Cenonn's How to Holofic and Writing in General

Endings give the most impact, do it right.

One might say that the beginning of your book is important. You have to make sure your introduction is able to hook the readers in. Others say that the climax is more important since every single event all leads up to it. But in my opinion, there's one thing that is more important than the both of them and that is the ending of your fanfic.

If you ever experienced a story that ended dramatically and in a satisfying manner, raise your hand. If you did raise your hand despite me not seeing ya, I'm glad you're a cooperative person.

And of course, there are stories which ended pretty badly in your opinion. Now now. I won't name any anime, manga, light novel, books, and whatever that might have disappointed you in the same way that disappointed me. I don't want to start a war. I'm here to give ya a guide.

It's not too far off if I say that the ending of a story is the one that would give the most impact. Few people would remember how they got hooked into a story. Many people will remember the ending.

Now then... We are still in the planning stages of our Holofic. There are some writers out there who try to test the waters first and see how they should end the story. After all, there are many stories which ended differently than what the creator intended because of popular demand.

So I won't tell you to start planning how your Holofic would end in detail. HOWEVER! I would like you to stop and think about how you should end your fanfic. At the very least, decide if it would be a happy ending or a tragic one.

Why should you do that? For starters, I talked about foreshadowing in the previous chapters, right? You would want to decide if your Holofic would have a happy ending or tragic ending to set the tone of your story.

You can't have a fluffy and happy narration style and then end the Holofic by killing everyone. You don't want to anger your readers. They stayed for your fluffy and happy narrator and you thanked them by killing off everyone. If you are seriously going for that, then I pray I won't come across your Holofic and get bamboozled.

That's pretty much it. That's the basics of planning out a Holofic.

However, I don't want to write another chapter in the future about endings so I'll just tell you how to write one. You can always come back to this chapter once you are finally deciding how to end your beloved creation.

If we're looking for a quote, I got one. It's from a character named Chuck Shurley from the TV show called Supernatural.

"Endings are hard. Any chapped a** monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end but you never can. The fans are always gonna b****. There's always gonna be holes. And since it's the ending, it's all suppose to add up to something. I'm telling you, they're a raging pain in the a**."

And I agree with that author. Anyone can just start a story. Anyone can have an idea and write out a chapter or two. But actually writing an ending? It's really tricky.

I talked about the characters, settings, and plot. You probably spent a huge amount of time planning them or you just went ahead and added details as you go. Now then, let's hope you actually took down notes of what you did. Because if you're going to write an ending, you have to look back on what you did.

It's not too far off if I say that good authors would reread their entire story when trying to come up with an ending. After all, rereading the story would make you remember the plot holes you forgot to explain and the foreshadowing you forgot to reveal. Assuming you survive cringing through your old writing style.

I mean... A good author is someone who always strives to improve their writing. Days, weeks, months, or even years would pass after you post your first chapter and you must've at least grown a bit. Accept the cringe. Cringing over your past self is a sign that you have grown.

Now then... You reread your fic. I hope you actually took down notes while doing so because you don't want to forget the details you missed and go back to rereading the entire thing all over again. That means once more going through the old and cringy writing style you used to have. Although if you want to have a good ending, you'll always end up rereading your story over and over again.

I'll talk about the four things you have to take note of when writing an ending. These are the resolution, transformation, suspense, and surprise.

The resolution is the part where you make sure you "tie up all loose ends" and etc. Whatever conflicts you place, they should be resolved. Whatever questions you made the reader ask, they should be answered. This one requires a lot of rereading of your finished chapters. You have to be more attentive to the details you placed in your fanfiction. That's why you have to make sure you take notes.

The next one is the transformation. Of course, your characters shouldn't stay the same way as they were in the beginning. They should've undergone "Character Development." After all, it would be pointless if a character would go through whatever plot and conflict you made and then they wouldn't change at all.

The third one is the suspense. Is the ending filled with suspense? The last-minute tension is always memorable to your readers.

The last one is the surprise. A predictable ending is not good. However, you have to balance out the surprise. I taught you about foreshadowing and I hope you placed enough of those things before you surprise your readers with your ending.

When writing an ending, you have to make sure of several things.

You have to leave room for interpretation for your endings. You don't want to write everything about the ending. You have to let the reader's imaginations work their magic.

Then, you have to make sure that your ending makes sense. Whatever your genre might be, the ending has to be the result of the logical progression of the plot and your character's actions. Your readers are invested in your story. Give them respect by making them feel satisfied that the characters arrived at the ending by their own volition and actions.

The last thing you have to make sure is that it should evoke emotions. If it's a happy ending, make your readers smile. If it's a tragic ending, make your readers curse you for letting you hurt their hearts.

There aren't a lot of completed Holofics but I'll give you one example which is lightningstormtc's Kiara Fried Phoenix: A Hololive Story.

To put it simply, his story ended with a major battle and a timeskip. I went ahead and interviewed a reader named HeroJani and these are his answers to my questions.

Question: Did KFP have a good resolution?

"I don't know if he had deleted every aspect to foreshadow the backstory about the masks and such, which he wanted to explain as an after story. which is deleted now. So I would say no on that aspect. Otherwise an yes"

Question: Did KFP have a good transformation especially for the MC?

"From someone who seemed like a "casual human, to a humble fighter of supernatural rights" I guess would be most accurate and spoiler free"

Question: Did KFP have suspense?

"Because I read it a long time ago... I would say it was there? I mean, it was basically everything again but different, so the air kind of was already let out of thrill. Personally at least. I read it to find out about if Ryan can "revive" Edhas and how he will stop the Void, so at least a bit was still there, even if the setting was the same with key points a bit different."

Question: Did KFP have a predictable ending?

"It definitely was, considering that it kind of happened again."

You can check if HeroJani was correct in his opinions by reading about KFP yourself.

Anyways... I talked about writing an ending for the Holofic and that covers the planning stage of your fanfic. After a short intermission, I'll help ya out in how to actually start writing it!