Writing Tip #2 Endings and Their Misconceptions

Story Endings and Their Misconceptions

Endings are one of the hardest parts of a story to write—especially when trying to wrap up a long, complex story or a long running series. Not only is there pressure to try and wrap up the story’s plots, themes, and character arcs with minimal plot holes, there’s also the added pressure of trying to craft an ending that readers will love! All too frequently, the endings to beloved franchises are deplored by fans and critics over complaints of not tying everything together, or being rushed, or not doing the story justice, or just simply not being what the fans wanted. 

How can this be avoided? 

The best answers I’ve ever found are:

1. It can’t (not fully, at least). 

2. Have a general idea of how the story ends ahead of time. 

Wait, what do you mean you can’t fully avoid criticism of the ending? 

Well, I mean exactly that. The belief that any writer can create a story ending that is devoid of criticism or dislike lies firmly with the idea that there is one definitive ending that will please every reader of the story, and that’s just not ever going to be the case. Because people are different. We like different things, we have different life experiences, and perspectives, and opinions, and cultures, and all of that is going to affect every individual reader’s opinion on a story. And what’s more than that, literature always leaves room for personal interpretation. No matter how much emphasis you, as the author, put on a particular idea when writing, some readers will always come away with a different interpretation than you, and that’s okay. 

But because of all this, all our unique perspectives on the work affecting our view of it as a whole, that means everyone’s predictions on how things will end, and everyone’s opinions on how it should end, what the best ending for the story is, are going to vary. There may be some general consensus and majority opinions, but it will never be 100%. Even some of the most beloved story endings in literary history still have critics, even if they are in the minority of the opinion on it.

So let the weight of thinking your ending has to please everyone fall off your shoulders. No author has ever done it, and no author ever will. Simply accepting that you can’t please everyone will take a lot of the pressure and expectation of a writing a fantastic ending away. 

The person you should be most concerned about wowing with your ending is you. At the end of the day, you’re in charge here. You’re driving the bus, so what’s the point of you driving everyone if you don’t even like the destination you’re headed to? Please yourself with your story’s conclusion first. 

Besides, anyone who truly hates it can move onto a different story, or fanfiction, or write their own stories full of endings they love. 

With that elephant out of the room, let’s move on to the greatest piece of writing advice I’ve ever been given: you should know what story you’re telling. 

I’m not saying you have to have a detailed mapping of exactly every detail of how the story is going to play out. Sometimes adding things in as you go is part of the fun of writing! But it can become a pretty big problem if you don’t really have any idea where your story is going. This is often how stories end up with plot holes, unsatisfactory endings, meandering plot lines, sagging middles, or subplots that just don’t end up mattering. Because you’re adding so much for fun, and you just don’t know how it will all tie in in the end.

Besides, knowing the general outcome of your story allows you to better use writing tools like foreshadowing and symbolism. You can’t subtly foreshadow who the killer is to your reader if you don’t know yourself until the very end! It’s also really good for writing strong and well-paced character arcs. Want to redeem a character? Want to write a convincing villain origin story? You need to know that the characters in question are going to have to transition from bad-to-good or good-to-bad in order to properly pace it. Otherwise, you might end up with a lopsided character arc that feels like it’s being rushed or changed out of the blue. 

So, what are some of the other misconceptions about endings then?

Lots! 

1. A story needs a happy ending. 

One of the biggest misconceptions about story endings is that a happy ending is automatically a good ending, or that sadder, more bittersweet endings should be avoided. This isn’t true. A happy ending, a sad ending, or something in between can all be effective depending on the story that you are trying to tell. 

There are always going to be some people who only like a happy ending. That’s a personal preference and a completely understandable one too, but that doesn’t mean the happiest ending possible is what’s going to be the most cathartic with every story. 

Generally speaking, the overall tone, mood, and feeling of your ending should stay in line with the tone, mood, and feeling of the story as a whole. And the ending’s tone—sad, happy, bittersweet—should coincide with the story’s major themes too. If you’re writing a lighthearted, feel good, contemporary romance about how amazing love can be and improving happiness in your life, then absolutely go for the happy ending! The tone of your story is feel good, so the ending should feel good too. In this scenario, a tragic sob story at the end would probably feel like it came out of nowhere. Even though sadder endings often seem more poetic, for this type of story it would just be a complete 180 for no apparent purpose—and your ending should always have a purpose. 

That being said, if you’re writing a bleak, gritty story about the horrors of war and how it affects people’s lives, a happy ending probably isn’t going to work well. For one thing, it isn’t going to fit tonally with the darker undertones of your story. Second of all, it might cheapen the themes you’re addressing. No one is going to come away with the idea that war destroys lives and societies and often takes years for the effects to dwindle if your story ends with everyone surviving and living happily ending up exactly where fans will root for them to be. 

