Writters, is it difficult to write an adequate ending to a story?

[krazykidd]

I ask this because of how people found the ending to how i met your mother dissapointing. However it is not the first sitcom ( or story in general ) that people found disappointing. Sometimes a really good book/movie/tv show /games have a great begining and middle but fall apart at the end. Why is that? Is it harder to write endings than it is the rest? Is it the imcompetence of the writter(s). Is it the pressure to have a good ending? Do they often write themselves into a corner? What is it?

Also is there a way , or advice for writting better ending? Probably write the ending first to know where they are heading? Just something that was on my mind.

Note this is a thread about endings in general, and NOT a thread about how i met your mother.

 

[Queen Michael]

Obviously there's a way to write a better ending. Include a T-Rex and ninja. Everybody loves them.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well I can tell you how to NOT end a sitcom - with a clip show. Sounds obvious? Ask Seinfeld. I can't believe they ended things on a freaking clip show. Seinfeld's justification is that it was a way of bringing everybody from the series back for one last round, but it just reeked of compromise.

 

[Elfgore]

I've been meaning to ask this same question. As an average reader/watcher of manga and anime, I've seen so many bad endings I can barely count them. Almost every harem writer is to scared to pick a girl and ruin his rep, so he does a total cop out by leaving a very open ending. Ex. Heaven's Lost Property, Rosario+Vampire, and Samurai Harem. People use the excuse that those are "true" harem endings and every girl wins. To bad I've only seen one example of a true harem ending, and that was from a pretty unknown manga.

You're a writer, have some balls and make the ending you want. Unless of course some dick wad of an editor is forcing you to, then it becomes somewhat okay.

 

[RJ 17]

I ask this because of how people found the ending to how i met your mother dissapointing. However it is not the first sitcom ( or story in general ) that people found disappointing. Sometimes a really good book/movie/tv show /games have a great begining and middle but fall apart at the end. Why is that? Is it harder to write endings than it is the rest? Is it the imcompetence of the writter(s). Is it the pressure to have a good ending? Do they often write themselves into a corner? What is it?

Also is there a way , or advice for writting better ending? Probably write the ending first to know where they are heading? Just something that was on my mind.

Note this is a thread about endings in general, and NOT a thread about how i met your mother.

Well I like to consider myself a creative writer (working on my first anthology of short-stories which will essentially be a prequel to a novel I have planned) and I often find the most challenging thing about it is coming up with charater names.

Seriously, though, as a writer I believe people fall into the trap of being "too good for their own good".

Think of it like hype for a video game. Screenshots and gameplay teasers suggest that this game is going to be the sexiest thing since sex. It's going to be God's Gift to Gaming. It'll be a game so good it'll make you wanna slap yo' momma. When the game is released, there's no possible way it'll live up to the hype that was generated for it. The hype and expectations far exceed anything even remotely possible for the game to accomplish. "Titanfall is going to be so great that every time you turn on the game it's going to give you a delicious cake!" Well, my friends, as Portal teaches us: the cake is a lie. Sure, Titanfall might be a great game on it's own merits, but the hype surrounding it was impossible to live up to.

Turning this meandering post back towards it's intended destination: think of the story itself as "hype". The more people buy into it, the more they enjoy the story, the bigger their expectations are going to be for the end. That ending could be pretty good in it's own right, but people who have been following a story for 9 books or a tv show for 9 seasons and loving every minute of it are expecting that free cake to pop out at the end. Yet still: the cake is a lie. That's why so many great shows and books and stories have people saying "I loved the series, but the finale was pretty "meh"." Their expectations are being compiled higher and higher from the moment they officially buy into the story and get hooked on it, eagerly awaiting the next chapter, book, or episode. When they see The End on the horizon, they look back at the journey they've been through and say "Good lord, I can't wait! Just look at how great this has been all this time so far! The ending is going to be so great my underpants will spontaneously combust!" No ending, no matter how skilled the writer, can live up to that kind of hype and expectation.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Well, in my experience, no.

In fact, I find it harder to write an adequate beginning than an ending. What I do is that when I am developing a tale, I start thinking long term in regards to how this story will end.

What do I want my protagonist/s to accomplish/realize/resolve at the end of this story/volume/installment?
Will the ending be open-ended or a definitive end to the story as it stands?
Will everything be resolved or should I allow for a little mystery and speculation?
Is there a message or moral that I want to convey at the end of the story/volume/installment?

All of these question should be considered around the halfway point of your story in order for you to structure the second half of your tale and allow you to generate an ending that best suits its tone and nature.

 

[Rolaoi]

It's harder to write the stuff in between. The premise is usually pretty spontaneous in its realization, but unpredictable in its formation. The beginning can be a little rough. The ending is easy. It's making things flow smoothly between those two points that presents a real problem.

Although, that's me. For instance, based one what I read in Stephen King's On Writing and how he likes to let his stories grow organically, I can see there be a problem in finding a good end point.

 

[shrekfan246]

I often find the most challenging thing about it is coming up with charater names.

