Sweet Undertones with a Nutty Finish

Thank you, Tere, for inspiring this post with your comment yesterday. :)

First off, the point of this post is not just to tell you a cutesy story about my daughter. Number one, I don’t think it’s cutesy so much as hilarious, and two, this does relate to writing. Sort of. :)

My youngest is a very unique individual. She often lives in a world of her own making, and some of the things that come out of her mouth have me really wondering what is going on her head. A lot of times, though, she has me rolling on the floor, literally. She’s given me quite a bit of writing material for my family blog.

My favorite story, ever, is from when she was four years old. She stayed home with her dad while I took the older two to the bus stop. She was curled up next to him in bed, when the phone—at the opposite corner of the bed—rang. My husband got up and crawled across the bed to answer it.

“I see your nuts, Daddy,” a tiny voice said behind him.

As you can imagine, my husband was horrified. I was, when he told me.

What if this was the end of the story? What would you think of me? Boo! What is she teaching her children? My kids are very sheltered, I assure you. And that's not the end.

This is how the story could have ended:

My husband, in the throws of what threatened to be a very serious heart attack, turned around and said, “What did you say?”

Eyes wide, terrified by her father’s tone, she immediately burst into tears and didn’t stop crying until Mom got home.

All that build up, and then she just cried? How lame is that?

Now, as emotional as she is, this ending is not that unlikely. Fortunately, she was in a good mood that morning and this is not how it ended.

Here’s the whole story with the real ending:

When my youngest was four years old, she stayed home with her dad while I took the older two to the bus stop. She was curled up next to him in bed, when the phone—at the opposite corner of the bed—rang. My husband got up and crawled across the bed to answer it.

“I see your nuts, Daddy,” a tiny voice said behind him.

In the throws of what threatened to be a very serious heart attack, he turned around and said, “What did you say?”

She pointed to a can of cashews on the nightstand. “I see your nuts, Daddy.”

Now, isn’t the second ending SO. MUCH. BETTER? I was laughing about that one for weeks.

Okay, so the point is, the ending can make or break a story. It doesn’t matter how good the rest of the story is, if the ending falls flat, you’re only going to upset or annoy your reader. The first ending probably left you feeling let down. Maybe even hoping I never bore with another anecdote about my children again. I don’t know. Maybe the real ending had the same result, but let’s pretend for the sake of this post, that it didn’t. ;)

So, what do you think? What is essential to a good ending? Anything that drives you crazy in an ending and makes you want to throw the book across the room?