Ending the Story

How does one end a story? It’s a problem that haunts many a writer and authors. Cause it is the most crucial part of the story. The final seconds and minutes will stay the longest in the reader's brain.

I am no stranger to this problem; my stories tend to get feedback that the ending is somehow flawed. Either too short, too long, doesn’t make sense, or is too dark or happy for the story. The conclusion is a tricky problem that we all try to work out.

I have learned things as a writer, trying to improve myself and provide quality entertainment. I have discovered some critical factors to the ending.

If the themes are suitably bleak or impossible to escape without spoiling, Skinamarink understands that a happy ending is unbelievable with the themes it tackles. Only My Eyes Move another example of a bad ending being inevitable. If there is no logical or emotional way for the characters to have a happy ending, then the bad ending has to be done.

However, if your story has hopeful or lighter themes, and the lousy ending happens without appropriate thematic backing, you will get angry comments. Also, a story with hope in the plot points or themes-like An American Tail, for example, but with a darker tone, the happy ending can feel rewarding.

It is also important not to have a dark ending for a persistently bleak story; this can result in people getting put off by the story. This is a risk that can be offset either by compelling narratives or hope. However, this is difficult to pull off properly if you don’t have talent (like me) or the narrative actively suppresses hope.

Another critical factor for a good or bad ending is the tone. You should have a happy ending if the tone is light. Romance stories, for example, almost always have a happy ending because we love to see the breeding pair go unfettered. For instance, Sasaki to Miyano is a lighthearted anime about first love in high school, it has a happy ending, and I am all for it.

In contrast to Banana Fish, a dark exploration of sexual exploitation and gang violence in New York City, the romance was improbable to have a happy ending. It is essential to understand what you are talking about in your story and what tone you are aiming for. Are you aiming for Notting Hill or Titanic? Are you exploring the joy and thrill of first love and exploration or a struggle to survive in a town reflecting your sexual frustration in the form of monsters? These are essential questions to ask when setting out to end your story.

There is also the question of how when the story ends. Where Dreams are Lost and Black Masquerade have seen different endings that elicit reactions from my beta readers. Please read my Afterthoughts of Where Dreams are Lost for thoughts on why I changed so many endings. I went from a bleak and depressing ending to a sweet and coy one I could not finish. The former pushed my readers away, and the latter just dragged on and overexplained everything.

I eventually settled on a darkly optimistic ending that doesn’t drag and rewards the reader. The ending has to match the tone and the themes of the story. But it must also bring the story to a natural conclusion, where most plot threads and problems are resolved. Not everything has to be tied up, but enough for the reader to feel like they hadn’t been cheated.

For a lesson in how not to do this, check out The Devil Inside, where it cuts out just as things get interesting it cuts and directs you to a now-defunct website. Nobody wants that, and I don’t want to do that to you, either.

Black Masquerade’s story suffered from either going on too long or too short. Either I overexplained things to the point of unintentional hilarity, or it was frustrating to the reader. It took me a while to narrow the scope into something that meets the sweet spot.

Sometimes you end up with an excess of endings, something like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Which often joked about as ending four or five different times; I didn’t think this was a bad thing cause there were a lot of characters with endings to be wrapped up. But I can also sympathize with the viewer who has sat for three hours and want to move them again. Peter Jackson skirted the lines between taking too long and wrapping stuff up naturally, something many authors/writers struggle with, including me. As writers, we have to fine-tune the ending over many drafts; sometimes, you get the ideal ending, but most of the time, you will not, and you must be prepared to kill your darlings.

In short, endings are complicated, and I don’t recommend them.

Cheers for reading!