Writing Excuses 10.43: Q&A on Endings, with Delia Sherman

Delia Sherman joined us aboard the Independence of the Seas for our question-and-answer installment on endings. The questions came from the attendees at the Writing Excuses Workshop, which was, lest anyone forget, on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  The questions: * Why do more short stories than novels end on tragic notes? * How do you keep an ending from being predictable or boring? * How do you write a stand-alone ending with sequel potential? * What are the best ways to avoid infodump endings? * Are there differences between writing the first novel in a series and other novels in the series? * How do you know which questions to leave unanswered? * What sort of attention do you give to your last lines? This episode was engineered aboard The Independence of the Seas by Bert Grimm, and mastered in a soundproofed bullet-train by Alex Jackson.