Terrible endings.

I have reached the conclusion that I am incapable of writing a story with a decent ending. I can start a story okay and make it somewhat interesting but the ending lets it down every single time. I can never think of an ending that befits the beginning so end up going for rubbish, cliche, gimmicky endings that spoil it.

I guess just having a concept and cracking on doesn’t work because the concept quickly fizzles out.

What techniques or methods do you use to create your endings?
What should I do to get better?
Are there any writing exercises I can do to improve?

 

I think to have a good ending you need to make sure your story itself is worthy of such an ending. What I'm clumsily trying to say is that I don't think you can separate the ending and just work on that. The whole thing is an organism, and all of it needs to be healthy, not just one part.

Of course I have no idea if that's what's going on with your stuff.

For my part, I'll spend a lot of time developing the whole idea, letting it grow and evolve and find new forms. And as it changes the types of endings it could grow change with it.

But that said, I must admit sheepishly that my stories are mostly like my avatar—missing the tail. I have however come up with a lot of great ideas for great stories with great endings!

 

Hi, suffer with the same thing myself and I'm still working on it. The reason so many people suck at writing endings is because most never make it that far. They get practice in writing various beginnings but quit before the end.

First I would recommend reading and watching material that is considered to have a good ending and study that movie/book like crazy and figure it out - how did they achieve it.
One thing sure to kill an ending is when the writer fails to for fill all the promises they made. The best example of this was a TV show I watched about ten years ago. They made one very clear promise to the audience and for filled it. But they also made one they were unaware of, and that it was this promise the audience really clung to and they failed to deliver so ended up getting 11 millions complaints from the viewers. It was dubbed one of the best story lines in TV with an ending that killed it. Just because they disappointed the audience. It's ok to have a tragic ending as long as you set it up from the start.

I would sit and write just the ending to movies I liked. Especially movies that there was a book of. I watch the movie, write my end then look at the book to see what they did better and what I'd missed.
Reading good endings in books. And getting the hang of various endings not just the "happy ever after" because not every book fits that Hollywood ending.

 

Sometimes, I start with the ending. Not writing the ending, but rather, the idea of the ending and then work out how to get there.

So for example, when I wrote "Christmas on the Western Front", I had the idea of a war story that ended with the line "You look like you've seen a ghost".

OTOH, for my latest story, I had an idea about the story but no idea how to end it. I wrote it, and as I was nearing the end, I thought "how the hell am I going to end this?". I had the choice of ending the story right after the climax, but that wasn't satisfying, so I extended it slightly, added an extra scene and the ending just sort of came to me. It wasn't a "twist" ending like I normally have, but it was pretty satisfying.

As a short story writer, I like to finish stories with a bon mot, or rather, a pithy line of dialogue from one of the characters. You made me realise that I almost always finish stories that way.

 

My thoughts:
Try to write at the beginning of the story and the end of the story.
What does your story tell and what kind of thought does it convey? If you have a story with a certain idea, then everything should work out well for you.
If you do this, then the beginning and the end of the idea will have to keep the same level. Since they will be nearby, you can polish both to the desired level before writing the rest of the story.

If your stories are just a slice of the time of the world or the life of the character. Then you do not need a strong ending to the story since this type of story does not carry a general idea that conveys to the reader.

 

I am facing the same problem with my WIP. So thanks for posing this question as I need the answer too!

The only thoughts that I have had is to keep it simple. Pace is key so to combat any info dumping. Some kind of conclusion/resolution is required. God knows really.

I have been reading the final chapters of every book that I can lay my hands on and this helps somewhat.

 

Very true! One reason is that endings are so much harder. Beginnings are easy, the whole world is open to you at that point, and it only narrows down a little in the body of the story. But the end is a whole different kind of animal. Now you have to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. Wrap up any loose ends, pull a surprising but perfect conclusion out of your magic hat (or wherever you might pull such things from).

Sorry, I don't have anything smart to say, just wanted to elaborate a bit on why endings are so much harder. And really crank up the pressure for everybody struggling with it.

Ok, I take it back. I can say one thing that I think sounds kinda smart. You may already be aware of this, but as you're contemplating endings you need to be willing to let everything else shift and mutate to accommodate. This means you might have to make some major changes to the rest of it, or completely re-conceive it all. Often it means trashing parts you spent a lot of time crafting and that you thought were the main point of the story. Ruthless editing is the toughest kind of love.

