Back to the story

Yesterday I sat down to write the concluding chapter of my novel. I had the plan clearly set out in my head and started to write. The plan was to kill some more people, and for the killer's family to make a discovery which should have made them wonder about the killer's involvement in all of the other deaths.

Could I do that? No I could not! Instead I have accidentally introduced a new character, who is going to have to ask questions which may lead to him working it all out. I feel that now I have created this new character that I have to explain his relevance in the story and provide the reader with a conclusion to his subplot.  A subplot I haven't fully formed myself yet!

Does it matter if the reader does not have all the loose ends tidily tied up at the end of the story. Is it OK to leave one or more of the subplots without a conclusion, leaving the reader to imagine their own ending? Will the reader feel cheated? I think I would.

Throughout the story, I have provided endings for my subplots, in so far as would be known. For example, where I might have said that two people got in their car and headed off to their new home in Wales, that is where I have ended their subplot. Whether they actually made it there in one piece, or had the mother of all rows in the car which led to him killing her or divorce proceedings later on, was not relevant to my story, so it has not been told. My problem at present is that this new character is trampling all over the crime scene and I feel obliged to tell the reader that either he missed all the clues or he pieced it all together.

I may have to end the killer-character and come back to the new character to see how much he needs to tell the reader for the conclusion to be satisfactory.

This is where I wish I had drafted a story plan, detailing exactly what happens and when, before I started to write. My imagination is running away with itself and bringing in a new character this late into the story is not helping me to take the story where I want it to go.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day...