: Re: Where do I write 'The End'? Background Woohoo! I literally just finished right now my masterpiece trilogy that I have worked on for what seems like, ages... I'm a bit vexed as to where I

@Sue2132873

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Putting "The End" at the end is a trope that played out in early cinema and, for no reason, I can decern, children's stories (usually as a variant of "they lived happily ever after, the end.")

There is a discussion "The End" on TV Tropes (time suck warning). It comes up less often than you would imagine in books mostly because the fact that you have run out of pages is a bit of a giveaway.

Personally, I would only include it if I wanted to subvert the practice or play with it in some way. I've always wanted to end a story about fish with FIN (I love bad puns so that could be a very bad idea).

Another personal favourite of mine is to have a single blank page after the text. For me, this is the literary equivalent of fading to black. (The story is over. Go read something else.)

If putting "The End" does not seem to fit, you can always leave it out (which I would anyway). As the author, you decide which conventions you follow.

Also by not explicitly saying that it is over forever, should you want to do a new cycle with the same setting, you have left that option open.

TL;DR: Don't worry about it. Those two words are the least important ones (unless you are determined to put them in).

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