Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 4: Choosing an ending
• Method 2 of 4: Explain the journey
• Method 3 of 4: Use of action and images
• Method 4 of 4: Follow logic
• Tips

Stories present an event or series of events and have a beginning, a middle, and an end. A good story - one that elicits a strong reaction in the reader - often has an ending that has a big impact on the reader. To write a happy ending for your story, show the reader why your story is important.

To step

Method 1 of 4: Choosing an ending

1. Review the parts of your story. Your story will have a beginning that introduces your characters, the environment, and the conflict. The middle of the story features rising tension, complications, and your characters' reactions to the conflict. Finally, the ending will detail the resolution of the conflict and its aftermath.
   • The end should come when the main character has or hasn't reached his goal.
   • For example, suppose the character wants to be rich, they may have to go through several challenges to purchase a ticket. Will the person succeed? If so, conclude with the moment that your character is told all the numbers of the lottery ticket.
2. Focus on a closing event or action for your story. Your story can have many exciting major events, but you have to choose one good scene as the denouement of your story. Make sure this scene makes sense as the last moment of the story and that you can neatly tie the threads of your story together. Finally, your final scene must have meaning for your characters so that the reader has that feeling.
   • For example, you could end the story with a scene that presents the aftermath of an important decision and thus resolves the conflict in your story.
3. Identify the main conflict in your story. Most of the conflicts in the story will be either person versus person, person versus nature, person versus society, or person versus themselves. Your final scene should resolve this conflict whether your characters get what they want or not. This resolution must have an impact on your reader for your story to be effective.
   • Ask yourself these questions to find out what type of conflict you use: Are the characters in your story fighting nature? Against each other? Against himself (an inner or emotional fight)?
   • An example of a human-nature conflict is someone who is stranded in the forest in the middle of winter. He must find a place to warm himself, protected from the elements.

Method 2 of 4: Explain the journey

1. Write a reflection on the meaning of the events in the story. Consider why these events matter. What should the reader get out of your story? What themes, ideas or arguments are you trying to portray? You don't want to tell these things directly to your reader, but you need to show them through the events, actions, and dialogue in your story.
   • You could write, "My grandfather always made it a point to expect me to do the right thing and the right thing, in every situation. Now that I'm a police officer, I understand why he thought this was so important ... "
2. Set the "And so what?’ ask. Think about the importance or relevance of your story to the reader. Why should a reader be concerned about your story? If you can answer this question, review your story to see if the order of actions you chose would lead the average reader to your answer.
   • For example, "Why should we be concerned about Noni and his village?"
   • "Because the warming climate raised sea levels and flooded his village." If we don't learn from his mistakes and act quickly, we may face the same fate. "
3. Use the first person to present ideas from the narrator's perspective. The first person is a narrative perspective that makes it possible to tell the story up close because the speaker is involved in the events. Whether you are the "me" in the story (the writer) or the voice of a character you have created, you can just address the reader directly. However, keep in mind that the story should stay very close to the character it is telling, only telling information that the narrator might know.
   • For example, "I realized, standing on this incredible stage, that all my hard work and long rehearsals had led me to this moment ..."
4. Use the third person to tell your story from afar. You can let another character or an omniscient narrator speak for you and convey the importance of the story. This allows you to inject more of your own interpretation into the story, as there is some distance between the characters and the narrator.
   • For example, "Denise folded the letter, kissed it, and put it on the table next to the money. They would have questions for her, she knew, but in time they would learn, as she had learned, to find their own answers. "
5. Write a "conclusion" for your story. How you write your conclusion depends on your genre. However, all good story endings have one element in common: they leave the reader with something to think about. Your reader should close the story by thinking about the important themes of your story and their meaning.
   • For a personal or academic essay, your conclusion can take the form of a closing paragraph or a series of paragraphs.
   • If you're working on a science fiction novel, the conclusion could take up an entire chapter or two.
   • Don't end your story with ordinary clichés that will disappoint your reader. For example, don't end your story like this: "A blinding light pierced my eyes, so I raised my hand to protect them. It was then that I felt the cocoon of soft blankets around me and the comfort of my pillow. I opened my eyes and realized it had all been a dream. "
6. Identify the larger connection or pattern in the events in your story. Think about how the events come together, creating a story arc. Thinking about your story as a journey - where you or your main character ends up in a different place, somehow changed from the start - will help you see the ways in which your story takes its own unique shape, and will help you find an ending that feels right.

