For beginning writers (and others) sometimes simply finishing a story is a major accomplishment. Ending the story on a satisfying note for the reader is an even bigger challenge. In an article for Writer’s Digest, Peter Mountford offers 6 tips and tricks to crafting a satisfying short story ending.
What do we mean by ending? Is it the last scene, the last sentence? “In the days of O. Henry’s short stories, the climax, last scene, and final sentences were all largely the same, and featured an unlikely plot twist accompanied by direct moral instruction,” Mountford writers. “Now, the big climactic moment often happens two-thirds of the way through the story, not on the last page, and the story’s moral or lack thereof must be deduced by the reader.” Following this major dramatic moment, the story continues in a coda that will give the reader some direction on the theme of the story. These post-climactic scenes are often the difference between a decent story and one that is moving and memorable.
Mountford offers six techniques for crafting such endings:
- Jump in time. The coda doesn’t have to take occur in the same place or time as the rest of the story. Moving about can allow you to show how the story’s events echo through time or provide a perspective that wouldn’t exist in the other timeframe.
- Change Lenses. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the coda jumps POV from the grandmother to the Misfit. The Misfit’s final thoughts paint what occurred previously in the story in an entirely different light. “To apply this to your own work, play with perspective—try stepping out of the confines of the story and looking at what might happen as a result if you pull back, or change the POV to an omniscient narrator,” Mountford suggests.
- Make a Flat Character Three-Dimensional. Shift the reader’s understanding of a static character by revealing additional layers kept hidden until the end. “To do this, look for a character in the story who might be fairly important—possibly an oppositional character to the protagonist—but remains flat or slightly cliché. The mean jock. The shy nerd,” Mountford writes. “Find a situation at the end where they’re acting in a way that complicates the reader’s sense of them.”
- Shift From Summary to Scene. When you have a story told mostly in summary form – for example, a short piece that covers a lengthy period of time – shift the ending to a more specific, pivotal scene.
- Return to an Object or Situation Mentioned Earlier. If you’re having difficulty crafting your ending, look to the beginning of your story for clues. What did you promise in your opening that you should deliver before you close? This might be an object, situation, or idea. To try this, add elements (symbols, imagery) that you might or might not return to. You can cut them later, but you might find that the concept resonates with the rest of the story in an unexpected way.
- If All Else Fails, Keep Going. When you reach a point where you think the story is ending, keep going. That extra narrative could open up new avenues to explore.
