The Tidy Book
Jun 23rd 2007
Sabrina JeffriesGoddess Readers Speak Out & On Writing!
I’m talking about plot threads, not cleaning. You see, I like mine tied up neat and tidy. Yes, I’ve noticed that real life doesn’t work that way. No, I don’t care. That’s why I prefer popular fiction to literary fiction–because popular fiction ties up loose threads, resolves conflict, and settles things.
Unfortunately, these days no book, television show, or movie is considered sophisticated unless it leaves plot threads hanging. Look at how the critics salivated over the “brilliant” series finale of “The Sopranos.” Me, I just got mad. I felt like the show had engaged me for six seasons, then left me swinging in the wind. No justice for Adriana and no self-awareness for Tony OR Carmela. The series began and ended with the characters going nowhere, just like in real life. Remind me again of why I watch TV?
What bugs me is that literary fiction didn’t used to be biased against tidy resolutions. Whether Shakespeare’s plays ended happily or tragically, they wrapped everything up nicely. So did Jane Austen’s books and virtually every other nineteenth-century novel. Then along came the age of naturalism and realism. Suddenly, literary fiction was expected to eliminate any shred of tidiness. “Life is messy,” said the critics, “so fiction should be, too.”
Balderdash, I say. Fiction has more uses than to mirror real life. It’s supposed to take us OUT of real life, help us cope. And as a writer, I can tell you it’s harder to tie up loose ends believably than to leave things messy. Messy takes no skill—that’s why bad literary novels abound. Tidy is hard work.
Still, I seem to be in an ever-shrinking minority. Even romance reviewers now complain if a book or a series ends TOO neatly. There is no such thing to me. I may not be a tidy housekeeper, but I like tidy books.
Anybody else share my love of tidiness in plots? Be honest now, and pay no attention to my crankiness (I AM on deadline). I promise not to judge you even if I can’t share your preference. Do you like all the plot threads resolved? Or do you get a certain thrill out of messiness? Does it depend on the kind of book you’re reading, messy for some kinds, tidy for others?
36 Comments »
36 Responses to “The Tidy Book”
Elora on 23 Jun 2007 at 4:40 am #
I love them tidy. Last month I went to watch Scenes of a Sexual Nature, the movie. Everything seemed very nice, nice character, nice plots, but then the movie was over and none of the stories had an ending. Talk about NOT getting closure. Here in Portugal we have to order your books from amazon, and I usally decide what I’m gona read next based on the characters that go on to another book. Keep doing it. Bye.
MizMacgyver on 23 Jun 2007 at 6:04 am #
I want mine all cleaned up with nothing hanging unless of course I know it is going to be in another book. If it is a series of books okay, I will hold on until the last book but they better be cleaned up by then. I just read a series by Eloisa James, she even cleans up her secondary characters if they are not going to be in the next book. I really liked that.
Nicole Jordan on 23 Jun 2007 at 7:37 am #
I am soooo with you, Sabrina! I thought it was because I’m so anal, lol, but you’re right… the lack of closure in stories/plots/characters is an affectation to mimic real life and it ticks me off in fiction. Unless, as El and MizM say, the characters are continuing to another book. And even that can have complications. How much is too much?
I just went round and round with my editor about this for my new trilogy. In Book 2, I shared some info about the 3rd sister and her soon to be hero. I thought it was good to set up their story so readers would be anticipating their book. And my early manuscript readers loved it. But my ed thought it was too much teasing of the readers when I couldn’t give them resolution, so I had to pare it down — twice. Now there’s only a hint of their problems and no hint that they might have a relationship in Book 3. I would have rather stuck with the original, but after reading your blog, maybe I should be grateful to my editor. Now at least readers won’t be mad at me for stringing them along in Book2!
NicoleJ
Di R on 23 Jun 2007 at 8:43 am #
I love tidy! I get enough of the untidy in real life-my books are my escape. That said, I will keep reading a series that has some threads as long as they are all tied up and the series has a definite end. On the other hand I LOVE J.D. Robb’s In Death series, but at the end of each story I know that Eve and Roarke are still together.
Di
Lismore on 23 Jun 2007 at 8:44 am #
I must have everything resolved. That’s why I like epilogues so much!
Although, I do have to say that an author can sometimes string me along with a romantic relationship in a series, but I do want a resolution (HEA) of their relationship at some point.
