Writing Good Endings - My Writing Portfolio

C! stands for the "character" presenting.

(Copyright H. England 2025)

Hello, my lovelies! It’s Heather here, writer and artist—among other things—and today we’re going to get into story ending, how to write them, and why they can be so hard to get right! Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more content in the future! For now, let’s get into it!	C!Various
	There’s more than one ending?!
Personally, I find endings very difficult to write, and why shouldn’t I? Endings are, by their nature, the last part of any story we create. We as writers get the least amount of practice with them, and they are—arguably—the most important part of the story. So, when I say endings, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the ending of a book, or a movie, or a series—the end of a STORY, but it’s a bit more involved than that. Every finished book, movie, and series has a beginning, a middle, and an end, even if we don’t get them in that order. But the thing is, so does every paragraph, scene, and chapter. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve come across a great story that just… can’t end their chapters. Or their scenes. It doesn’t give me much hope for the end of their book/story. So what constitutes a good ending? I’m glad you asked. You totally asked, right? RIGHT? ahem BTW, there is a spoiler warning in effect for this video. Moving on!	(Show epic movie/series endings) C! Various SPOILER WARNING!
	Bad endings
Obviously there are good and bad ways to craft endings. I hope we’re here for the good endings, but I think we need to look into bad endings first. A bad ending leaves us feeling unsatisfied, disappointed, or the story/scene unfinished. I’m not a huge Game of Thrones fan, but I’ve seen so many points regarding the TV series that I can’t not mention it here. Ironically, the books would also count seeing as they’re not finished and may never be. So both qualify. From what I know of the TV series, there is nothing about the ending that wasn’t poorly thought out or rushed. Both of those problems leave the watchers/readers feeling unsatisfied, upset, or downright angry—and not in a good way. If someone is angry at the writers because of a botched writing job, that’s very different from being angry at a character for what they’ve done. One sill immerses us in the story, the other completely ruins any immersion. I’ll let you guess which is which. The thing is, when it comes to fiction, immersion is the goal. Having readers believe in a character and world is what will have them coming back. They’ll remember how they felt, if not the story itself. That’s how writers change opinions. If a storyteller prioritizes something else—say, their message or moral—over immersion in the story, all they’ll do is come off as a preachy, condescending jerk who doesn’t actually care about anything except being right. In the best case. Sometimes they come across as downright psychopathic. Now there IS a point where an unsatisfying ending will help the movie or show—a lot of horror movies do this, for better or worse—and real life doesn’t always end with satisfaction. We will probably never know exactly what happened to Amelia Earhart or her navigator, Fred Nooman. There is no satisfying finish, tragic or triumphant. So if that’s what you’re going for, great. But most genres of fiction will suffer from unsatisfying endings. And, as always, you need to know how to WRITE satisfying endings to consistently write a good unsatisfying ending. There are a lot of movies and series I could name here: Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, Man of Steel, and the Original Superman (from 1978), etc. But a bad ending either fails to live up to promises made to the audience earlier in the film (see Brandon Sanderson’s lecture on keeping promises, links below), breaks continuity and character, rushes through plot points or wrap-up, is too ambiguous or confusing, or plays into cliches because they couldn't come up with anything better.	C! Various Clips from the mentioned movies/series. C! Various
	Good Endings
This should be obvious, but a good ending does the opposite: It leaves things in a relatively satisfying state where we as the audience can see a general path for the characters to follow from there on out. Well, mostly. After all, sequels exist. But that’s a subject for another video. So how do we leave our readers/watchers/fans with a satisfying ending? Well, I’ve come up with a checklist for a satisfying ending:	C! Various
	Show: Clarity
-Does the ending bring clarity. Not everything has to tie up in a book or even a series. Questions left unanswered can be just as satisfying as not. But I used to realize I’d hit the end of a book because it would get extremely unclear, a lot would happen very quickly, and it was easy to lose track of what was going on, let alone any surprises that came up during the climax. Yay 90’s fantasy. Don’t do that. Please. While mystery is great, we need to understand what’s going on to get the full impact. We need to know what is happening to understand where we are on a journey.	C!Various
	Show: Clarity Consistency