It might also unfairly invalidate the realism of the story. Just because a character survives to the end doesn’t mean everything is going to be all sunshine and roses for them. What kind of hardships did your character endure through the story? Were they hardships that would realistically traumatize a person in real life? If so, don’t pretend like your character(s) won’t have trauma. Even if they survive and get what they want in the end, it might be best to show the impact it’s had on them, even if that leaves the overall taste of the ending a little bittersweet. In a story about serious or darker topics, this type of acknowledgment will reinforce your themes better anyway. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean that every part of the conclusion has to be grim and morose for the sake of realism. There can be wins with losses. There can be happiness with sadness too. Not every character needs to suffer and die to achieve a realistic ending. Just don’t rose-tint the long term impact of the story’s plot on them. 

2. An ending should wrap everything up

In a general sense, yes. Your ending should not leave readers scratching their heads going, “but what about this and this and THIS??” There should be some type of closure to any major point brought up. You get a little more leeway with this when it comes to writing series, because if you’re intending for there to be a second book, then a cliffhanger to lead into the next installment may be in order. But even then, each individual book of a series should still feel like there’s a reason why it ends specifically where it does.

That isn’t to say that you can’t have a more open-ended ending. Everything introduced into the story should have some closure, with closure meaning that it’s important in the end and doesn’t get dropped from the narrative entirely, but that doesn’t mean you have to wrap a nice little bow around everything all neat and tidy—because not everything works out this way in real life either! 

Let’s say you’re writing a story about a woman whose sister went missing as a child and everyone but her believes her sister to be dead. Now she’s an adult, and she’s trapped in a toxic marriage. Maybe the story ends with her finding some indication that her sister was indeed alive out there, so she finally escapes her toxic marriage to leave and go find her estranged sister. The ending, then, is still open. We don’t know if she ever actually finds her sister, and we don’t know if the sister is still alive, just that she was at some point. It’s open ended, but the plot point still has closure because we find out that our protagonist was right about her potentially being alive, and it isn’t just dropped from the narrative. The overall story might be about the woman working up the courage to leave her marriage, but the missing sister still factors into it. So, it gets some closure and importance, but still leaves the ending open. The author could either write another book or leave the audience to come up with their own interpretation of what happens next. Either way there’s some resolution to the purpose of that plot point in this story’s arc. Any serial continuation about what happens next would then become its own arc with its own plot points to factor in and resolve. 

3. Your character has to achieve their original goal 

There is absolutely no rule saying that your character can’t be misguided in their goals and intentions at any point. People evolve and their goals change. Just because there was one very specific thing your character is seeking in the beginning of the story, doesn’t mean that’s the end all be all for your story. The protagonist’s arc could just as easily be learning to let go of something they’ve been holding onto or working for that’s bad for them. Or maybe they learn vital new information half way through the story that reveals they’re actually working for the bad guys, and that changes their goal (plot twist!) No matter what the explanation is, as long as you write it well, the initial goal could just be the starting point that your character evolves from. 

4. You should give your fans exactly what they want

Ah, fan service. 

First of all, as I’ve already said, not everyone wants the same thing as far as an ideal ending goes, so it wouldn’t even be possible to construct a fan service ending that suits every fan anyway. 

That being said, I understand the temptation to give in and start including things in your story just because fans so desperately want for it to happen—but does that mean it’s always best for the story?

Sometimes! 

If you can work just a bit on fan service into your story without it disrupting the character arcs or plot lines you already have planned, then there really isn’t any actual harm in doing it, other than that some people on the internet might accuse you of pandering to your fans. 

However, keep in mind that what most fans want out of any story is going to have similar trends—the villain defeated, their favorite character to live, their favorite couple to end up together, for their least favorite character to be defeated or even be killed off. And as much as we want to keep our fans happy, sometimes it might negatively impact your narrative. 

If you’re trying to write a serious story about how your main character needs to work through their past trauma and better themselves before they can commit to a marriage, but your fans are rooting for the MC and their love interest to end up together, there’s a divide there. You may feel like you should have them end up together just so that readers will be happy about it, but it might not mesh with the themes you’ve been developing thus far about loving yourself first. You, as the author, have to make the call about what’s more important to you: sticking to your themes or making as many fans as happy with the ending as you can. Sometimes those two things will coincide, and sometimes they won’t. 

But at the end of the day, what ending makes you happiest comes first. Your story. Your bus. Your destination. 

And last but not least, 

5. You can’t change your mind

It’s totally understandable that the idea you have in mind for your ending might naturally change during the writing process. That’s okay! Sometimes we write the story, and sometimes the story writes itself and just drags us along. That’s the beauty of a first draft. You can keep reworking and revising it until you ultimately like where it ends up. Or maybe five books into a series, you realize your series is actually building naturally to a much different conclusion than you had originally planned. You can either try and steer it back on course or go with the flow of the new ending—it’s all about what story you want to tell in the end.