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[soracoltrane]

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[Nikolai]

How do you guys feel about epilogues?? please share X)

Honestly? I wish there were more of them.

So many movies and TV shows and popular books, when they even bother to have a proper ending, just bring things crashing down at the end of the climax -- almost as if it's not worth taking up people's time after the exciting part of the story. (I blame the amount of time TV shows are usually left at the end of the final commercial break.)

If there is an epilogue, though, it shows that the writer genuinely cares about her characters -- and if she's done a good job of making me care about them, I'm grateful for the effort. After all, a good climax leaves the characters and/or their surroundings changed in some way; how do they adapt to each other after the change? If I like the story, I really want to know. And I'm thankful for the authors out there who put in the extra time and effort to tell me.

Of course, your mileage may vary -- and that's why there are so many different storytelling styles out there.

[PrettySammy09]

I for one love me some falling action.

If you build up a story of any weight or importance, create a fantastic climatic ending for said story and then...end it...your audience is going to feel as though they've been on a roller coast that stopped mid-drop. The thrill of the initial fall is still there, but it doesn't pay off.

Now an "epilogue" is a specific term. But I think every ending needs a bit of "what happened after" to make it meaningful and not awkwardly anti-climatic.

[Wintermoon]

If you have something left to say after the main story is over, put it in an epilogue. If you have nothing more to say, don't.

I'd like to point to The Dreaming as an example of an epilogue done right. I'm not sure if I liked it as such, but it definitely says something and it definitely adds to the story.