“Have you thought of a ending?”
“Yes, several, and they are all dark and unpleasant.”
“Oh, that won’t work! The books should have good endings. How would this work: and everyone settled down and lived together happily ever after?”
“He’ll do well, if it ever comes to that.”
“Ah! And where will they live? That’s what I often wonder.”
JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring.
When it comes to creative writing, the ending of a story is one of the hardest parts of the writing process for me. When the last line has been written or typed, and the characters have nothing more to do, and the victory has been won and the antagonist vanquished, I shed a tear. You may think I’m melodramatic, but I just finished my first novel. And I feel a sense of satisfaction tinged with sadness.
But all stories have to end sometime, right? So when it comes to your literary masterpiece, the question must be asked “Have you thought of an ending?” (Tolkien).
Like the beginning of a story, there are many ways to end a work of fiction. You may choose to end your story with a satisfying conclusion, with all loose ends tied up. Most of us enjoy this kind of ending. The clean and tidy ending is so popular because, unlike real life, a story can give us a guaranteed resolution of conflict. We can have our desired happy ending and everyone lives ‘happily every after’.
But for those of us who choose to defy traditional storytelling techniques, there is the option of a ‘surprise ending’ or an ‘open ending’. By daring to be different, we can finally leave the reader wanting more. So let’s take it a step further and explore the different ways he can style his ending to leave an indelible impression on his reader’s mind. Here are five ways to write a gripping ending to a story.
The round ending.
This type of ending is when the story ends with a mirror image of the beginning. It’s a circular journey where the characters return to the same setting at the beginning of the story, but have learned some valuable lessons. They may look the same or dress the same, but they have been transformed on the inside.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis is one of the best examples I can think of. Although the children do not enter Narnia in the first paragraph, but rather in the first few pages, the ending reflects this section of the story. As at the beginning, the children emerge from the closet, only to be met again by the sound of footsteps of Mrs. Macready and her guests in the hallway.
The surprise ending.
Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ is a great example of a surprise ending. Early on, Mrs. Mallard is notified that her husband died in a tragic train accident. Most of the narrative focuses on Mrs. Mallard’s conflicted emotions over the sudden death of her husband, and she reveals some interesting revelations about her abusive nature.
As her “streams of consciousness” show her dramatic change from grieving widow to a woman who has discovered the guilty pleasure of an overwhelming revelation that she is now free of her husband’s stifling control, there’s a clever twist at the end. Brently Mallard was indeed alive, and seeing him at the bottom of the stairs not only fatally shocked his wife, it shocked me as well. This type of ending isn’t the ideal ending for everyone, but Chopin’s ironic and tragic twist added to the overall tragic mood of the story.
The ‘open’ ending.
Daphne du Maurier’s novel The house on the Strand is one of the best examples of an ‘open’ ending I’ve ever read. While I’m a fan of challenging traditional narrative expectations, I was initially quite disappointed with his choice of ending. I really wanted to know what happened to the main character, Dick Young, who had become addicted to a drug that allowed him to time travel to the 14th century in Kilmarch, Cornwall.
By the end of the novel, Young is back in the safety of his home and under the expert care of the resident doctor. But while he is talking on the phone with his wife, he suddenly loses consciousness, and this is where the novel ends. Du Maurier had left me in the lurch and I was devastated. I wanted to know what happened to Dick, did he die? Did he go back to the past? So many questions and absolutely no answers.
But in retrospect, Du Maurier’s ‘open’ ending was another example of clever writing. She had given me the opportunity to dream of my own ending. As a passive reader, she was giving me some storytelling power and inviting me to write my own conclusion and ultimately decide the fate of Dick Young.
the end of the trick.
Ambrose Bierce’s ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ is a good example of a trick ending. At the beginning of the story, a man is being hanged. Bierce then proceeds to provide a rather dense narrative about the man’s alleged dramatic escape. But it is not until the man reaches his home and his family that we are told that “Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, his neck broken, swayed gently to and fro beneath the rafters of the Owl Creek Bridge.
In writing this story, Bierce relied on the idea that moments before death a person can be subject to hallucinations, and he uses this to trick us into believing that Peyton had cunningly escaped his death sentence. With the final trick from him, Bierce reveals that Peyton had only imagined that he had successfully cheated death!
the bottom line.
This technique is used a lot in movies. At the end of the film, the audience is shown a written summary of the final results of each of the characters: they get married, succeed in business, etc. As in the movies, this choice of ending for a work of fiction provides a pleasing ending for the reader. The hero or heroine is victorious, the villains are punished, and justice is done.
I have provided you with just a few options for the end of your story. But whichever you decide to choose, your goal should always be to leave a lasting impression or dynamic image in the reader’s mind. As writers, we have the power to entertain and inspire the reader, but also to challenge their literary expectations.
Happy writing!