“Have you thought of an ending Storytelling?”
When it comes to Storytelling creative writing, it is the ending of a story that is one of the most difficult parts of the writing process for me.
When the final line has been written or typed, there is nothing else for the characters to do, the victory has been won.
You may think of me to be melodramatic, but when you complete your very first post it gives a sense of satisfaction tinged with confidence.
But all Storytelling?” So when it comes to your literary masterpiece, the question needs to be asked.
“Have you thought of an ending?” (Tolkien).
Like the beginning of a story, there are many ways to end a piece of fiction.
You can choose to end your story with a satisfying conclusion – with all the loose ends neatly tied up.
Most of us enjoy this type of ending.
The neat and tidy ending is so popular because, unlike real life, a story can provide us with a guaranteed resolution of conflict.
We can have our desired happy ending and everyone lives ‘happily ever after’.
But for those of us who choose to defy traditional storytelling techniques, there is the option of a ‘surprise ending’ or an ‘open ending’.
By daring to be different we can ultimately leave the reader desiring more.
So let us go a step further and explore the different ways that you can craft your ending so as to stamp an indelible impression on your reader’s mind.
Here are five ways to write a gripping ending to a story.
The circular ending.
This type of ending is when the story concludes with a mirror image of the beginning.
It is a circular journey where the characters return to the same scene at the beginning of the story, but they have learned some valuable lessons.
They may look or still be dressed the same but they have been transformed on the inside.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis are one of the best examples I can think of.
Although the children do not enter Narnia in the first paragraph, in the first couple of pages, the ending mirrors this section of the story.
As in the beginning, the children tumble out of the wardrobe and are met again by the sound of the footsteps of Mrs.
Macready and her guests are in the hallway.
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The surprise ending.
Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story telly of an Hour’ is a great example of a surprise ending. In the beginning, Mrs.
Mallard is notified that her husband has died in a tragic train accident.
The majority of the narrative focuses on Mrs.
The Art of Storytelling
Mallard’s conflicting emotions over her husband’s sudden demise reveal some interesting revelations about his abusive nature.
As her ‘streams of consciousness’ show her dramatic shift from a grief-stricken widow to a woman who has discovered the guilty pleasure of an overwhelming revelation.
She is now free from her husband’s suffocating control, there is a clever twist at the end.
Brently Mallard was well and truly alive, and seeing him at the bottom of the stairs, not only fatally shocks his wife, but it shocked me as well.
This kind of ending is not everyone’s ideal ending, but Chopin’s ironic and tragic twist contributed to the overall tragic mood of the story.
The ‘open’ ending.
Daphne Du Maurier’s novel The House on the Strand is one of the best examples of an ‘open’ ending I have ever read.
Although I am a fan of defying traditional narrative expectations, I initially was quite disappointed by her choice of ending.
I really wanted to know what happened to the main character, Dick Young, who had become addicted to a drug that enabled him to travel back in time.
At the end of the novel, Young is back in the safety of his home and under the expert care of the resident doctor.
But whilst on the phone with his wife, he suddenly loses consciousness, and this is where the novel concludes.
Du Maurier had left me high and dry and I was devastated. I wanted to know what happened to Dick, did he die?
Did he return to the past? So many questions and absolutely no answers.
But in hindsight, Du Maurier’s ‘open’ ending was another example of clever writing.
She had provided me with an opportunity to dream up my own ending.
As the passive reader, she was giving me some narrative power inviting me to write my own conclusion to be the ultimate decider of Dick Young’s fate.
The trick ending.
‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ by Ambrose Bierce is a good example of a trick ending. At the beginning of the story, a man is being hanged.
Bierce then proceeds to provide quite a densely packed narrative about the man’s supposed dramatic escape.
But it is not until the man reaches his home and family that we are told that, “Peyton Farquhar was dead.
In writing this story, Bierce had drawn upon the idea that moments before death a person can be subject to hallucinations, while he uses this to trick us into believing that Peyton had cleverly escaped his death sentence.
With his trick ending, Bierce reveals that Peyton had only imagined that he had successfully cheated death!
The summary ending.
This technique is used a lot in filmmaking.
At the end of the film, the audience is shown a written summary of the final outcomes for each of the characters – they get married, they succeed in business, etc.
As in films, this choice of ending for a work of fiction provides a feel-good ending for the reader.
The hero or heroine is victorious, the villains are punished and justice is served.
I have provided you with just a few choices about Storytelling and now it’s time for your story.
But whichever one you decide to choose, your purpose must always be to leave a lingering impression or a dynamic image in the reader’s mind.
As writers, we have the power to entertain and inspire the reader but to also challenge their literary expectations.