Endings- getting them right

 

Ones to be aware of:

Take care that your ending isn’t:

• ·         Too melodramatic
• ·         A bit of a damp squib
• ·         A deus ex machina

The latter relates to when a God in a machine is propelled on to the stage and creates an almost impossible ending over which the main character has no control.  There are some stories however where strange coincidences occur; see Dickens, Molière, Shakespeare and most pantomimes for details.  If you choose such an ending you still have to work hard to make it believable.  

 

What leaves the reader satisfied

·         The main character has grown and is visibly different at the end of the story from at the beginning.

·         There is some sort of closure – no matter how subtle.

·         The ending is plausible – but not too predictable.

·         All loose ends have been tied up.

Some useful types of ending

Happily ever after

You don’t have to actually use these words but the readers know that everything has turned out very well indeed.

Epilogue

This is a scene added on some time after the end of the story. This will show how the main character is getting on with their new life – or not. It may even open the next story.

Leaving the reader to decide

Even though the ending is upbeat the reader is left to decide exactly what will happen to the main character now. And even exactly how they got there anyway. Whatever the author has presented must still make sense but the reader has some choice about how to interpret the main character and their actions. 

Homecoming

The main character comes back home or at least to a point of stasis.  However they find that the problems they have been fighting in the outside world are still there at home and they have one last battle. Examples of this are in Lord of the Rings and Wind in the Willows.    

Find more tips like this.