 

When I wrote my first chapter it was functional. Yet I realised that it needed to be better if not amazing. So Chpt 1 served its purpose and allowed me to write nearly the entire book. It took me a further 2 years to make Chpt 1 what it is today. I have learned a lot from that experience but I feel that it has taught me little of how to end the book. I am talking about structure here: nuts and bolts. I have the plot ready in my head, but it is the execution that is lacking. I feel sure that the end of the book is a different discipline to any other part. Chapter 1 is robust and serves its purpose very well. But what about the final two chapters? That is where I feel lost.

 

I, like most people, struggle with endings too.

Sometimes I feel rushed about it, like I must hurry and wrap it all up quickly somehow. Other times it feels the story itself might be over, and the ending drags on like some forced epilogue. The challenging part (to me) is even when an ending presents itself, how to go about conveying it in a manner that properly fits with the rest of the story. My go-to always seems to be the sudden turn/one sentence/hard stop-style ending. Even when I don't try to go down that path, it happens anyway :/

 

I agree with this. This depends on the genre and length, but how did the third act pan out, and was it properly supported by the rest of the story? If it doesn't seem like the question "is the hero going to survive this, and what does it mean thematically if she does" was satisfactorily answered, maybe that's because the question wasn't asked very well in the first place.

I would actually suggest reading instead of writing, but with the endings in mind. Think about what it really meant when/if the hero overcame his antagonist, and how uncertain his success was.

 

In answer to your question...

I say @Seven Crowns has given you the answer I'd recommend:

Create a great problem and then think up a solution for it. This is your ending. If you've created a truly great problem, then very likely there isn't a great solution. Give yourself time and research the heck out of your great problem by looking at comparable great problems in history (I recommend good old-fashioned news articles and history textbooks). I repeat: Give yourself time and don't run with the first idea that you come across.

Remember, always: Great problems seldom have great solutions, and if they have, the solutions are (probably) the wrong solutions. And if they are the wrong solutions? Then you have the ingredients to a truly great ending, i.e.

... which creates tension right to 'The End'.

 

Will this help at all? https://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-structure-a-killer-novel-ending

 

What if the hero fails and is unhappy, but through no fault or action of his own? Like he's an unwitting puppet.

For example, in the short I'm working on, the antagonists befriend the hero, albeit in a creepy way, until their objective is reached. They operate with a completely ulterior motive that the MC does not know about. So, the protagonist serves a distinct purpose - unbeknownst to him - for the antagonists' goal. Once that happens, it's basically done. He's just a means to their end. But when I finished the first draft, it seems to end too cleanly.

 

From my understanding the ending should always be a result of the protagonist's actions. The hero needs to be at least in part responsible for the ending.

This is especially important in a tragic ending and is why tragic flaws exist.

Now with your example it could be played off that the protagonist's trusting nature made it so they never questioned the motive behind why the antagonist befriended them. If you present it such that a normal person would have doubts, but the protagonist remains willfully ignorant, it creates that tragic arc that will make the ending more palatable.

 

@Damage718 what you describe isn't necessarily tragic or a bad ending, it depends on the situation and how things resolve. It could be a valuable learning experience for a naive youth who needs to learn (the hard way) that you mustn't be too trusting of people. If that's how it works out, it could be a very costly and hard lesson, but then those are the ones we really learn from the most. His arc would be one of growing up and learning, and in a weird sense the antagonists ended up serving the purpose of teaching him that lesson, though that wasn't their intent. That would be a coming of age story.

Or maybe it isn't that kind of a story. Hard to say at this point.

 

That's essentially what I'm trying to do. The setup is strange and each encounter the MC has with the antagonists is increasingly unsettling. But the antagonists never reveal their plan and the MC is a pushover and naive, which helps him to be played right into their hands, completely unknowingly. So he in fact is responsible for the ending, in part, because he was the one the antagonists were searching for all along.

@Xoic I read your reply after posting mine. You nailed it. It's the MC's naivety that helps him unwittingly become the victim at the end.

 

That's not really what it means that the protag must be responsible for the ending. It's more that he got duped, and it definitely isn't something he set out to do and was successful at. So in that sense it isn't a heroic type narrative, or if viewed through that lens he's a failure. But from the perspective of him toughening up and enduring hardship in order to learn necessary life lessons, it's a success. You could present it as if it's supposed to be a heroic tale, so the ending seems to be a tragedy or failure, but then he realizes, or somebody has to tell him, that it isn't a hero's tale but more the training montage for one. Shift the goal post at the end.

