Advice on ending stories

[MelissaBaby]

And there are some brilliant exceptions. <em>Newhart</em> (the 1990s series) and <em>The Mary Tyler Moore Show</em> are a couple of excellent examples.

Six Feet Under

 

[Plathfan]

I don't like fast-forward endings. They're lame. Luckily, there was this scene...

 

[TheLobster]

I don't like fast-forward endings. They're lame.

Time skip endings/epilogues can be pretty lame, I agree. The ones where everything is just listed dispassionately, as a soulless chronicle of what happened to each character, are probably better skipped altogether unless you have a very good reason.

Somewhat better is to dress those facts into a scene of its own. The epilogue of Harry Potter is probably the best known contemporary example. It doesn't exactly end with a bang, but at least it answers some questions and provides a kind of closure.

The most effective way to do a time skip is to write a more limited scene that answers maybe just one question, or explains the fate of a single character. If you cherry-pick the most pertinent one, you can still get that final bang and leave readers with something to wonder about.

 

[StillStunned]

The most effective way to do a time skip is to write a more limited scene that answers maybe just one question, or explains the fate of a single character. If you cherry-pick the most pertinent one, you can still get that final bang and leave readers with something to wonder about.

Two days later I received a message on my networking account. From Tammy Allen. "Dear Jessica, you probably don't remember me, but we were at school together. Recently I've been thinking about you, and there are somethings I'd like to talk to you about. I hope you'll accept my invitation to connect."

I didn't reply. Fuck you, Tammy Allen.

- From Tammy, Jessica, Yuliya

 

[Plathfan]

The most effective way to do a time skip is to write a more limited scene that answers maybe just one question, or explains the fate of a single character. If you cherry-pick the most pertinent one, you can still get that final bang and leave readers with something to wonder about.

I, too, am against tying up every loose end. Answering every question is spoon-feeding the imbeciles. Leave it open. Let them ponder. Let them beg for more.

 

[lovecraft68]

You tube has a bunch of channels doing "ending explained" videos where some yutz gives their opinion on how movies and shows ended and what it 'really meant'

I saw one where they insisted a certain thing about the ending of The Haunting of Hillhouse series even after the director himself had come out and debunked that theory saying it was a legit happy ending.

The attention deficient society needs everything spelled out. Ambiguous endings aren't something they can get their head around.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Time skip endings/epilogues can be pretty lame, I agree. The ones where everything is just listed dispassionately, as a soulless chronicle of what happened to each character, are probably better skipped altogether unless you have a very good reason.

Yeah, they somehow hate it when you reveal the whole story happened years ago and almost everybody has died.


But yanno wut?

Fuggem'

 

[SpermBankHoliday]

I agree that a good ending should spring from the start of the story. Whatever set that character down that unusual erotic path needs to be addressed.
Do mother and son swear this will NEVER happen again? Are they going to carry on indefinitely, in secret? Are they going to lure Daddy to the Pine Barrens on a "birding expedition" and whack him?
There are some story engines that are open-ended by nature, but others that should be resolved definitively, and, while it's tempting to put your characters through everything under the sun, sometimes it's best just to wrap it up.

 

[SkyBubble]

I agree that a good ending should spring from the start of the story.

sometimes it's best just to wrap it up.

Most of my stories have a short epilogue that puts a bow on the tale. Sometimes, it's one sentence, like "The next thing I remember is the sun peeking through the bedroom window."

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Six Feet Under

Vanishing Point, the original.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

But there's another way to end a story too. From the Nerd's Plaything;




"The most respectable dress he’d ever seen me wearing was my wedding dress a few weeks later."

 

[Kumquatqueen]

But there's another way to end a story too. From the Nerd's Plaything;




"The most respectable dress he’d ever seen me wearing was my wedding dress a few weeks later."

I read some stories as a kid with an aspiring novelist in, who asks her father figure for advice on how to end a story.

It was basically "If in doubt, marry them" (and don't try a sad ending unless you think you're in the same league as Du Maurier and Dickens...)

I'm unconvinced by the second part, but the first was in my mind when I wrote my first series here. The proposal and wedding made a nice little coda. The final chapter was supposed to have the protagonist finally saying I love you, too, but on a re-read I realised I let it slip out four chapters earlier. Oops.

 

[SimonDoom]

Six Feet Under

This is my all-time favorite TV show finale. It perfectly suited and wrapped up the story and its themes about life and death.

Other favorite TV show endings:

Cheers
Breaking Bad
Newhart (best twist ending, especially if you were old enough to watch the first series)

Worst:
Seinfeld
Game of Thrones

My favorite novel endings don't always wrap things up tidily, but instead sometimes end with an appropriate note of open-endedness, as though the ending is opening a new chapter.

Gone with the Wind
Lonesome Dove
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
I, The Jury (not at all ambiguous, but iconic)
Lord of the Rings
A Passage to India

 

[iwatchus]

@Kumquatqueen I had not heard this advice, but my most recently posted story did end with the following two lines

“Bethany, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

“Yes, I will.”

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

(and don't try a sad ending unless you think you're in the same league as Du Maurier and Dickens...)

I'm unconvinced by the second part,

Well, .....

https://literotica.com/s/our-most-private-place-750-word-25

.

 

[AchtungNight]

Have a sex scene at the end where the participants climax, then keep getting it on as you fade to black. Or maybe they fall asleep afterwards with hopes for something lasting in the morning. Or use other climactic events as you prefer. A wedding, an exchanging of smiles and phone numbers, a drink as you recall fond memories, whatever makes sense.