Knowing when to stop.

I re-read one of my absolutely favorite fantasy novels of all time. It's not important which it is. What's important is that it wasn't as good as I remembered it, it was better. Except one problem, a rather common problem with authors both fantasy and otherwise. The story was perfect up until the end, where it ran for half a chapter longer than it needed.

I will elaborate. In the end the conflicts are brought to a head and the Big Evil swoops in to confront the Good Guys. There is a struggle and the Big Evil is defeated. Bam. End of story.

End of story? No.

The author spends a good half chapter longer going on about how they live happily ever after, tying up some minor loose ends and generally puttering about and resolving every minor little thing. And it's really superfluous. We don't need to read this. We don't need to be told that the Good Guys, having defeated the Big Evil, go about and put everything right. Of course they do. We don't need to be told that they finally resolve the curse on the protagonist. Of course they do. None of the remaining problems are anywhere near as difficult as defeating the Big Evil was. Of course the Good Guys can handle it. They have gone through the entire story demonstrating again and again their ability to deal with these sorts of problems.

The story was about the conflict between the Good Guys and the Big Evil, and with the conflict resolved, the story is over. It is not necessary to keep on telling the story because there is no more story to tell. The rest is just filler.

And good writing abhors filler.

Granted, the book is for younger readers and younger readers have different needs. I can completely understand that it might be necessary to reinforce the point that yes, yes, the story ends well for all the minor characters as well.

But the point remains. When the story is over, it's over.

I could rant about authors that rather than writing half a chapter too long keep on writing book after book after book in order to earn more money and take up more space, but really. That would just be filler too.

And good writing abhors filler.