It might seem odd to have endings as my theme in September instead of December. But if you’re like me, most of your usual habits get sidetracked in the preparations for Christmas. And I think mastering how to end a story is crucial to good writing. When you pick up any book on writing, there’s usually a ton of advice on how to begin a story. Because if you can’t hook readers at the beginning, they will never make it to the end. But endings are just as important as beginnings, but I think they are more difficult to pull off successfully. Why are endings hard to write?
The beginning and middle determine the ending
The ending pulls together all the elements that have come before. So if one of those aren’t working, then the ending will reflect that. With a bad beginning, you only have to go back a few chapters to figure out what’s wrong. If the ending isn’t pulling together, you have much more story to excavate through.
Writers run out of inspiration
The ending is usually the last thing you write for a story. By the time you’ve fought through the beginning and middle, you may feel like you have nothing left to say and just want the whole thing to be over with like a bad cold. With no inspiration to fuel your writing, the ending can come across as rushed or incomplete.
Endings have to surprise and make sense
Accomplishing those two objectives in an ending is what makes it so much harder than a beginning. There are limitless ways to begin a story–with action, a provocative remark, and stirring appeal to the senses–and you have the whole story to build out from that hook.
With an ending, you have to work with what came before in a way that readers will see as logical. But to make the ending a surprise, you have to reveal that logic in an unexpected way. When you can use logic and the unexpected effectively in an ending, you will provide readers with deep satisfaction and the kind of ending they remember with fondness.
So we’ll be exploring endings with all the challenges and rewards. Writers, are endings are hard for you to write? Readers, what are some memorable endings?
For more posts on writing endings, click here.
