Write a Good Ending to a Story

A story is simply the presentation of a sequence of related events that have a beginning, middle, and end, but good stories (ones that we respond strongly to) are also stories that end by communicating significance. It does not matter if the story is real or imaginary, with a sad or happy ending—all effective stories end by conveying to the reader, in some way, why they are important.

Steps

Deciding the End

1. Identify the parts of your story. The beginning is that which precedes everything and before which there was nothing, the middle follows the beginning and precedes the end, and the end follows the middle and there is nothing afterwards.
   • Your ending should probably come when the main character has either reached, or failed to reach, the goal they had wanted in the beginning. For example, your character, who works in a sandwich shop, wants to be rich. They go through various challenges in order to purchase a lottery ticket (and to keep the ticket from getting stolen). Do they succeed? If so, then perhaps your ending is the moment they hear all the numbers on their ticket being announced.
2. Commit to the final event or actions of your story. This approach is useful if you feel you have a story with so many events that all seem pretty major or exciting, making it hard to find a good ending. You need to decide on an endpoint in your story, after which there will be no more major actions or events.
   • The number of actions or events you include in your story is only important in relation to the meaning you are trying to communicate. Figure out what events make up the beginning, middle, and end of your story. Once you decide where it ends, you can shape and polish your story's ending.
3. Figure out the main conflict in your story. Are the characters in your story fighting against nature? Against each other? Against themselves (an internal or emotional battle)?
   • Someone stumbles out of small plane crash in the woods, in the middle of winter. They must find a place to get warm, out of the elements. This is a "human-versus-nature" type of conflict. Someone attempts to psyche out their competition at a talent show. This is a human-versus-human conflict. Most conflicts fall into one of a few categories, so figure out which one is at work in your story.
   • Depending on the kind of main conflict you have been exploring, the final events of your story will either support or not support the development (build up) and resolution of that conflict.

Explaining the Journey

1. Write out a reflection about the events of the story. Clarify the significance of the sequence of events that you have arranged. Let the reader know why these events are important.
   • For example, your story might say something like, "My grandfather always made a point of expecting me to do the just and fair thing, in any situation. Now that I am a police officer I understand why he felt this was so important, because those life-lessons are really what sustain me when knowing just what to do in a situation can be so challenging."
2. Ask the “So What?” question. Reflect on the importance or relevance of your story to the reader. Why should a reader care about your story? If you can answer this question, then review your story to see if the sequence of actions you have chosen would lead a reasonable reader to your answer.
   • For example: "Why should we care about Noni and his village? Because the climate change that is flooding the land he grew up on and loves will soon raise the water levels in our own cities, and if we act now we can be more prepared than Noni was when his whole world changed in that storm."
3. Use 1st-person narrative voice to tell the reader what is important about your story. Whether the “I” in the story is you (the writer) or the voice of a character you have created, you can simply speak directly to the reader.
   • For example: "I realized, in that moment, that all my hard work and long practice hours had led me to this moment, standing on that incredible stage, warmed by the glow of dazzling lights and the breath and sounds of everyone in the stadium."
   • Celebrity talk show interviews, for example, will often be nothing more than a series of conversations with no clear structure. However, the interviews we remember most are ones where people give clear, effective stories by explaining in direct language what they feel that experience means and why it is significant.
4. Use the 3rd-person narrative voice to tell the reader what is important about your story. You can have another character or a narrator voice speak for you and convey the importance of the story.
   • For example: "Denise carefully folded the letter, kissed it, and laid it down on the table, next to the money. They would have questions for her, she knew, but in time they would learn, as she had done, to find their own answers. She nodded, as if agreeing with someone in the room, and walked out of the house and into the old taxi, whining and trembling gently at the curb like a loyal but impatient dog."
5. Write a “conclusion” section for your story. The nature of the section will depend on the genre you are writing in. Academics and scientists agree that a good ending to any writing should end by having the author leave their readers with “something to think about.” This “something” is the story's significance.
   • If you're writing a personal or academic essay, then your conclusion could take the form of a final paragraph or set of paragraphs. If you are working on a sci-fi novel, then the conclusion might need to be an entire chapter or sequence of chapters at the end of your story.
   • Please don't end with "I woke up and it was all a dream" or a similar one-line conclusion. The meaning or larger point of the story should feel like it flows naturally from the events of the story itself, and not like a tag placed on at the last minute.
6. Identify the larger connection or pattern to the events in your story. What does your journey (or your character's journey) seem to represent? Thinking about your story as a journey—where you or your main character ends up in a different place, somehow changed from the beginning—will help you see the ways in which your story has its own unique shape, and will help you find an ending that feels right.

