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Mar 17, 2023 · The 6 types of story endings (with examples) Let's dive into the most common types of story endings that you'll see over and over again in storytelling. Note that, as we provide some examples from novel endings, there will be... spoilers! 1. Resolved Ending.
- Cliffhanger
- Repetition
- Sense of Sound
- Descriptions
- Unspoken Dialogue
- Asking Questions
- Emotions
- Contrast
- Memory
- The Epiphany
Normally, writers think of using a cliffhanger at the end of a chapter. But they absolutely can be used at the end of a story or book, for a few reasons: 1. Pique the reader’s interest for the next book in the series 2. Uses the “in media res” technique to go out on a high point, rather than dribble to a conclusion 3. Extend the reader’s imaginatio...
Ancient Hebrew poetry never used rhyme — it used repetition for emphasis. Repetition is always noticeable. There’s a power to it. It rivals rhyme as a device to shape language. Whatever you’re ending on, it’s something you want to emphasize, right? So heighten that emphasis with repetition. Here’s an exercise: take all the examples below and try re...
Good writers understand that sensory details are the lifeblood of fiction. And just as images are crucial ways to end a story (that’s the next section), you can also use sound as a way to dial up or dial down the end of your story. A crescendo ends a story well because it makes the story’s end feel climatic. While a decrescendo eases you out of the...
When you end a story, you’re helping the reader transition from the world of the story back into the real world. Sometimes that transition is easier if the last lines of the story don’t deal with the main characters, or plot, or themes, but instead talk about the universe of the story. Namely: description. Try to describe a particular thing in the ...
Unspoken Dialogue is very similar to a cliffhanger. While a cliffhanger refuses to resolve plot, this Unspoken Dialogue technique refuses to resolve the dialogue. There’s tension when a character wants to say something, but doesn’t. If you’re trying to learn how to write good dialogue, it’s always important to remember that characters don’t often s...
A question is one of the most popular ways to end a story (look at all the examples below!). I could even add more quite easily, like the question to conclude Margaret Atwood’s book, “Handmaid’s Tale”: “Are there any questions?” But if you use this technique, I would recommend following these three guidelines: 1. Must not have an easy answer 2. Mus...
You can’t write good fiction without making your characters feel things (and your reader feel things). So here, we see authors ending stories by showing the final arc of their character’s emotions. Some of these characters have emotional epiphanies, feeling something for the first time. Others have felt it all along but perhaps only now have been a...
Paul Harding, who won the Pulitzer Prize for “Tinkers,” said that contrast is the essential technique of music, painting, and storytelling. Below, we see contrasts between: 1. chill cats and stressed-out humans 2. the busyness of day with the solitude of night 3. the flowers of love with the chants for the dead. When you contrast something, you thr...
Marcel Proust’s memories brought back by the taste of a madeleine are probably the most famous memories in literature, but stories have always used memory to make readers nostalgic, evoke the senses, and make us feel the bite of time. When you end a story with memory, it ties the whole story together — past is united with the present. In some ways,...
The epiphany ending is the classic story ending. After everything the character has gone through, what have they learned? This is the chance to show that the journey has not been in vain, that your characters have changed and learned and grown because of this journey. Epiphanies are particularly useful for short stories, rather than novels, because...
- Take Them by Surprise. (Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None) Surprise works every single time. That’s because us humans are just curious creatures.
- Play on Their Sentiments with an Elegiac Fade Out. (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera) Milan Kundera takes a very different approach when he wraps up his The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- Throw Them a Punchline. (Animal Farm, George Orwell) With this one, you have to be careful. Do you know that situation when Uncle Albert at the holiday lunch table makes a big fuss about his upcoming joke, but the punchline is almost non-existent?
- Leave Open Questions and Create Suspense. (Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell) If you want to tickle your reader with suspense, cue an open ending: Ok, the Apaches are defeated, but will they be back again?
Whatever type of story ending you choose, you need to come up with the right final words for the story. Here are 10 techniques for writing the end of the story, and let's group them into 3 areas with the nifty mnemonic END: E XCITING - Action, Epiphany, Abrupt. N EUTRAL - Sensory Detail, Repeated Word/Phrase, Memory.
Sep 16, 2021 · How to End a Story: 4 Tips for Writing a Memorable Ending. The art of ending a story is one of the most elusive aspects of writing, yet a perfect ending can linger in readers’ minds for years.
Knowing how to end a story is one of the most important steps in finding your story’s trajectory. Let’s look at three ways to write a story ending as you work through your plot from its opening scene to its powerful last lines.
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May 29, 2024 · The key to an impactful story ending is to ensure it stays true to the characters and themes established throughout the narrative. Whether it’s a happy ending, a cliffhanger, or something more ambiguous, the conclusion should provide a sense of closure or provoke thought.
