Do you want to know how great story endings are made?

Every story has a beginning and an ending. For writers, sometimes it is hard starting the story, but most of the time, it is harder to finish it.

Story endings matter. They tie up loose ends or leave questions behind. If you are an avid reader, you want stories that will give you some sense of closure. You want to know what happens to the characters you invested in, whether they reach their destinations or accomplish their goals. Endings tell us whether or not the purpose of the story has been met and new meanings for the characters have been created. Some books even bank on delivering a stunning conclusion that will make us realize how great what we are reading is. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is proof of this.

What makes great story endings? That is the question every writer would want to answer. Some stories end in comedy, others in tragedy; others lead to the unexpected, opening more questions and making you wonder. Most times, it can be both. Ideally, endings should make the preceding events worthwhile, bringing the characters to new transformative places. This is where we determine how each character’s choices impacted their journey, making us wonder about how things could have turned differently if the character just decided on this other possibility. And yet, some story endings show the reversal of fortunes. Even, other times the hero/ine becomes the anti-hero/ine.

Good endings to a story leave us with a warm, bubbly feeling inside. We close the book inspired, hopeful, and validated. Stories with sad endings, on the other hand, inevitably can be unsettling. The heavy feeling usually lingers. Other writers employ alternative story endings. This happens when the story has characters whose fate is predetermined even from the start.  As a reader, we still want to know how the author arrived to that conclusion. What book that you have read comes to mind now?

Many endings rely on vagueness too. This seemingly unfinished ending leaves us wondering about what happens next. You may wonder why writers take this route. Cliffhangers, that are stories with strong elements of suspense, may frustrate us but also are immensely thought provoking. Leaving the ending hanging can leave a longer-lasting impression in us as we pore over it and ponder all the possibilities. There is beauty in ambiguity; it leaves us craving for more.  Although we cannot compare genres, let’s get back to the Cuentos. The author purposefully leaves these opened ended questions, page by page in her simple storytelling, because her intention is to scaffold the child’s mother and parents telling of their own heroic stories of migration. She could not have thought of better and sensitive co-authors to end her Cuentos.  She lets the real hero/ine tell the child how and why everything loved was left behind, to bring him to a place of safety and possibility every child on the planet should have. Indeed, the author could not think of a more empowering and sensitive way to decide on the ending of the immigrant mother and parent story of infinite love, strength and courage.

So how do you like your story endings? Tell me in the comments below or through Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. You might also be interested in what happens in my book, Mommy, Tell Me, Why Did You Come Here? Check it out!

Reference

Oulton, Emma. 2015. “15 Books with Cliffhanger Endings That Will Leave You Fuming, Bewildered, and Dying For More.” Bustle, May 20. Accessed November 6, 2017. https://www.bustle.com/articles/83363-15-books-with-cliffhanger-endings-that-will-leave-you-fuming-bewildered-and-dying-for-more.