DEAD SIZE: The Lost Ending

Who doesn’t love discovering a lost piece of something precious? For an author, finding a lost ending to a book they wrote is like revisiting a place with great memories… that they didn’t remember.

Many years ago, before I began writing my Dark Comedy novel DEAD SIZE, I had first fleshed out the story in screenplay format, a habit I have done with many of my books. I set aside this detailed outline after the book was finished, and pretty much forgot it existed.

Recently I re-discovered the doc in the deepest bowels of my computer (in a folder named “Gulliver extras”). I’d also forgotten that it featured a different ending from the one I ultimately penned.

While this lost ending is not necessarily better, it is less surreal, more grounded in reality. Would more readers have preferred this more traditional one to the published mindfuck version? Difficult for me to say. Based on reviews, some readers certainly would have liked a bit more closure, while others thought the published ending, though more ambiguous, was memorable, even moving.

So I’ll let you decide for yourself. Read the original “lost ending” to DEAD SIZE below, then tell me in the comments which finale you found more satisfying.

Major spoilers for DEAD SIZE ahead (obviously).