The Various Ways of Ending a Story Thread

[Nacian]

Starting with one character
then
two characters?

I was thinking of how it must complex to find a way amongst thousands of ways to end a story.

first question that comes to mind:

does one knowing the ending to a story before beginning, is a useful way to writing a story for example?

listing few example of story endings


1) the ending and the beginning are the same
for example the story start with the main character apppearing from nowhere then the ending is the same where 'the main character disappear into somewhere'.
OR

2) The ending could be totally different from the beginning meaning the reader knows how the character started but the ending is umpredictable/totally different from how it started or vice versa.
for example
I know the central character came from a middle class background and grew up in Chicago but the end suggests that his near futur is not known and so the reader is encouraged to guess/make up an ending that is personal to them.

OR
3) the third possibility would be that at the beginning of the story the writer suggests one main character but the end might suggest there were two and not one character.

so the aim is to move away form how it ends or start, but focus on character building instead.
examples the main character can start as a woman but it turns out it the man who starred along here was actually the main character.
or vice versa
or
the reader thought the main character was a man when it turned out it is actually a woman all along.

[Mathias Cavanaugh]

I know the ending to my stories when I start writing them. Not saying that those endings do not change as the story evolves. They do sometimes. Sometimes greatly, other times just minor tweaks.

[Nacian]

I know the ending to my stories when I start writing them. Not saying that those endings do not change as the story evolves. They do sometimes. Sometimes greatly, other times just minor tweaks.

how different are your endings?
do you keep a kind of a log on how they differ?

[j.w.olson]

I don't think I like any of the endings you listed, Nacian -- they all sound frustrating for the readers in that they might not give proper closure and resolution.

Though, since it fits with your examples, I will bring up the book The Outsiders, which ends with you realizing that the entire novel was a novel written by the main character (the book ends with him writing the first paragraph of the book -- it loops).

[Nacian]

I don't think I like any of the endings you listed, Nacian -- they all sound frustrating for the readers in that they might not give proper closure and resolution.

Though, since it fits with your examples, I will bring up the book The Outsiders, which ends with you realizing that the entire novel was a novel written by the main character (the book ends with him writing the first paragraph of the book -- it loops).

Hey j.w.olson in astory that begins in the same way as it ends is a closure.
another that begins in one way and ends the opposite is a closure.
and then after that we now exploited ALL ways of ending a story and therefore this a kind of strain on all stories or books to be written in the grander scheme things.

so my third offering is to suggest we exploit others avenues of looking at a storie by involving ''characters'' to bring intrigue into the book.
so while we bear in mind the two above ending listed, we now exploit the idea that it is not just what it seems, and so when we are reading we might then discover that the whole story was actually about the lady character that sided along the main character and not about the main character as we have thought all along. this is a twist on the story. another dimension if you like
I like this kind of ending because it does not reveal all untill the end.
naturally as reader we already not the paremeter, traditional ending because we would have exploited them all by the time we have read 100 books.
so invoving characters as some kind of a twist to the story is what will make it less ''obvious''.
I have not read the OUTSIDER but I have heard of it ..I will go and find out now.

[j.w.olson]

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR Of Mice and Men AND The Glass Menagerie.

No --- the endings you are listing sound like gimmicks, similar to the odious "and then she woke up and realized it had all just been a dream" cliche. It means you've been lied to the whole time. While this works WONDERFULLY in things such as the movie The Usual Suspects, in average writing it nearly always falls flat and feels insulting to the reader -- at least in my experience. Even the ending to The Outsiders is gimmicky and a little annoying, even though it doesn't change much of our understandings of things.

Just because a story has an ending does not mean it has closure. If you want to have any success as a writer, you must understand this. Has the main character started somewhere and ended somewhere else? Is there an issue that's been resolved? Deciding at the end of the book to switch characters and issues is a cheap move that will frustrate readers. It's a gimmick, and unless it's done amazingly well (e.g., The Usual Suspects), it distracts from the story.

I am teaching two different stories in class right now, however, that do have interesting endings. Of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck, ends with the main character shooting his mentally handicapped friend in the back of the head because he likes him. And The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams ends with the love interest failing and the main character abandoning his family and going off on his own -- and then implying that he's never received closure and is plagued by guilt to this day -- except that he does find some release in the cathartic telling of the story. You can argue the extent to which there is closure in it, but it's the only play I can think of that ends with such continued tension.

These are still plot things, though, even in the case of The Usual Suspects, and they follow logically from the story (though not entirely predictably). It sounds like you are looking for tricks to pull on the reader.

[KyleColorado]

The Of Mice and Men ending was indeed a superb one. Makes me say "wow" just thinking about the power of it.

My preference with endings is to show how the plot has affected those involved in the story. This way the plot surpasses the "this happened, then this happened, then here's a twist ending!" mold and instead becomes something deeper: a catalyst for the characters' emotional growth.