Using Action and Images

1. Use action to show (not tell) what is important. We know that stories full of action, whether written or visual, appeal to all ages. Through physical action you can also communicate the larger meaning and importance of your story.
   • Let's say you have written a fantasy story where a warrior has saved a town from a dragon. Everyone is grateful to her except the town's former hero, who has spent the story feeling jealous about being outdone. You could end with the local guy giving over his prized sword to your heroine. Without even having characters speak, you can show the reader what is significant.
2. Build your ending with description and sensory images. Sensory details connect us emotionally to the story, and much good writing uses imagery throughout. However, by using rich, sensory language to paint word pictures in the final part of your story, you will leave the reader with depths of meaning.
   • "Timmy knew the monster was defeated, sinking now into the depths of the toilet bowl. But he stood and waited anyway, watching for every spot of dark color to disappear, to howl away into the watery elsewhere, until nothing but a clear and faintly blue calm remained. He did not move, in fact, until his own reflection returned to him, finally, in the surface of the bowl's water."
3. Create metaphors for your characters and their goals. Leave clues in your story for the reader/viewer to build an interpretation. People enjoy stories they can “wrestle” with and think about after reading. You don't want to make your story so confusing that a reader cannot make sense of it, but you'll want to include figurative language that is not so obvious to understand. By doing so you will add interest and significance to your work.
   • For example," As Sam said goodbye, she revved the engine of the motorcycle and then Joe could feel her becoming a memory--taking off in an explosion of sound and light, then stretching away, a rocket's arc down the street and up the hill, and finally the smell of smoke, and the echo of her goodbye, until she was nothing more than the aftermath of a firework, a thrilling vision he would always feel lucky to have seen up close."
4. Select a vivid image. Similar to using action or sensory descriptions, this approach is particularly useful when telling stories within an essay. Think about the mental picture you'd like to “haunt” the reader with—some visual picture that can capture what you feel is the essence of your story—and leave that for the reader at the end.
5. Highlight a theme. You might be working with a number of themes, particularly if you're writing a longer story, such as a history-based essay or a book. Focusing on a specific theme or motif through images or the actions of a character can help you create a structure that is unique to your story. This approach is particularly useful for open-ended stories.
6. Echo a moment. Similar to highlighting on a theme, you can choose a particular action, event, or emotional moment from within your story that feels most meaningful, and then “echo” that in some way—by repeating the moment, by returning to it and reflecting or expanding on it, etc.
7. Return to the beginning. Similar to highlighting a theme and echoing a moment, this strategy means ending your story by repeating something you introduced in the beginning. This is commonly known as a “frame” or “framing device,” and it can offer shape and meaning to a story.
   • For example, a story that begins with a person looking at, but not eating, a leftover piece of birthday cake can end with that person returning to the cake. Whether they eat the cake or not, the return to it will help the reader see the larger point or mood you are exploring.

Following Logic

1. Review the events of your story to see how they connect. Remember that not all actions carry the same importance or connection. A story follows an unfolding of meaning, but not every action is included in a story in order to lead the reader to the same idea. Not all actions that occur in a story are completed or successful.
   • For example, in the Greek classic “The Odyssey” by the writer Homer, the main character Odysseus attempts to go home a number of times and fails, encountering monsters along the way. Each failure adds excitement to the story, but the importance of the story is in what he learns about himself, not about which monsters he defeats.
2. Ask yourself: “What happens next?” Sometimes when we get too excited (or too frustrated) about a story we're writing, we can forget that events and behaviors, even in a fantasy world, tend to follow logic, the physical laws of the universe you're imagining, etc. Often getting to a good ending is as easy as reflecting on what would logically happen in a situation. Endings should make sense based on what has happened earlier.
3. Ask yourself: “Why are these events in this order?” Review the sequence of events or actions in the story, then question actions that seem surprising in order to clarify the logic and flow of your story.
   • Let's say your main characters are looking in the park for their lost dog when they find a secret doorway to a fantasy realm. Don't abandon the logic you began with, if it is useful: let them have their adventure, but let them find their dog in the end (or have the dog find them).
4. Imagine variations and surprises. We don't want stories to be so logical that nothing new happens in them. Think about what would happen if a certain choice or event were slightly changed--and definitely include surprises. Check to see if you have included enough surprising events or actions for your reader.
   • If your main character wakes up, goes to school, returns home, and goes to bed, then that story might not appeal to very many people because it is so familiar as a sequence of events. Let something new and surprising happen. For example, your character is on her way out of the house when she discovers a strange package on the steps with her name on it.
5. Raise a question based on where the story has brought you. Review what you have learned from the events, evidence, or details you have arranged. Think about—and then write about—what is missing, which problems or concerns are still not addressed, or what questions arise. Endings that reflect on questions can invite the reader into deeper thinking, and most topics—if pursued through logic—will lead to more rather than fewer questions.
   • What new conflicts, for example, now await your heroes now that the monster has been destroyed? How long will the kingdom remain at peace?
6. Think like an outsider. Whether it is a true story or imagined, re-read your story from an outsider's perspective, and think about what would seem logical for a person reading the story for the very first time. As the writer of the story, you might feel particularly excited about an event involving one of your characters, but you should remember that a reader outside of your own head might have a different feeling about which part of the story is most important. Having some distance from your story will help you consider it more critically.

Tips

• Outline! Before you start writing anything, write an outline. An outline is your map through your story. It tells you where you've been and where you're going. An outline is the only way to see the entire structure of the story at a glance, and thus it is a really effective way to see how your ending might work.
• Ask someone else to read your story and give you feedback on your ending. Make sure that it is someone whose opinion you trust and respect.
• Pay attention to the genre you are writing within. A story included as part of a history-based essay will have certain qualities that are different from a short horror story. A story told in a stand-up comedy routine will have different elements than a travel magazine story.
• Revise, revise, revise! Once you know exactly how your story will end, go back through it and check for any gaps or places that might unnecessarily confuse the reader.

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