“A part of the journey...is the end.” - Tony Stark

As I’ve been working more and more on finally bringing some of my longest running stories to their grand finale at last, I can say that I’ve actually been pretty proud of taking my time and pretty much taking my time and making sure that it was done right. Or, at least the way that I had originally imagined it from the very beginning, without having to really compromise in terms of how all of the events got wrapped up. Naturally, there had to be some flexibility involved, seeing as times have changed since I first started some of these tales, and my writing abilities have also grown and evolved from what they once were. Going back to fix old mistakes and inconsistencies has been a daunting and tiresome task at times...but so totally worth it, in my opinion. I look forward to updating a lot of my older works to fit them in with the new stuff that I’m doing now. I’m expecting to have a lot of fun with that.

However, while I can honestly say that there’s no better feeling in the world to an author to actually finish off a story, stand back and look at it, and see your completed work in a way that allows you to say, “Wow! I did it! I actually did it!”...there’s also a part of the process that almost doesn’t want to say goodbye to the characters that you gave birth to and raised from a little spark of an idea to the point where you can trust them enough to just let them move on and take things from there. Hehehe! I always feel it, myself. I’ve spent soooo much time with them, watching them laugh, and cry, get angry, and struggle through the awful problems that I put them through during their journey from the beginning of the story to the end.

But...when it’s time...it’s time. Period. The worst things that I think a writer can do to a really good story is drag it out well beyond its welcome. It taints the genius of it by burning yourself out or allowing it to fade away as it gets stale and loses that magic that made it so special to begin with. That should be avoided at all costs, if you can help it.

So let’s talk story endings today! What they mean, how to handle them, and how to send off your favorite characters with a satisfying wave and a smile to their biggest fans.

The first, and most important, part of writing a decent story ending is simply tying up all of your loose ends! The exception being for those of you who are looking to continue the story with future tales or chapters later on. Otherwise, it comes off as kind of rude. Now, I’ve been guilty of doing this a few times myself in the past, mostly because I opened a can of worms in an earlier chapter that I had forgotten about by the time I had gotten to the end. Hehehe, it happens. Believe me. But I’ve learned to keep a much closer eye on such things since then. Watch for that. If you think your audience won’t notice...you’d be wrong. Put in that extra work, and make sure that you address all of the questions that you posed to your readers, all of your characters’ motivations, all of your issues and conflicts...gather them all up and make sure that you sufficiently deal with them all. Write them down if you have to. I, personally, go back and read through my entire story from the first word to the end of the final chapter (taking notes) before I sit down and work on wrapping it all out, so I don’t forget anything. I really like for my stories to come full circle in most of my work, so that everything reads as a completed work of art once it’s done.

Being able to do that leads me to the next helpful tip in writing a successful finale. And that is...use ‘call backs’ to earlier chapters. Use them sparingly, but it’s always been fun for me to remind my readers that they’ve actually been on quite a journey this whole time, and all of those events, those conversations, those intimate moments between the protagonist and his love interest, have led up to this moment. They were all necessary. Lessons that needed to be learned in order for things to fall into place. So I might make a call back to something that happened waaaay back in the first chapter, or some major event that changed the whole course of the story at some point, and how they got through it. This is a technique that I often use throughout a bunch of different chapters along the way, in order to show the effects of everything that happened and giving my readers an idea as to why all of those moments were needed in order to climb up to the next step. The reason that I feel this helps the ending out by giving it a bit of extra significance is because...even if it has been an ongoing project for months or even years at that point, it still solidifies the entire story as a single cohesive experience. That’s something else that I learned from reading comic books as a kid. You’ve built an entire history here with what you’ve written. A history that you can share, and your readers can look at it like, “Oh yeah! I remember that!”

Hehehe, of course, they can’t remember that, because it never happened. But in terms of writing fiction...it feels that way, just the same. That touch of story nostalgia can act as the glue that keeps everything together if you use it to your advantage.