And when the character learns something about herself, or about the world, that is the writer's message about the human condition.

There are formulaic endings, though, that can be seen everywhere:


Dream ending:
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
BUT IT WAS ALL A DREAM (Wizard of Oz)

Question the Character Ending:
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
BUT JACK AND JILL ACTUALLY WERE THE SAME PERSON (Fight Club)

Question Reality Ending:
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
BUT THERE WAS NO WATER, THERE IS NO SPOON, MACHINES CONTROL YOUR MIND (The Matrix)

Happy ending:
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER (Disney Movies)


Cliche Action Movie Ending:
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
AND THERE WERE GUNSHOTS AND EXPLOSIONS, AND THEY KILLED THE BAD GUYS AND HIGH-FIVED EACHOTHER, AND JACK GROANED "I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS" (Lethal Weapon Series)

Bad Luck Ending:
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
BUT JILL DIED, AND IT WAS ALL JACK'S FAULT. HE HELD HER LIFELESS BODY IN HIS ARMS AND LOOKED UP AT THE SKY AND YELLED "NooOoooo" (The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits)

Lol. This is fun. I could go on all night. But I must not. In any case, I feel if you know of an ending category that yours would fit into, it's probably not the most creative ending you can think of. Spend some time and come up with something noone has ever seen or heard before.

[Sunny]

Kyle.. that was funny! Fight Club was pretty shocking...

[ProcrastinationStation]

I very rarely know the ending to the short stories that I write, I just start with something and let it evolve by itself, generally once I hit the half way point or so I generally know what the ending is.

Sometimes I do start off knowing where I want to go but I'm not strict about it, if it changes or anything I let it, I don't force it down the path of my original idea.

[JosephB]

Even though endings fall into general categories -- I'm guessing most successful writers don't choose a specific type of ending and then write to it. It probably just turns out a certain way -- and you can put it into a category after the fact. Interesting, but not very useful. Personally, I can't imagine telling myself to write "Ending Type A" or "Ending Type B." Seems very restrictive to me and kind of goofy.

[Jon M]

Agreed. It sounds too plotted, too reliant on playing tricks on the reader. I prefer to begin and end my stories like as in life -- they simply begin, and sometimes, when they end, it is poetic, poignant, or just fades out.

Regards,
John

[Olly Buckle]

The best short stories have a slight twist in the tail and don't fall into categories quite, Rudyard Kipling is by far my favourite, 'Plain tales from the Hills' is an all time classic of short stories, and his children's tales in 'Puck of Pooks Hill" and "Rewards and Faeries" are what history lessons should be like, though some of the ideas are a bit dated, but I don't feel they fall into your categories Nacian.

I quite often start with an end in mind, because I am always looking for the sort of thing that makes the twist at the end and when I see it then I can elaborate a tale to arrive at it, but it is not always like that.

[Gamer_2k4]

I don't write a lot, but when I do, I know the ending before I begin. That's how I know I want to write a story: I have a point I want to make, and the story itself is simply working towards that point.

My current novel begins and ends with one character. When the story begins, you know nothing about his past. When it ends, you know nothing about his future. Those two points are bookends in a short span of his life where he grows and develops and regresses as the world changes around him. For 23 chapters, the world expands from just him in one location to a cast of dozens all over Europe. Discoveries and advances are made, and the scope widens as the story climbs to a precipice. Then, in the last 9 chapters, everything is dumped into a giant funnel and rapidly compresses down to one person at one place with only one thing that matters to him. The conflict is resolved, and the story ends.

You don't have to have an ending in mind at the absolute start; sometimes it's enough to have a theme that you want to explore. But all themes reach a conclusion, and if your ending isn't the first thing you think of, I can't see how it's anything but the second. I'm sure the reason so many novels get so thick so fast (and need so much editing) is because the writer just didn't know where he wanted to go with the story, and it meandered around until he finally found direction for it. If you know where you want to go at the very start, your story is going to be tighter and more driven as a result.

[Sunny]

I always know the beginning and the ending of my story before I start. I see some stuff in the middle, but mostly that just comes as I write. Depends on my mood what happens with my characters at any given time. I get excited to write stuff that happens out of sequence, and I do that sometimes. I just add it in, blending it together after, like a little jigsaw puzzle. I see the ending so clearly in my book I'm writing now... and I'm tempted to write that scene, but I'm holding off. I want to see if it changes for some reason as I get further along.

It's funny how the mood you're in can change the whole outcome of your book. I haven't killed anyone off yet, but I'm looking forward to it right now. I'm frustrated with myself, and my book today!

[JosephB]

I always know the beginning and the ending of my story before I start.

Yep. Me too. I usually outline some and come up with different bits, often out of sequence.

And Sunny, I keep thinking by the way your hand is positioned in your avatar that you're holding a cell phone. It just looks so natural!