Kay on 23 Jun 2007 at 9:08 am #
It depends on the type of book for me. I like my HEA in romance. I expect the I’s to be dotted and the T’s to be crossed in a mystery, otherwise I think the writer and editor have failed.
I can deal with a few loose ends if I know a sequel is coming. If fact, I expect that.
What burns me is when I have invested time and emotional energy in a book or movie and then I feel “cheated” by an ending. COLD MOUNTAIN is my case in point, and why I now read endings FIRST, in the bookstore or library, before the book goes home with me.
There are some books that I expect will have sad endings, and feel that the author has made it clear that this is not a HEA book. I don’t have to have EVERYONE find their true love and get the castle on the hill at the end of every book, but I don’t want to get to THE END and wonder WTF? LOL, and why did I just waste my valuable free time.
Claudia Dain on 23 Jun 2007 at 9:10 am #
I don’t mind it if some things are left unresolved in a series, as long as it’s not the last book in the series! When the story is over, it should be nice and tidy.
I suspect no one is surprised that I feel this way about keeping everything nice and tidy.
Karen Rose on 23 Jun 2007 at 9:35 am #
I like ‘em neat and tidy, too. Because my house isn’t, my office isn’t and my life isn’t. Because it’s real life. Books AREN’T. I read to escape. With Claudia, I can accept loose ends if it’s a series, but the last book better either weave them or snip them off.
Right now I’m thinking of the end of SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (the movie, never read the book). They could have gone Hollywood and left it at Morgan Freeman’s prison release and made you wonder. But they gave us that final scene on the beach - one of the most satisfying moments in my cinema experience. I thanked them for that, truly.
I hate when I’m reading a book or watching a movie and it says THE END and I’m like, “Wait! It’s not the end! What about this or that?” That makes me darn mad. Now, because I’ve already read the end of the book, these mad moments are fewer and farther between than they used to be, lol…
Helen K on 23 Jun 2007 at 9:42 am #
Tidy. For sure.
I get out to a few movies a year and last year there were several that burned me. It was like dropping me into a random point of their lives and then yanking me out at another random point. The characters hadn’t grown, hadn’t learned anything and were still in the same mess. Horrible.
I want all the loose ends tided up. I want the bad guys to have justice done. I don’t mind series strings, I’ll wait happily for the next book, but at the end, it should all come together.
I just watched Malice Aforethought (It was on Mystery last year and I just now watched it) and I was annoyed at the end. The didn’t deal with 2 of the characters. What happened to them? Did they live happily ever after? (One of them certainly did not deserve to), so now I have to get the book and hope that the producers left it off because of time constraints and not because it’s not dealt with in the book.
Sabrina Jeffries on 23 Jun 2007 at 10:23 am #
As a writer, I have to say that it’s a really delicate dance. For example, one of my readers felt I didn’t tie up the story for Betsy in Only a Duke, and to be honest, I thought about it, about having Simon say something about how he’d hired Betsy’s husband, etc. But I couldn’t find a place for it. I really wish I had, but I just couldn’t, not without diluting the end. If you tie up everything, you risk diluting the end for the hero and heroine. On the other hand, I truly like to have secondary characters taken care of, too–to know that they’ll go on to have rewarding lives, if they helped the hero and heroine, or go on to suffer, if they didn’t. I like to see the villains get theirs.
Sabrina Jeffries on 23 Jun 2007 at 10:32 am #
I agree about series–threads can go from book to book in a series, as long as I know that the characters will eventually have their stories resolved. Any time I introduce a character in a series, I decide whether to: give them a story later or tie up their story in this book. That sometimes means, if they’re going to be a rather large secondary character, deciding whether to make them true villains or not. Simon could just as easily have been a true villain in To Pleasure a Prince. Halfway through the book, I still couldn’t decide. But I really wanted Louisa to be happy, and I felt like he COULD be a hero, if I just gave him the chance. So I did. It went the other way for Stokely. Until well into the book, it was a dicey thing, though.
Sabrina Jeffries on 23 Jun 2007 at 10:35 am #
I should add that there ARE readers e who felt that Simon was not only unredeemable, but insufficiently redeemed in Only a Duke. Meanwhile, others of my readers loved his book. That just goes to show that you can’t please all the readers all the time. It just can’t be done.
