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A finished story is over when the promises made in the opening pages have been fulfilled and events set in motion have reached some sort of resolution.
That’s not the same as when you have finished writing it. I’m going to make a guess that you have been cruising along on inspiration alone so far. The Muse of Inspiration is great. The Muse can take you quite far. However, at some point, you will have to do actual work. I’m guessing you just reached that point.
It might be that the story has run its course and the tale has been told. In which case, it is time to go back and tidy it up into a finished and enjoyable to read state.
It might also be that you have added all the cool stuff you can think of and now need to bring things to a conclusion. In which case, you simply need to address the repercussions of all that has happened. I say, “simply” but that is actually quite a lot.
Another reason you have run aground is that you are just on the verge of realising that you took your story down a path that is not working for you. In which case, back up, take a look around and start a new timeline to see if that works for you.
Or, and I suspect this might be the case, you’ve got some magic word count in your head that your story needs to reach. If the tale is told at 37k, there is nothing wrong with that. This is simply the length that this particular story wants to be. Trying to push it past the ending “because word count” is only going to make for an unsatisfying writing slog and equally unsatisfying read.
Do one of these guesses match with your current writing situation?
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