New Writers, Follow These 4 Ways To Nail The End To Your Story

To make a reader click on a link to read your next story

I’m a bit of a story nerd when it comes to writing. Maybe, you can end your story without much of a second thought, but I can’t do this.

I think carefully about how to end a story. I see it as my last opportunity to leave an impression on my reader, and I take my endings seriously.

An ending should be more than a hasty goodbye with your reader.

It’s your last chance to say something on your topic, and what we often forget is our endings can entice a reader to click on your linked story at the end.

You want a reader to react like they’re watching a Netflix Series and to click on the link to another one of your stories because they loved your last one.

Here are four methods I use to end my stories to get that click:

#1: Tell what the story is all about

A lot of stories end on a whimper because they don’t tell what the deeper meaning of the story they’ve been telling us is really all about.

These stories get labeled, “Nice story.”

The problem is there is no depth to the story. The writer doesn’t take the time to dig a little deeper and to excavate what was their story is really all about.

The ending is a great place to focus on telling what the story is all about.

My brother Michael L Butler wrote a story, “My Brother’s Farts Got Me In Trouble,” and I like how the ending tells what the story is all about.

It wasn’t about my farts — it was about his relationship with our dad — and this part was missing in the draft of his story he sent to me for feedback.

But the ending he added takes his story from a “nice” to “deep” story:

Reflecting back while writing this story, I find myself holding no ill will towards my brother Scot. Hell, I did lots of dumb stuff too. But often not caught. I figure it’s part of growing up and being a confused adolescent.

Back then, I assumed maybe this was just part of being the oldest child.

However, as for my dad, it did affect our relationship, as I never felt I could open up to him and tell him how he made me feel when he’d yell at me for something I didn’t do. I had this inner anger I never let go of for how he’d get mad over things my brother did that I had nothing to do with.

Recently, our middle child has screamed and hollered profanity-ladened outbursts at us for being horrible parents, ruining his childhood, and favoring our other two siblings.

It makes me wonder if my son’s anger was similar to the one I felt. Maybe, he is remembering times my wife and I were too hard on him, and he also felt blamed for something one of his other two siblings did.

#2: Share a surprise in your ending

Another good way to end a story is with some kind of surprise that makes your reader suddenly think differently about what they have been reading.

Kate Swenson uses this ending in a chapter to her memoir, Forever Boy:

We stood on top of the bridge for a posed photo. Cooper, suddenly anxious, threw the beloved frame he was holding over the edge and into the river.

It landed with a thud.

As all four of us turned to watch it float away, the photographer snapped a beautiful photo. It was a symbolic moment now looking back.

Almost as if the old us was drifting away.

The photos turned out perfectly, showing a beautiful, happy family of four. As I studied the proofs over a glass of wine, I struggled to choose which ones to put on the walls of our new home.

We looked so happy.

No one could’ve known that behind closed doors, my marriage was over.

Did you see the marriage ending coming? I certainly didn’t, and this ending makes a reader rethink the story they’ve just read — to see the clues they may have just missed, and who wouldn’t click on her next story about her divorce?

#3) Zoom in on details related to your topic

This is a technique I noticed reading Atticus Lish’s novel, War for Gloria.

What Lish does right at the end of a scene is to add details about a character, event, or setting right when a reader might notice the white margins of a page and want to take a break from the story and, maybe, never return to the book.

Zooming in on details works like magic because it makes a reader stop and notice details in the story when their mind might focus on something else.

Here is an example from his book:

September had arrived, the elbow of the year. The weather was still warm and he didn’t see birds flying south, not yet. But the angle of the sun was different and the ocean was turning a darker cast of blue. Molly was going back to college. He had just decided to go back to his job when his mom’s disease progressed to her throat.

Sure, you notice the details about the birds, the angle of the sun, the color of the ocean, and Molly going back to college. But the detail that makes you think more about the story is, “his mom’s disease progressed to her throat.”

It tells you something — his mother is closer to death and he has only a limited amount of time with her and the dynamics of their relationship will change.

#4) Emphasize a change in a character

If you are writing a personal story, online readers are like novel readers: they like to see the arc a character — you — are making in the story you’re telling.

And the ending is a great way to show, maybe, not a huge change, but how your worldview has shifted in a small way that may lead to a bigger change.

Here is an example from my story, “Yes, Teachers Fart in Class:”

What this moment taught me is to not be afraid to laugh and to have some fun with my students. The 15 to 20-minute break from the lesson plan felt like it drew my students and me closer together from our shared laughter.

I believe we all have an inner struggle to let others see a personal side of ourselves, and we keep certain parts of ourselves locked up and stored away in a secret compartment, but I wanted to allow my students to see my human side.

And so I inadvertently found a way to connect with my students with my SBD and turned the moment into the intangibles of education — the friendships, the relationships, the good times — that students seldom experience in class.

These moments are rare, so I milked the fart for the intangibles.

Of course, the best ending to a story is when it has a natural end. But these four ways are a great way to provide a memorable end to a story and that’s important to make your reader click on a link to read another of your stories.

Thanks for reading my story.

Tagging fellow story nerds: Cassandra Boom, R-presh, E. Katherine Kottaras, Pastor Paul J Bern, Dr. Roopleen, Graham Saxby, Klara Jane Holloway, Sandy Maximus, Bernie Pullen, Roxy Wright, nareeta martin, Sean Cordes, Michael L Butler, MarkfromBoston 🐾🍻, Autistic Widower, Patricia Pixie❤. Jane Kelley, Mary Louisa Cappelli, Domato Green, Devette Lindsay, Ning Choi

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