RachelG on 23 Jun 2007 at 10:39 am #
I want the books I read to be neat and tidy. I think the majority of romance readers read romance for the nice tidy endings. We want our fantasies to be wrapped up at the end with a nice bow.
Karen H in NC on 23 Jun 2007 at 11:10 am #
I wholeheartedly agree with neat and tidy. A prime example of leaving a story line left undone was ‘It’s In His Kiss’ by Julia Quinn. When I got done with that book, I actually hollered out loud “You’ve got to be kidding me? It can’t end like that. What about the diamonds?”. And I was the only one in the house. How many of you talk to your books? Well, I immediately got on-line and fired off an email to JQ to ask what the deal was with that ending. Now, I don’t know if it was all pre-planned but that was the first of her Second Epilogues and it did close up that dangling story line.
Some unresolved issues with secondary characters I can live with but not a main story line. Close them up; good, bad or ugly….don’t care….just do it!
OK, off my soapbox now.
Bonnie on 23 Jun 2007 at 11:58 am #
I like tidy. As others have said I read to escape from my very untidy life. My house is untidy, my yard is untidy, my pets are untidy, but I read for tidiness and closure.
Ellen Henson on 23 Jun 2007 at 12:21 pm #
The problem with movies and television is everyone is striving to do something that has never been done. In the case of the Soprano’s, I cannot tell you how many people thought it was extremely riveting and artistic. I however, sat there for two minutes wondering if we had paid our cable bill.
I wanted resolution.
I wanted more.
Soooo
Camera pans to spoiled, brat Meadow as she enters the restaurant. She pulls out a semi automatic gun and blows away her entire family…cry baby brother first! She flees from the scene and drives to the Nursing Home where Uncle Junior is staying. She runs into his room and kneels before him. “It is done,” she says leaning forward to kiss his ring. Camera pans out on Junior’s face as he sits back with a satisfied, evil smile.
Theme song kicks in and I head to the fridge with a satisfied, evil smile.
Julia London on 23 Jun 2007 at 12:31 pm #
I agree about the Sopranos. I felt completely ripped off.
I think if I left something undone, I would be villified for it. But I wouldn’t leave something undone because it just goes against my nature. Why write books? I could write for the Sopronos if I wanted to leave everything hanging.
Judy F on 23 Jun 2007 at 1:03 pm #
I want it neat and tidy with a bow on top. LOL I have enough unresolved issues in my life. I want my books and pretty much my tv shows wrapped up with an ending. I can handle the to be continued and a story told over a series but I want it resolved. I read romance for the happy ever after not for the maybe or maybe not.
I have yelled at the tv while watched a movie, saying WHAT or that’s it? You feel like you have lost several hours you will never get back.
Karen Hawkins on 23 Jun 2007 at 1:12 pm #
Oh Sabrina, that’s a great topic! Neat ‘n tidy for me, please UNLESS it’s a recurring mystery. I looved Julia Quinn’s LADY WHISTLEDOWN series especially for that reason! Couldn’t figure out who it was until almost the last book and even then I wasn’t certain.
I especially hate that unresolved feeling in a movie, though. If I’m paying that much for two hours of can’t-watch-again entertainment, it had better all wrap up!
Keri Ford on 23 Jun 2007 at 1:18 pm #
It chaps my tail when I invest all that time and emotions on characters in a story and movie and then it ends with so many dangling strings George of the Jungle could swing from them.
Now series…that’s completely, totally different. I expect to be left hanging with unresolved swinging ‘vines’. UNLESS the author does something screwy and I don’t get the next book for another 2 or 3 years or something like that.
dbrown3400 on 23 Jun 2007 at 2:03 pm #
From what I hear about the ending of Sopranos, I’m glad I stopped watching a couple years ago. I got tired of everyone whining about something. I can pick it up eventually on HBO By Demand.
I like tidy endings although I don’t mind a generous helping of the characters that are going to appear in another book. One place I where I might get a good ending but with a villain still on the loose, is in the mysteries I read. I also envision pairings that might never happen, e.g., Michael and Charlotte at the beginning of the chapters in Sabrina’s School for Heiresses books. I would like to see Peep, Sebastian’s daughter from Suzanne’s Sins of a Duke and Stephen, the young duke in The Duke in Disguise by Gayle Callen.
