Okay, I've got a question and I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I wanted to ask you guys to see what you think. As the title says, is doing multiple endings in a book okay, or generally taboo? I know Lord of the Rings has 3, if not 4 endings in the book itself. There's the death of Sauron and the crowning of the king, then the sacking of the shire, followed by the gray havens and lastly the story of Sam that sorta ends the book. Some may not count that last part, but I do.
So that makes for essentially 4 endings to the book. But anyhow, what brings up this question is that, in the current book series I'm working on (Offworld Chronicles) the main story is planned to eventually reach its end several books from now just as the readers expect. But then there's another 3-4 chapters of cleanup I need to do after that with the main characters in order to setup for the followon sequel, "Ember Chronicles", which will lead to essentially two, possibly three endings to the book. I don't want to do all of that as an epilogue as that's too big for something like that. So I plan to keep it in the main body of the story.
So, that then brings me back to my original question. What is your opinion of stories with multiple endings? Are they okay if done right, or should they be avoided in their entirety? Again, I could use an epilogue to sort out the stuff with the main characters at the end that I need to tidy up. But that seems clunky at best as I was always taught that an epilogue should be short and sweet, no more than a chapter in size at best, and should always follow the actual ending as sort of a "where are they now" thing rather than an integral part of the story and, if skipped, would do no damage to the story itself, much in the same way as a prologue should be.
Anyhow, your 2c is welcome as always.