Devin Fish's Blog

Imagine you are reading a book—this book, to be exact. Maybe you had a life that makes mine look elementary. You’re looking for the answer to life and death itself. That is the purpose of reading a story: You’re looking for the connection, that one sentence that can turn your life around.

The more you read, the more entranced you become. At the beginning, you thought you were alone. But now you clearly see
that everyone goes through their own tests in life. The author is at his most vulnerable place, giving you a small glimpse into
Hell itself. Perhaps it’s the same Hell you find yourself in now.

While you told yourself just one more page, now here you are deep into the book. You turn to the next page to find out how the narrator made it out alive. But the page is blank, which
means it is the end of the chapter. You turn the next page to discover it is also blank. You begin to panic as you realize that this isn’t the end of the chapter. It is the end of the book.

No hope, no redemption, no change, no second chance. All you are left with is emptiness.

When you end your story early, it doesn’t just affect you.
It affects everyone who needs to hear your story. You lost hope and therefore took it away from everyone else.
Let it be the end of a chapter, not the end of the book.

Answering the Hard Questions: Let It Be the End of a Chapter, Not the End of the Book