Elizabeth Lowell was haunted by Utah, who appeared in one or more of the series Fire & Rain, Outlaw, Granite Man and Warrior. I see that those were just re-released in a two-book set, btw. A new publisher wouldn’t let her write Utah. I know I wanted to read it. More
zambonigirl on 23 Jun 2007 at 2:03 pm #
As long as it’s not the author just being lazy, I like a nice, tidy ending. One of my big problems with the romance genre, though, is that often the “rival” for the hero’s affections is vacant, shallow and vapid, and the rival for the heroine’s affections is a mass murderer of some sort. It’s easy to send the rival to jail or set her down in society. What’s not easy is seeing someone who may be very well-suited to someone, sometimes even better-suited, like Eowyn vs. Arwen in LotR, and still seeing the hero walk away with the one who sets his soul on fire. Maybe the other girl looks better for him on the outside, but too much perfection (Jane Fairfax, anyone?) can be the imperfection.
It also can make a story predictable. It’s like, “Oh, here’s a charming person vying for Miss Emma’s affections. He must be guilty.” Also, a perfectly amiable gentleman going to jail for murder may never understand that Miss Emma just wasn’t interested in him, and will always be a villain.
dbrown3400 on 23 Jun 2007 at 2:16 pm #
She tried to compensate by putting a Utah-type in a contemporary but it didn’t have the same impact. I understand that her fans are still writing letters.
I meant to put Peep and Stephen in a book, not just see them. One series that leaves things hanging, villains still on the loose, romance not resolved, etc., is Evanovich’s Plum series. Readers want her with Morelli, others with Ranger, Grandma Mazur always steals the show and bad guys get away. But you laugh so hard you still want the next book.
Now that I’m beginning to sound as though I’m on their payroll, I’ll say that I don’t mind a few hanging threads about the upcoming characters. Don’t leave me handing in a standalone.
Sorry to post so much but I haven’t been around for a few days *g*.
Donna
Bethany Hamilton on 23 Jun 2007 at 2:20 pm #
I also am a fan of nice tidy endings. Not only did the Sopranos tick me off, but what about the most recent Pirates movie???? WTF was up with that? Messy unresolved endings are absolutely horrid, and they will destroy even the best stories.
BTW: Sabrina, are we ever going to find out who Cousin Michael is from the Heiresses series?? I thought I heard a rumor that he would be revealed in the book coming out next year
I sooooo want to find out, I’m already speculating about he and Charlotte with their own romance…of course I could be WAAAAY off mark, but I had to throw it out there :D.
Sabrina Jeffries on 23 Jun 2007 at 3:01 pm #
Bethany and Donna, yes, Charlotte and Michael definitely get a book. Right now, it’s slated for spring of 2009, I’m afraid. I’m writing two books before it (one comes out next March and the other next October, I think).
I would definitely not leave THAT plot thread hanging, and I’d always intended to write their book.
ELLEN!!! Why didn’t they let YOU write the ending? I love that ending. It’s creative and different, although not really in character for Meadow. A.J. maybe, except that he tried to kill Junior a while back and I’d really hate for him to be the survivor. Meadow would be much more fun.
My dh thought Janice should whack Tony, because she’d do a good job of running the mob.
On a Sopranos website, some guy was saying people were disappointed because they didn’t “get” the show. They just wanted to see someone whacked.
That wasn’t it for me. If it had ended without bloodshed, that would have been fine, too. But I wanted a resolution.
Sabrina Jeffries on 23 Jun 2007 at 3:06 pm #
zambonigirl, I agree with you on not making the person obvious IF the heroine or hero is meant to be choosing. Personally, I don’t do the “other woman” much–not sure why. But if I ever do it again, I will definitely try to have it be two people equally matched. The only time I had the heroine with the wrong guy at the beginning, he was a nice guy but he was gay, which you didn’t find out for a while. I guess that’s sort of cheating. But really, if they’re both nice, you almost have to find someone for the guy left hanging. Otherwise, it just seems mean. And I did give my gay guy someone at the end.
I told you, I like it tidy!
jessie on 23 Jun 2007 at 3:41 pm #
I like them as tidy as Mary Poppins. But apparently books aren’t worth anything unless they’re messy and ambiguous and unresolved. Please. Spare me. The only time I don’t mind untidy is when there’s going to be a sequel. So, in summation, Sabrina, everything you said mirrors my sentiments exactly.