You can say that again...

OT: Endings are an interesting beast. Partly because no matter what you fill the rest of your story with, the beginning and ending are generally going to be the things which stick out the most in peoples' minds. Everything in between is filler, but still necessary to keep them moving along until they reach that ending, and then the ending has to satisfactorily resolve all of the nonsense you've cluttered the middle with.

Oftentimes they are written into a corner, especially with the sequel and franchise-heavy nature of the entertainment industry. Cliffhangers and potential sequel-bait need to be left everywhere, so having a self-contained story becomes more and more difficult to produce. That's one of the reasons I'm fond of and intending to write stories which use the same world as their predecessor, but take place during a different time and focus on different characters, so the arcs of each story are allowed the opportunity to progress and conclude at their own pace instead of one determined by how many episodes/books/films need to be made.

 

[RJ 17]

I often find the most challenging thing about it is coming up with charater names.

You can say that again...

Seriously, I'm hoping to write the next great High Fantasy epic series of stories...and there's been days where I can't make any progression just because I can't come up with a good name for a newly introduced character. xP

 

[shrekfan246]

I often find the most challenging thing about it is coming up with charater names.

You can say that again...

Seriously, I'm hoping to write the next great High Fantasy epic series of stories...and there's been days where I can't make any progression just because I can't come up with a good name for a newly introduced character. xP

I've never been good at coming up with names.

And I'm making it even harder on myself by wanting to write fictional stories influenced by foreign cultures and mythologies, meaning it's time to research naming conventions in those countries! XD

 

[RJ 17]

I often find the most challenging thing about it is coming up with charater names.

You can say that again...

Seriously, I'm hoping to write the next great High Fantasy epic series of stories...and there's been days where I can't make any progression just because I can't come up with a good name for a newly introduced character. xP

I've never been good at coming up with names.

And I'm making it even harder on myself by wanting to write fictional stories influenced by foreign cultures and mythologies, meaning it's time to research naming conventions in those countries! XD

At least you have actual, factual sources that you can go and research from. When writing a fantasy novel, I pretty much have to make up said naming conventions all on my own. Basically there's only two rules that I can stick to:
1: Make sure the names don't sound too similar.
2: Make sure the names don't sound like they've been ripped from other works.

Well that throws Bearagorn out...

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

For me the problem isn't the ending. It's the beginning.

Still, I've heard a wide range of reasons why many finales in TV/movies/books/etc. end up unsatisfying. The most universal one seemed to be the simple rule of popularity- the more popular something is, the more fans it garners, and more they like it, the more expectations are placed upon the ending to be the defining awesome moment of a series. Often endings will have characters dying, choosing their true loves (forever since there's no sequel for them to change their minds), or otherwise changing as characters in ways which fans of said character/pairing won't like. Some fans after becoming particularly attached to something, including myself, will imagine an ending they would consider perfection, and the things that differ from that will stand out.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have both mental and economic pressures. The writer will be expected to finish on time, and usually save the ending for last. Though most writers will have an outline for how to conclude things, fleshing it out on the clock is another matter when their creative juices are probably as close to being spent as they can get at that point.

My rules of thumb for planning an ending are as follows, but by no means concrete:

1) What was the major conflict of your story? If you can't resolve it in the ending, then show us the method by which it will eventually be resolved.

2) What was the role of each character when you planned them? By the end, they should all either culminate or escape their chosen roles, even if they don't understand them. If they have gone through serious changes over the course of your story, now is the time to show those changes off, such as a wimpy character growing a backbone or a villain having a change of heart that's been well hinted at beforehand.

EDIT: Did someone say they needed some fantasy names? Here's my roster of characters from SWTOR. Go ahead, take 'em:

Fanha'tryst
Tiresse
Genj
Halthek
Nothii
Vai'seng

 

[BarkBarker]

A good ending should satisfy the goals of the journey while revealing what is necessary to fully understand the content, maintaining the characters growth and/or personalities that feels like a good end, but has room in the universe to have more if it is deemed worthy. Those are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Gdek]

What' worse is the growing trend in indie movies, where the writers don't even bother to write an ending. Then afterwards everyone praises them for being "artsy".

 

[V4Viewtiful]

Obviously there's a way to write a better ending. Include a T-Rex and ninja. Everybody loves them.

Lay off the sugar, mate. It's doing you wrong.


I found my favourite endings are kind of circular by that I mean linked to the beginning. One of the cleverest endings i've watched was in the Anime Wolf's Rain.

Spoiler

The first 10 or so seconds of the intro sequence to the show actual takes place in a rebooted world after the planet dies in the final episode

Or Watchmen's ending (comic and Movie) it essentially starts and ends with Rorschach's journal.


Even if the adventure continues, when things come full-circles are often the best endings. To me anyway.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

I've always taken the approach that It's best to write your ending first.

Obviously you have to have an idea of what the story and characters are but I find that once it comes time to actually sketch out my story flow chart It's easier for me to write out a quick summation of the ending and then work my way backwards.