The next tip? And, hopefully, you began thinking about this at the very beginning of your project so that all of your events could somehow build up to it...but things change over time, so you may have a different outlook on things by this point. And that is...figure out whether this is going to be a happy ending, or a not so happy ending. Now, it can sometimes be cliché to have a gay fiction story end in misery and/or heartbreak...but these things do happen. And not every story has a ‘happily ever after’ when it’s finished. It’s your creation, so you get to decide how you want to handle the ending in your own way. I definitely like to wrap most of my own stories with a somewhat happy ending, or at least have them end on a ‘bittersweet’ note...but all of them won’t end that way. And I’m prepared for that, but it is what it is.

I’ve found that happy endings often last longer in the hearts and minds of my audience, as they’re usually rooting for the main characters and want to feel as though all of the time and emotion that they invested in them was justified. However, sometimes you just don’t want your story to have that glittery fantasy ending that people might be hoping for. A tragic ending isn’t a bad thing. If anything, it enhances all of the good moments that come before it. (Word to the wise...have some good moments come before it! Hehehe, don’t depress your readers. Allow them to have something to appreciate and treasure in your story. Every storm has a few breaks in its severity.) Truth be told, sometimes heroes lose. Sometimes life isn’t fair, some relationships end in heartbreak, sometimes...lives are lost. It’s a part of life. And if that is your intention with your story, then stick to it, and tell it the best way that you can. I find that it’s easier for your audience to take when the pain involved with a dark or unhappy ending to your story is presented with a reflection of the good times and hope that was present in their lives before the bomb was dropped on them and screwed everything up. To create a sense of fondness for the love that was shared and the romantic giggles, nervousness, and cherished moments where only hope and magic existed throughout the earlier chapters of the story. You know...the GOOD stuff! The fun parts of being in love. So, if I’m writing a sad ending, I sort of take a ‘look at what we’ve been through together’ approach to the idea. Like...at least we had a good time while the good times lasted. You know? I think it softens the blow of an unhappy ending, without diminishing the impact of the sucker punch that is sure to be experienced by your entire audience when things don’t go the way they were expecting it to.

I suggest trying to write an unhappy ending some time. It’s a challenge that I think will expand your skills and your instincts as a writer. Give it a shot. It’s an entirely different experience from the whole ‘happily ever after’ vibe. And the more your writing evolves, the more room you have to experiment with a ton of different options when it comes to finishing off your projects.

Another tip? Please...have the end of your story become a culmination of everything that came before it. I mean...MATCH it up with how your story started out!

Ugh! I was watching a movie not long ago, and I was totally into the premise of it and where it was going. I was invested, enjoying myself, intrigued by the mystery of it all...and then they totally didn’t stick the landing on the end of it! It was like...they didn’t even try, you know? The last twenty or thirty minutes of the movie got really weird and existential and it completely lost the feel of the story that they sold me on in the beginning. WTF??? I was more than disappointed. I was actually kinda pissed, to be honest.

Imagine if someone was like, “Knock, knock!”

“Who’s there?”

“The theories of time travel and physical consciousness are flawed at best and need further evaluation.”

Ummmm….WHAT???? What the fuck does that have to do with the beginning of the joke? Is it a joke? Did you present this as a possibility from the start? Does this ending make sense? Does this have anything at ALL to what you’ve been showing me for the last hour or more? How does this finish the story or fix anything?

I was so outdone. The director like...I don’t know. It’s like he started drinking whiskey at the beginning of the movie, and by the time it came to the end he was too lopsided and drunk to make sense anymore. That’s not to say that you guys can’t be artistic and use symbolism and metaphor to make some big reveal that you feel will have real depth and meaning according to your personal definition of such a thing...but the ending didn’t ‘connect’ to anything that came before it. There were no hints or clues towards that revelation provided beforehand. None. It just came out of nowhere, and it didn’t make any sense at all. Which was upsetting, because the first two acts had gotten my attention and I was all involved now. And then you just toss me some bullshit to say, “Here. This is what it was all along. Now the movie’s over. Peace out!” Grrrrr!