MJ on 23 Jun 2007 at 9:33 pm #
No way am I going to disagree. I need closure!! I need the full happy ending experience. I figure that any folks that are left unsatisfied, unpunished, or unrequited or undeservedly single…. are coming back in a future book (hopefully the next one and I want it RIGHT AWAY). (-;
Life has enough ambiguity. At least, mine does. (-;
(Maybe I’m doing it wrong). Ha!
Wendy Lee on 23 Jun 2007 at 9:47 pm #
It depends, on the story and the medium; however, overall, my preference is tidy. I remember with television I watched series like Twin Peaks and Farscape that just ended with no resolution. I stood there, screaming and cussing at my TV.
I find books much more personal. When I find one I really love, I tend to keep reading because I just have to know what happens. As the book approaches the end, I feel sad because I know my time spent with those characters is coming to closure. It is sad. When it ends messy, without resolution, it is such a dissapointment. This is even more true with a romance novel because I am not reading that to get a dose or IRL drama. I can watch CNN or read the NY Times for that.
JMHO.
Wendy
Brandy on 23 Jun 2007 at 9:55 pm #
I like things neat and tidy, unless it’s a series, and at the end of the series, every single thing needs to be finished to a satisfactory conclusion.
Ellen Henson on 24 Jun 2007 at 4:27 pm #
SABRINA!!! Janice would have been perfect! I always thought her character…and lack there of…offered the most depth. See Honey, that’s why you’re the published one!
Sabrina Jeffries on 24 Jun 2007 at 6:47 pm #
Well, it was my dh’s idea, so I can’t really take credit. But she IS practically a female clone of Tony. He THINKS he’s so sensitive, but then he screws around on his wife without a thought. At least Janice was faithful to Bobby.
MizMacgyver on 24 Jun 2007 at 6:54 pm #
dbrown, I agree on the Plum series, they do keep you hanging until the next one, my hope is eventually she is going to pick one of them, (don’t ask me which one cos I can’t make up my mind either) Grandma is a hoot, my son thinks I have lost my mind when I am reading one of the Plum books, I will be hysterical with laughter, tears running down my face and he just looks at me and goes on.
Karen Rose, I liked the Shawshank Redemption too, I was getting worried at the end, I didn’t think they were going to have the closure and I was all set to have a fit, but they saved it at the very end.
Karen Hawkins, I loved the Whistledown books too, I wish there had been more of them before she was discovered and unmasked but it was so cool they way she did it all was forgiven.
Caren Crane on 25 Jun 2007 at 8:31 am #
Tidy, always tidy! I have no use for dangling story threads AT ALL. And I have to agree that I wondered in JQ’s book whatever happened with the diamonds. It almost seemed she got wrapped up in the emotion and forgot about them. Which I would totally understand!
Susilien on 25 Jun 2007 at 2:49 pm #
The only time that I find plot threads an acceptable thing to leave hanging is if I know at the end of the book that their is a next book coming that promises to address at least some of these threads. Like a series of books that are threaded together.
Otherwise, why are you messing with my HEA. I read fiction to stretch myself yes, but also to have the fantasy of something that I don’t have everyday of my life. HEA or at least Closure. Like when MASH ended, they at least tried for closure. When the Sci-Fi Channel did the movie/Mini series to end Farscape, they gave most of the plot lines a true ending.
I love to read to escape or to grow and learn. Not to be frustrated.
Susie
PS Love all of your discussions. I just joined today!
pri.r. on 09 Jul 2007 at 7:24 pm #
OMG amen to KarenH in NC… “it’s in his kiss” by julia quinn just left me hanging in the proverbial abyss… i mean i adore every julia quinn book but that one made me weep with the pain of the unknown…if that’s at all possible.
i demand a re-written ending… or just that Hyacyinth > walks in the room as Isabella uncovers the diamonds.
and i 2nd every last comment on this page!
sabrina in reference to the loose endings on tv shows and the such, really people we don’t watch them because we want a view at our OWN lives! *exasperated sigh* and i love romance novels, BECAUSE of their brilliant endings, ‘It’s in his Kiss” aside…