Story Endings - enhancing your readers’ experience

Thoughts on how to get your story over the finishing line

Photo by david Griffiths on Unsplash

Just as openings of stories and novels are the first contact with the reader, where you must seduce and make them care enough to carry on reading, so endings are way to round out your story, to induce a final response in the reader – tears, laughter, anger, contemplation…

Most short fiction (flash fiction in particular) is devoured in one sitting, so the way a piece ends is an important part of overall experience of the reader. It’s similar to going to see a film at the cinema - you want the ending to be part of the immersive experience. That’s probably why so many stories end with reflective, slightly cinematic ending. You know the sort of thing - character X, who has reached an understanding, or been changed by some confluence of events and choices, drives slowly away from the scene, or watches a tide go out, or sits and watches the dusk gather quietly…

For the most part endings ‘set’ the story. They bring at least some kind of closure. They reflect back into the story. But it’s important to say that ambiguous, or mysterious, or abrupt endings, can really work too. I’d argue that they have to be appropriate and purposeful. Shock value only goes so far.

For me, and I’m prepared to argue the point, bad endings are those which dribble to a frustrating conclusion, or totally confuse the reader, or rely on poor reversal and deus ex machina fixes, rabbit-out-of-the-hat occurrences, or unearned surprises.

Below are some ideas about endings which might prove useful:

Is your story worth an ending yet?
If the rest of your story is not working, if the writing is flat or the situation and characters are stock or the narrative confusing, then you’re unlikely to be able to provide a really a satisfying ending. Also ensure that you are not trying to end a story that isn’t finished, where there is still narrative to complete. This sometimes happens during timed writing or when a writing session gets interrupted, you try to ‘tack on’ an ending to a story that doesn’t want to end yet.
Action: If you are struggling to find a good ending, see if there’s something you can do to improve the story itself first – even if it takes the story in unexpected directions, you might find it is the key to unlock the ending. In addition, look through and make sure your story is actually ready to end.

Is your ending hidden further back in the text? 
It’s surprisingly common to look at someone else’s work and see that the better ending is one or two paragraphs back from where the writer has finished.
Action: Delete the last paragraph or two of your draft. Now read the whole thing. Is it better?

Are you listening to your story?
Some writers try to force an ending onto a story like an ill-fitting shoe because that’s how they originally envisaged it ending or because they think stories ‘should’ end in a particular way. Both of those are wrong. Stories change as they develop, therefore so do their endings.
Action: Read your story out loud to yourself. Better still record it and listen back (or get someone else to do this. Really listen to your story because, very often, by doing this we can hear the direction the story is taking and how it should end. This should help you avoid your preconceived notion of what “should” happen.

Is the ending wrong because you have tried to summarise the story?
Sometimes writers get into the habit of trying to summarise the story in the ending because they are concerned the reader might not get it. Bad move.
Action: Quite simply, don’t be preachy or didactic. Don’t tell the reader what to think about the story. Trust them to discover it through subtext it, make his/her own decisions.

Are you trying for a too-neat ending?
Your story is not something you have to wrap up and seal tight with everything explained – it’s not a whodunit. This approach trivializes your story.
Action: Think about the emotional content of your story and how to draw that to a conclusion, rather than concentrating on trying to make the ending neat, safe and clean. That’s just dull.

Examples

Click on this link to find some flash fictions stories with interesting endings from the folks at Smokelong Quarterly.

In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried by Amy Hempel is an example of an excellent short story with a great ending.

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