On Writing Satisfying Endings in Fiction

What it comes down to and how to achieve them

When working with writers as either an editor or ghostwriter, the question of how to end a story comes up A LOT. What I always try and remind my clients and writers who come to me is that the idea of a satisfying ending is all about the story idea and characters. For many of these writers, what they have at the beginning is a simple idea and a basic character.

That leads them to write unsatisfying or cliche endings because the hard work of rooting around in the story idea and characters isn’t being fully tended to.

It can be hard to understand the difference between the characters you craft in your head and the necassary development that happens behind the scenes to make those characters more than stock images on the page.

Without doing any of that work, writers will try the many tricks out there to create meaningful and satisfying endings. They’ll do parallel endings where they have the story end in the same place it began to show how the characters and world have changed or not changed throughout the course of the story. Or they’ll follow their story idea and characters to their logical conclusion.

But all of those methods without deeply knowing their story idea and characters come off as the writer forcing their story idea and characters to the ending they want.

To help some writers who may not have ever come across the term of a story idea or who see story idea as plot, I’ll clarify what it actually is. Your story idea is the story thread or driving force behind your story that is separate from your plot, which is the events strung together to make your story. For the TV show Sex in the City, the story idea is modern women living in New York City juggle love, sex, and friendship in frank and refreshing ways.

Your story idea is the moment and statement you come back to when deciding where to take your story and what to focus on. Like a thematic statement, your story idea should resonate throughout your story connecting each part in subtle ways that adds depth and texture to your story.

Your characters are more than the people who fill in the spaces of your story or who act out your whims. Characters need to be real concentrated thematic statements unto themselves if they are going to stand out on the page. Dig into who they are as people and how they function in the story.

Using both your story idea and characters together and exploring them past the surface or cliche will lead you to write satisfying and groundbreaking endings that will stick with your readers past the page.

We’ll get into more of how to do that later with exercises and resources but first, let’s turn to some experts.

Prominent speculative fiction editor Sheila Williams of Asimov said this of endings in her interview with Odyssey:

It’s a huge relief when an unfamiliar author lands the ending. In a great ending, the multiple layers of a story come together in a satisfying way. A well-thought-out ending shows me that I’m in the hands of a professional or budding professional. Generally, a good ending is not one that the author tacked on to their story. Sometimes I realize that the ending was foretold in the opening paragraphs, but that doesn’t mean that it was predictable, just that the groundwork was laid. Although an ending can develop organically from the tale being told, many authors begin their story with an understanding of exactly where and how the story will conclude. Sometimes they even write it first.

And author E.C. Ambrose discusses how she writes endings in her interview with Odyssey:

The ideal ending for a story is both surprising and inevitable. When the reader arrives, they think, “I didn’t see that coming — but of course it makes perfect sense!” The right ending resonates with the themes and images of the work as a whole and usually speaks back to how it began — how the character or conflict was established. The markers for the ending should be clear in retrospect, but not as they arrive in the text. Some of the endings I find most frustrating are the ones where the author had a great ending, then kept writing afterward for another few paragraphs or a few pages. This is what epilogues are for. Find the ending at which your characters have developed and discovered as they need to. Work on an image or line to capture the essence of that story. And if you feel like something else needs to be said, add the epilogue. The best ending for a story is rarely the first or second one we think of. Keep working. What would be the best possible outcome? What would be the worst? What climax and denouement will hit your protagonist’s triggers in the most painful and then most satisfying ways? See — it’s easy!

The above quotes resonate more with me than the types of writers who hold to a simple or basic mindset of an ending just being where you stop the story. I want thought and control and intention in my stories—both the ones I write and the ones I read. Not every reader or writer is like that, though, and that’s okay.

You just have to find out what type of writer you are. And never stop striving toward it.

How to Write Satisfying Endings

What I advise many writers to do is to write unsatisfying endings and then write endings that are knock your socks off wild (but still in line with the story’s logic). Write at least three of each for your stories when you’re first trying to get a handle on endings.

James Patterson and Charlie Jane Anders both advise writers to do this as well. Because for them, that’s how they craft their much-loved works, by writing past the average and focusing on who their characters are and what is the most extraordinary ending they could have.

I know that feeling of excitement when a new story pops into your head and you just want to write it all out. But those ideas are just that. Ideas.

Their great and cool and exciting, but what separates many professionally published writers from people who are trying to figure story out is that they realize the idea is nothing without a firm grasp on the characters and the overarching story idea tying them together.

That and they finish what they start even if the ending isn’t perfect the first time.

Work past the ordinary and basic endings to reach the extraordinary endings that will stick with your readers. The only way to do that is by knowing your characters and story idea past the surface. Some writers do this through character quizzes and sheets, but many find these outlets to render basic or 2-dimensional characters, at best.

For writers who want to craft dynamic stories and thought-provoking characters that stick with their readers, I suggest using the motivation, style, and voice breakdown of character that connects and harmonizes all points of your characters without relying on gimmicks.

The method breaks down character into three parts:

• Motivation: Not just what they want in the story, but what they want out of their lives outside of the story. Think both materialistically and internally. Best-selling author N.K. Jemisin instructs writers to use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to determine their characters' real motivations.
• Style: Using their basic wants, needs, and arc, develop character traits related to their dress, actions, and choices. The character’s style is how they present themselves to people shaped by their upbringing, standing in life, and where they want to see themselves.
• Voice: Not just how they speak, but how they inflect, use slang, and express themselves nonverbally based on their background and current influences.

By determining who your characters are in the story, you’ll be able to see ways the characters can interact within the story and how they can end the story in a way that is both surprising and satisfying.

Stories are More Than Ideas

Coming up with basic ideas is super easy. Sitting down and writing that idea tons of different ways, researching into who your characters are, unpacking your own trauma and emotions attached to your story, all of the shit it takes to be a writer is hard. Like really hard. Many people don’t want to do the work but want to wear the badge of being a writer.

Which is cool. I guess.

But if you’re the type of writer that sees and knows that your stories aren’t what they can be or what you want them to be, buckle up for the hard and rough road of learning how to turn your crap into gold by exploring your characters and idea past the cool and into the uncanny.

What about you? How do you write and see endings to your story? Are you the type of writer who doesn’t think or worry about how their story ends and just writes it before moving on to the next?

Resources and Exercises

• Creative Penn Podcast for Writers- Unforgettable Endings with James Scott Bell The talk on endings is about 20 mins in and ends around 40 mins in.
• Charlie Jane Anders: The Ending is the Beginning
• Writing Excuses Podcast: Writing the End
• Jerry Jenkins: How to End a Story
• Finding Your Way to the End
• Chuck Wendig Endings Are Not Stoppings: On Game Of Thrones, And How We Conclude Our Stories(Game of Thrones spoilers)

Aigner Loren Wilson is a queer Black Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer of America, Horror Writer of America, and Codex writer. Her work has appeared in and is forthcoming from WIRED, Anathema, Tordotcom, Fiyah, and more. She is a Hugo Award finalist for her editing, the author of several speculative fiction books and games, and a teacher of several courses in writing, selling, and editing. She has also served as guest editor and judge of numerous professional publications and contests.