I do this largely because I have a tendancy to meander off topic if I don't, but also because most of the writing I do is horror and mystery based and in those specific genres you have to make sure your ducks are in a row by the climax of the story or else it all just falls apart.

 

[IFS]

The problem with writing an ending is that you have to bring closure to everything (in most cases at least, there are plenty of works that end ambiguously and do a great job of it), and that is especially difficult with a long running series (in particular when the ending hasn't been planned out in advance, or worse when it has but the work changed enough with the writing that it no longer fits). Most importantly an ending should fit the tone of the work, if a work is ambiguous and gives no real answers the ending shouldn't either, if a work is upbeat and has a constant message the ending should probably reinforce that, the problem though is that often to get everything to the ending you have to rush and rushing doesn't give you enough room to make everything fit in a satisfactory manner.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Absolutely there are good and bad ways to write an ending to any literary, interactive or video fiction, but inevitably the adage "You cannot please everyone" becomes known.

Herein lies the dilemma writers are faced with when the end is in sight. You can do a happy ending, a sad ending or a surprising one. That's the general gist of it, though there are variations and others (eg. open or closed ended, predictable or not, etc). What you'll find now a lot of is that writers opt for the surprise ending because for whatever reason they think it makes them clever, or the ending itself more memorable. In a way, they're right. A controversial or twist ending certainly gets talked about more and is likely more memorable (though whether that's a good thing or not is debatable...not to mention whether an ending even needs to be memorable).

More significantly, we know in advance that we cannot please everyone. If an ending were happy, critics would deride it for being predictable, sacarine, unrealistic, etc. If it were sad those hoping for a happily ever after will be disappointed. Write a surprise ending and people may yell "Deus Ex Machina" or perhaps even more simply, "WTF?".

Getting an ending right is not easy, particularly when considering the fandom surrounding a piece of fiction. IMHO, a good writer will steer the "endgame" towards the ending early on, foreshadowing a little here and there. It keeps people guessing, builds excitement and precludes anyone from shouting "No fair!" if they pull something entirely unexpected out of the bag. I personally like to see things wrapped up mostly neatly, though with a couple of teeny unknowns to keep people talking and wondering what might've come next if the series continued beyond its ending. I also generally prefer happier endings to sad, bittersweet or dark endings. It's like the final note of a song that lingers and stays with you and I like to remember it ending on a good note, not an unpleasant one. It should have something to get fans thinking and talking.

So yeah, a little foreshadowing to keep fans guessing as the final stretch approaches, but not enough to spoil *some* surprises. Happy-ish with most things tied up, but with a little twist or some unknowns to leave the universe feeling like even tho we won't be there to witness it, there is a future for our world and characters (eg. the file dropped in front of Bond in the last shots of Skyfall).

Or you do what Smallville did and announce the ending even as the show is just starting.

 

[Shymer]

Sometimes a really good book/movie/tv show /games have a great begining and middle but fall apart at the end. Why is that? Is it harder to write endings than it is the rest? Is it the imcompetence of the writter(s). Is it the pressure to have a good ending? Do they often write themselves into a corner? What is it?

Writing for television - particularly scripts for serials - has unique writing challenges. You don't always know how long you've got to spin the story out for before the end. You may not have explicit ending worked out in advance and have to craft one when you know when the end is nigh. Your original ending may be rendered problematic by events that you've written previously or by changes in character, stakes, tone or other issues.

Writing a novel is, dare I say it, much easier. Everything is in the writer's direct control and you can write the end, or have it in mind, prior to starting the book. That makes more satisfying endings easier to achieve. You can also use traditional archplot, rather than miniplot devices.

But then, what makes a satisfying ending? Not everyone can agree. It's often a thing that people know when they experience it, but cannot describe how to make one.

You can't please everyone. More reviewers/commentators are very "knowing" about writing tricks - and they don't like to be played with. They demand uniqueness, fresh ideas and a lack of cliche or stereotype. Then again, the mass market often doesn't give a damn and buys poorly written material - formula fiction - cliched homogeneous pap.

 

[FPLOON]

What' worse is the growing trend in indie movies, where the writers don't even bother to write an ending. Then afterwards everyone praises them for being "artsy".

You mean those ending that act like the movie could still continue on from the point it ended at, but chooses not to... because reasons...

OT: Endings? Only if you never had a clear ending in mind or your original ending is now straying farther and farther away from how the initial story is progressing at this point in time... Beginnings can get difficult to do, since it's basically how you're going to get your audience into the fictional world you created and the last thing you want to do as a writer is to have a poor beginning that would make people that do stick around to tell others to "Don't worry... It's gets [way] better... Trust me..." just to get them also invested in the story at hand...

For me, it's the middle that I struggle with with my writing, since that's where most of the [better] memorable moments are located as well as, to me, the true meat to the overall story... It basically makes the "journey" to its ending all the more satisfying... even if the ending is not as good as it should be...