 

I only meant the MC is 'responsible for' the ending in the sense that he was physically there, even though the actions were not his fault and completely out of his control. 'Duped' is a more accurate way to describe it. He was absolutely a puppet in someone's mysterious scheme. I also keep referring to him in the past tense because his end is, well, final. It's a quick shock ending in the vein of, "the truth is in plain sight but in the last place anyone looked."

I'll probably post the draft in the workshop for critiquing. I understand this isn't easy to discuss without the actual story for reference

 

I like this question, and I have abandoned a few stories because of this very thing. Then I wonder, am I lacking discipline, am I not invested enough, have I lost my creative spark.. and so the self-doubt tries to enter.

When I love an idea that I have, but am feeling unsure, I like to start jotting down general ideas. Sometimes what works for me is once I have a rough idea of my story & characters, I work backwards. I get a sense for my story as a whole, but I ask myself questions about the ending first. I ask what I want the end result to be, how will it look, how do I want people to feel? What is the objective here?
Then, how am I going to get there?
I don't always write this way but I can find it useful. That way I know I'm not going somewhere aimlessly. I don't necessarily stick with that ending either, but because there is more of a clear picture I am able to string things together a little more easily.

 

I just recommended this book in another thread earlier today, and I'll try not to spam it all over the board, but I highly recommend everyone read A Story is a Promise by Bill Johnson. Blandest authorial name I've ever seen, but his advice is the best I've encountered, and approached differently than I've seen in other books (not that I've seen them all). Take a look at his website, at this essay on the first few lines in the preface of Twilight (Don't hate!) After recommending it earlier I busted it out and am reading it again and highlighting the hell out of it. If I can figure out how to do this, I'll be the best writer the world has ever seen!!! Mwaaahaahaaaaa!!!!

His concept of the promises a story lays out will show you how to work every part of the story and conceive brilliant endings that fulfil the promises you began with.

 

I think the question is also, 'do you write intuitively.' I know that I do. Little by little though I am incorporating structure into my work. I see that without structure it simply will not work. I am glad that I write intuitively, that I did not plan or plot things out meticulously in the first place, at least not the first time around. I am glad that I have fallen over and made mistakes. Spent countless hours getting it all wrong. Written well over 1 million words. I can see the lessons that I have learned and the improvements I have made. These are real experiences that I can look back on and use. They make me appreciate the structure, planning and form all the more. Without my experience (which is limited) the advice given above and that I read in resources (thanks @jannert for your suggestions) would mean little on its own.

It is really about the balance between what experiences we have and advice and learning from this that have gone before. It certainly is not a choice we have to make between the two.

This will no doubt help me find my stories end.

 

I think you've made an extremely important point. You say you're glad you made mistakes, because you've learned from them. I think that's a much better route to success than being terrified of making any mistakes in the first place.

It's one of those things that writing a novel (or anything, really) can teach you. When you read advice from other writers about what you should or shouldn't do ...you'll know what they're talking about! And you'll see what you did in your own work.

Maybe that's one of the huge advantages we have over people who were writers over a hundred years ago. We have all this instructional material at the click of a mouse, etc. Writers like Jane Austen or Charles Dickens didn't have that kind of resource. Their only real feedback would have come from editors and of course their readership. So they had to produce something first.

However, it's a shame if all this advice scares people off to the point that they never get anything written or finished.

 

This is a very good point.

So far, I've not taken any courses on writing. I think if I had, I might have been overwhelmed before I even started. Am thinking of taking one now though.

 

I have a whole bookshelf filled with writing books (not including research material for my story.) And I've got rid of a few over the years as well, simply because I wasn't using them in particular. I refer to these how-to-write books often. BUT ...I didn't buy any till after I'd finished the first draft of my novel AND got some excellent beta feedback.

It means I know I CAN write without anybody else telling me how. Even though I made tons of newbie mistakes with my first (and subsequent) drafts, and it took me years to get my MS into the shape where I can now work on publishing it, I have never lost that feeling I got when I first keyed in 'the end.' I know I can write.

However, I can also learn to improve. Two different mindsets.

If you worry about making mistakes at the outset (forgetting that all mistakes are correctible) I fear that confidence in your ability to write will be hard to come by. And it's priceless, really.