If you’re going to craft an effective ending for your story, I think every writer should start doing that from the very first chapter. And you craft it with the story you’re telling. Even if there’s some big plot twist or something that you want to throw in there along the way, or some kind of trick to subvert expectations...you need to build up to that in earlier chapters. You can be secretive about it, sneaking around with hidden mysteries, secrets, lines of dialogue...but make it a part of the whole story. Think of it like a math problem where your teacher wants you to show your work. Don’t just body slam your audience with a quick audience with no build up or clue that this could even be a possibility. I feel like that’s a cop out. Nobody should be reading the end to your story or series and think to themselves, “What the hell was that about?” You know?

Connect your ending to the rest of the narrative. Try to avoid screeching into a 180* turn at the last moment, because that comes off as a massive stumbling block, and it’ll take a lot of your readers question whether or not the rest of the story will now mean what they built it up in their heads to mean. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be free to take chances...but if you’re going to pull something like that off, it had better connect to something that happened previously in the story. Otherwise, you negate the entire purpose of the story itself. I mean, why read the previous stuff at all if you’re just going to completely flip everything on its head at the very last minute and make the first two acts of your story irrelevant? That’s not fair to your readers. I feel like endings should have a definitive ‘cause and effect’ appeal to them. This is what brought us here to this conclusion, this is what we’ve been building up to, and this is why things happened the way they did.

Without that, it feels like you’re adding the end of one story to the foundation of an entirely different story. Which feels disjointed and weird. So I’d recommend avoiding that unless you’ve got some brilliant plan to snatch the rug out from under your readers’ feet without leaving them bewildered and angry. Hehehe, and if you can figure out that particular magic trick with your writing, please share with the rest of the class! Because we’d all love to know! Me included!

My last tip? Set your ending where you truly feel that it needs to be. Don’t cut it too short, and don’t drag it on for too long. There’s a balance in between, and your instincts will tell you where that balance exists if you put your faith in it and listen to what it’s saying to you. If you’re wrapping up the climax of your story, the height of the whole story, and now you feel like you’re just in a big hurry to cut it off just so you can be done with it and put it behind you? There’s a chance that your story is going to ultimately feel incomplete to your audience. Don’t just figure, “The best part is over! Now get me out of here!” You can take some extra time and settle into a satisfying ending that will be pleasing to everyone who has enjoyed the journey so far. Think of it like a parachute. Jumping out of the plane is the exciting part, sure...but you need to deploy the parachute while you’re still up high enough to safely slow down and drift down to the ground below. You don’t want to just SLAM down in the dirt and break all of your bones by coming in too hot, do you? Hehehe!

Also...know when you’ve told the story that you wanted to tell. Whether it be a short story or an extended series, there’s a point where the goal has either been reached or it hasn’t been reached. It’s important to know the difference. If you have gotten past your big climactic event, then focus on showing the impact that it has had on your characters and your story as a whole. Then let it wind down naturally. Don’t keep things going when you don’t have to. It should feel like a decline in the story’s expression. Like...right after an orgasm. You’re calming down, catching your breath, feeling good...but the main event is over...until the next event begins. Hehehe, so don’t fall into a “Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King” movie type of ending, where it’s like, “Jesus...there’s MORE?!?!” It’ll make your readers restless. And the longer you drag your ending out, the more you take away from the impact of your climax. So find your balance, listen to your instincts, and give your literary opus the grand finale that it deserves.

Anyway, I get a real sense of joy and relief from now being able to finish stories that I’ve been working on for years and years now. Time to make room for the new class. And believe me, I’ve got PLENTY more ideas coming that I hope will be in the same caliber as the stories that I’ve told before. But those stories have now been told, and it’s time to let them rest, once and for all. It’s a good feeling. One that I’m sure you can all relate to.

I hope this helps you guys out with your writing process! And before I go, I wanted to share this one particular Creepypasta story that I listened to online, which I truly had one of the most satisfying endings that I’ve experienced in a long long time! I know that it’s long...but it’s definitely worth listening too. So if you listen to audiobooks at the gym, or when you’re walking, or just cleaning up around the house or driving back and forth to work, give this story a listen. It’s not really a horror story as much as a thriller, but I highly recommend you listen to it all from beginning to end. Now THAT’S an ending to be proud of! You’ll like it. Guaranteed.

Seezya soon! Take care! Love always!