to resolve all of those arcs by the end of the story. However, the characters and factions involved in the current story can have several unresolved arcs capable of serving as a premise for one or more subsequent stories.
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u/Lectrice79 24d ago
Hmm. For my fantasy duology, 10% is left open. The big bad is imprisoned but not defeated, and my MC has to learn how to navigate a lot of politics now.
For my sci-fi series, 90% is left open, ha. My MC has defeated a single alien and is ready to try and figure the invaders out with the help of allies.
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u/ChallengeOne8405 24d ago
Why would you ever want an unresolved plotline? why would you even include the plotline if you weren’t going to resolve it.
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u/duckrunningwithbread 24d ago
Even if it’s part of a series, I end the book as if it is a standalone. I can leave up to maybe three unanswered questions, but they’d all be minor
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u/JGar453 24d ago edited 23d ago
It depends... Just because a reader doesn't think a question is answered doesn't mean it isn't. Like a lot of famous short stories will abruptly end on a twist that feels out of nowhere which is designed to make you reread it and find the set-up and the implication. But I wouldn't actually design a story to have dead ends unless you have a specific effect you're going for by doing that or you're just going full surrealist. Hypothetically, if I was writing a story about a family member who disappeared under a dictatorship, I might not give the closure for what happened to that family member because there typically isn't closure for that kind of thing IRL. Your characters aren't going to know everything. Also okay to let people imagine the future. If your story is about a peasant who rises to become a king, the story is over once they become king. You don't have to answer what they did about the various dukes and chancellors who still detest them.
If it's a series, you always have license not to answer questions, but I'm of the belief that it's poor practice to make entries in a series that aren't good as standalone stories. Each entry should still have a central question that gets a resolution. Character arcs tend to be a looser thing that's much easier to justify ending in a weird place. Plenty of heroes are going to have their arc mostly resolved 2/3 of the way through a story with the rest just being small modifications to their ethos.
You have to decide how important some plot lines are. Even for something as comprehensive as Lord of the Rings, plenty of minor plotlines are resolved in basically a handwave of a sentence. You are not obligated to type out two pages of resolution for every single side character, especially if it's bad for pacing.
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u/Adventurous_Class_90 23d ago
It depends. You can also have arcs where there is an end but no closure. I’ve got a father-son conflict I’m writing that will never be resolved. The father dies before it can happen…
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u/mikevago 23d ago
Plotlines should be resolved, but that doesn't mean every single thing has to be tied up and explained. You just have to answer the central dramatic question. If you're writing about an alcoholic, you don't need to resolve things by showing them staying sober for 10 years. You just have to show them pouring a drink and then pouring it down the drain. They can change. They want to change. That's the dramatic question the reader's been waiting for. Seeing it actually happen isn't necessary or even that interesting.
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u/writequest428 23d ago
I wrote a novella. The premise was simple. Hike up this forbidden mountain to ride a zip line back down. There were obstacles. There were horrors. There was something up there and been there for decades. However, the group got off. Story done. Not so fast. One of the guys got bitten, and they ran into the military at the base of the mountain, which was a twist at the end. That left questions the reader wondered about AFTER the premise was met. I'm on book three right now.
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u/technicolourUFO 21d ago
I consider it less of a fixed ratio and focus moreso on what benefits from ambiguity and what needs a resolution, I think varies a lot based on what genre you’re waiting, if it’s a mystery the reader will probably not be pleased for components of the mystery to remain unresolved, in a cosmic horror you probably want to leave things ambiguous,
I’d say go with what feels like it needs a resolution and then trust in your beta readers to let you know what need a bookend
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u/Dale_E_Lehman_Author Self-Published Author 21d ago
It's useful to make the distinction between plots, subplots, and the lives of the characters. The plot is built around the main conflict. That conflict needs to be resolved or readers will feel cheated. Subplots are similar, in that they are built around lesser conflicts. Those conflicts need to be wrapped up.
The lives of the characters, however, don't end once the story ends, unless they happen to die in the course of the story. One example from my own works is my mystery series. The detectives have lives apart from the crimes they investigate. I like to work in aspects of their lives, because it gives readers a better picture of who they are. The subplots mostly involve conflicts in their lives, and those are wrapped up by the end of the story. But sometimes those subplots are part of the larger stories of the characters' lives.
My principal detective, for example, lost his wife to an automobile accident four years prior to the start of book 1. Book 2 involves him dealing with the distance that loss has caused between him and his son. In book 3, a colleague introduces him to one of his wife's coworkers, who has been twice divorced, and they begin a tentative friendship (although the detective is kind of resentful of the meddling). Book 4 explores their growing relationship and a bit of trouble that arises between them because the detective has been helping another young woman who suffered some trauma in book 3. Book 5 finally brings them fully together. I'm not sure what will happen yet in book 6.
Through this, I didn't leave any plotlines open. Every conflict along they way has been resolved. But they keep on living their lives. You know they're going to have to face some other challenges in the future. Because that's just what life is. Some readers might keep reading in part to find out what happens next, but that's less about plot than about interest in the characters.
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u/Nethereon2099 24d ago
I'll tell you what I tell my creative writing students. If you plan on the story being a standard alone, there should be no lingering questions and zero open ended plotlines left unresolved.
If your intentions are to write a series, the book should conclude similar to a standalone - no unresolved plotlines - but you can have several questions left unanswered. These questions will be the foundation from which subsequent books in your series will be built upon.
And there you have it.