I have many ideas that can potentialy make a good novel to write.
Almost everything is ready in my mind : the charachters, the setting for the story, the beginning of what could be a plot (altough, I'm not too much in the classic idea of a plot)
But...
While in a short-story, the quickness of the story line development and the area of possibities for ending the story is large and various (for example, I frequently use sudden and steep ends) I find the mechanics of a novel more difficult !
It's a bigger machine, with a greater inertia force, so it's harder to stop all this stuff you placed on the rails... must I decelerate to manage a smooth finishing, or let it go crescendo, but a crescendo ending in what ? And will it sounds good ?
I feel that in some cases It could be something less convergent than in a short-tory ending, more open but, I still not find how to make it !
"There is no point cramming information into a few pages and ruining the ending.
Ignore the word count. You can prune the word count from every chapter of your novel. Don’t short-change the ending to do that. "
THIS. Absolutely. Reminds me of the X-Men prequel. The film died at the end because, being a prequel, they HAD to get to a certain point before the time was up, and so the story telling became very forced and overall a bit lame.
Stories run their courses and the pace - the timing of the entire plot - has to be respected.
A few more tips to add to Simon and Victoria's sound advice.
If you have set a word count for your novel, and you look like you will exceed it, don’t panic.
There is no point cramming information into a few pages and ruining the ending.
Ignore the word count. You can prune the word count from every chapter of your novel. Don’t short-change the ending to do that.
Even if you are within your word count don’t rush in the excitement to cross the finish line. There are many examples of novels that would have been acclaimed, if the author had taken as much care about the ending as the earlier chapters.
You may need more than one chapter to bring the plot and storyline to a successful conclusion.
Avoid writing an epilogue, because that’s the beginning of book two in your series.
I hope that helps.
Good luck.
With Simon on this one. I had my ending before I started writing...
Good Luck with it..