Method 3 of 4: Use of action and images

1. Use the action to show (not tell) what's important. We know that action-packed stories, written or visual, appeal to all ages. Through physical action you can also convey the greater meaning and importance of your story.
   • For example, if your story ends with the heroine saving the village from the dragon, you can have a warrior hand over his favorite sword to her. Without having any dialogue whatsoever, you still show the reader that this is important.
2. Build your ending with description and sensory images. Sensory details connect us emotionally to the story, and much well-written work uses visual parlance. However, by using rich sensory language to paint pictures with words in the latter part of your story, you leave the reader with depth of meaning. For instance:
   • "Timmy knew the monster had been defeated, sinking into the depths of the toilet bowl, but he stood and waited anyway, watching every brown stain disappear until nothing but a clear blue calm remained." He did not move until his reflection returned to the water surface of the toilet bowl. "
3. Create metaphors for your characters and their goals. Leave clues in your story so that the reader / viewer can build an interpretation. People enjoy stories that they can "grapple" with and think about while reading. You don't want to make your story so confusing that a reader can't understand it, but you will want to include figurative language that isn't too obvious. That way you add something interesting and meaningful to your work. For instance:
   • As Sam said goodbye and revved the engine, Joe could feel herself becoming a memory - blasting into a sound explosion, stretching out, a rocket arc in the street, until she was nothing more than the aftermath of fireworks, a thrilling vision he luckily should have seen up close. '
4. Select a vivid image. Similar to using action or sensory descriptions, this approach is especially helpful when telling stories within an essay. Think of the mental image that should "haunt" the reading - some visual images that can capture the essence of your story - and leave that to the reader at the end.
5. Emphasize a theme. You could work with a number of themes, especially if you are writing a longer story, such as a history-based essay or book. By targeting a specific theme or motif through images or the actions of a character, you can create a structure that is unique to your story. This approach is particularly useful for open-ended stories.
6. Repeat for a moment. Similar to emphasizing a theme, you can choose a particular action, event, or emotional moment from your story that feels the most meaningful, and repeat that in some way - by repeating the moment, coming back to it, and reflect on it or build on it, etc.
7. Return to the beginning. Like emphasizing a theme and coming back to a moment, this strategy means closing the story by repeating something you introduced at the beginning. This is commonly known as a "frame" or "framing device" and it can provide shape and meaning to a story.
   • For example, if your story starts with a person looking at a leftover cake but refuses, you end it with the same person looking at the cake (or a different one). If the person has overcome anorexia, you can have her eat the piece of cake.

Method 4 of 4: Follow logic

1. Review the events of your story to see how they relate to each other. Remember that not all actions have the same importance or relationship. You use different actions and events in your story to convey different themes and messages about your story and characters. It's important that every event you record is relevant to your story and its ending. However, not all of them need to be completed or successful as your character is likely to experience failures.
   • For example, in Homer's "The Odyssey", the main character Odysseus tries to go home a number of times and fails, encountering monsters along the way. Any failure adds tension to the story, but what he learns about himself eventually becomes more important. When he does eventually get home, his achievement is more meaningful because of all his failures.
2. Ask yourself: ’What's going to happen next? " Sometimes, when we get too excited (or frustrated) with a story we are writing, we can forget that events and behaviors, even in a fantasy world, tend to follow the logic, the physical laws of the universe that you you imagine, etc. Often times creating a successful ending is as easy as thinking about what would logically happen in a situation.
   • The ending of a story must make sense and follow what happened before.
3. Ask yourself: ’Why do events proceed in this order? " Review the sequence of events or actions in the story, then review actions that seem surprising to clarify the logic and flow of your story.
   • For example, if your characters come across a secret passage to a fantasy land while looking for their lost dog, return to the dog at the end. Have them visit the fantasy land and find their lost dog at the end.
4. Come up with variations and surprises. We don't want stories to be so logical that nothing new happens in them. Think about what would happen if a particular choice or event changed a bit, and be sure to include surprises. See if you have included enough surprising events or action moments for your reader.
   • For example, readers might find a character who wakes up, goes to school, comes home and goes to bed very boring. Let something new and surprising happen. Let her come across a strange package on her doorstep with her name on it.
5. Raise a question based on where the story took you. Review what you have learned from the events, evidence, or details that you have arranged. Think about - and then write about - what is missing, what problems or concerns are still not addressed, or what questions arise. Endings that reflect on questions can invite the reader to think more deeply, and most topics - if dealt with through logic - will lead to more rather than fewer questions.
   • For example, what new conflicts await your heroes now that the monster has been destroyed? How long will peace remain in the kingdom?
6. Think like an outsider. Whether it's a true story or imagined, reread your story from an outsider's perspective, and think about what makes sense to someone reading the story for the first time. As the story writer, you may be particularly excited about an event involving one of your characters, but you should remember that another reader may have a different sense of which part of the story is most important. If you distance yourself from your story, you can think about it more critically.

Tips

• Create overviews! Before you start writing something, you write a sketch. A sketch is your map throughout your story. It tells you where you have been and where you are going. A sketch or outline is the only way to see the whole structure of the story at a glance, so is a very effective way of seeing how your ending might work.
• Ask someone else to read your story and give you feedback on how it ended. Make sure it's someone whose opinion you trust and respect.
• Pay attention to the genre you are writing in. A story included as part of a historical essay will have certain characteristics that are different from a short horror story. A story told in a stand-up comedy routine will have different elements than a travelogue.
• Overhaul, overhaul, overhaul! Once you know exactly how your story will end, go back and check for any gaps or pieces that might unnecessarily confuse the reader.