Even in the wildest of good climaxes, there will be consistency. I have my issues with the Percy Jackson books, but the ending of the first book especially isn’t one of them. The big fight happens at the end, they wrap up the quest, but there are still questions left over. Then, in the cool down, we get that one last answer that changes everything. That final betrayal is not the biggest fight in the book, but it is the most shocking and arguably, heartbreaking. Or angering. I just kind of wanted to stab the guy. LOL However, what makes this ending work is the fact that everyone is in character. Even the character who suddenly reveals themselves has good reason for acting as they did. There were hints before, and so many things make sense with the revelation. The characters are, for the most part, consistent, and if they aren’t, there’s a very good reason for it.	C!Various Pictures of characters mentioned. Blur out faces for spoiler, warn of spoilers.
	Show: Clarity Consistency Worldbuilding
A lot of people get caught up in worldbuilding for their stories, and I will once again refer to Brandon Sanderson’s lectures—you can find them all online, I’ve watched his whole series twice and would recommend taking notes—but a good climax and ending will just add to the worldbuilding, it won’t contradict it. A good example of this is Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back. Spoiler warning is in effect again… not that there’s anyone out there who DOESN’T know what happened, but still. When we find out that Vader is Luke’s father, that changes the entire story. How we look at A New Hope and the beginning of Empire Strikes back before that revelation and how we do so after make it one of the best—if not the best—twist revelation in cinema history. But the kind of questions that it brings up are questions we know can be answered and aren’t seriously contradicted by anything we know so far at that point. Compare that to the Star Wars sequel, The Last Jedi. By itself this movie works. Are there still some major plot problems (namely, everything having to do with that chase, not to mention the FinnxRose thing that just...WHY?) yes, but for the most part, it’s internally cohesive and well-shot. However, when it’s put with the rest of the movies—heck, just putting it with the rest of the sequels, and—so many things don’t hold up. How everything in that universe more or less works, how they treated Luke Skywalker, the Ray and Jacen—cough oh, sorry, I mean Ben fight there at the end, them killing off their main bad guy to screw the sequel over, how they treated Luke Skywalker, how they destroyed Finn’s character, Ben’s entire reasoning, and have I mentioned how they treated Luke Skywalker? This goes back to the consistency thing. Don’t get me wrong, that fight Luke has at the end was incredible… but that fight can’t carry the entire movie. That scene between Ray and Luke where he explains the Force? Amazing. But two good scenes do not, a good movie, make! It’s just… Aarg. However, we’re here to talk about good endings, so The Princess Bride, Terminator 2, Aliens, Demon Slayer, Matrix (the first), Final Fantasy IX and X, So many Zelda games, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, To kill a mockingbird, Pride and Predjudice, Life of Pi, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Sixth Sense… I could go on. All of these built on the character and worldbuilding that was already there, and remained consistent. Or at least consistent enough that we, as an audience, could follow it and understand the implications.	C!Various Show clips of the movies/series, and covers of the books mentioned at the end.
	Show: Clarity Consistency Worldbuilding Emotion
We haven’t really discussed cliffhangers yet, but I think this is where they really shine. My favorite cliffhangers: Last episode of Grimm, Season 2, Mark of Athena, Hunger Games book 2, Empire Strikes Back. However, there are also chapters, episodes, and scenes that are phenomenal cliffhangers. The Talismans of Shannara—the fourth book in the Heritage of Shannara series—is the only book that made me skip to the end because of a cliffhanger in the chapter. Episode 123 of Bleach. I started bingeing that one when it came out (way too many years ago ahem) and watched the entirety that had come out in a week as I had a night-shift job that I could watch it during. I ended on episode 127. I’m SO glad I didn’t start it one month earlier because then it would have ended on episode 123 and I’m not sure my heart could have taken it, college student or not. But why do cliffhangers work? A lot of authors will just cut their chapter off and call that a cliffhanger and… Yeah. NO. Cliffhangers edge out the satisfaction by making people want—need—more. It goes back to the general idea that if you care, knowing something awful has happened is better than not knowing at all. It leaves us with an emotion—a sense of anticipation. And you want to take that emotion to the extreme. If it’s a mild, ‘huh. I wonder how that will play out.’ It’s NOT a cliffhanger. Now with that in mind, every ending leaves us with an emotion of some kind, no matter whether it’s at the end of a scene, a chapter, a book, or a series. Cliffhangers bring worry, fear, excitement, anticipation, etc. But other endings can leave us sad, thoughtful, angry, peaceful, frustrated, annoyed, happy, satisfied, warm, or sick. And that just scratches the surface. But if the ending of a scene doesn’t leave the reader feeling thoughtful or asking questions, you may want to look at it again. Also, ‘I don’t know what to write next’ doesn’t cut it. Honestly, ask yourself how you would react if you were in that situation, then modify it to how your character will act. Show us how the characters react to any news, plot progression, new view, or conversation. Usually, only a sentence or two that shows us how upset or tired or excited or love-struck a character has become is enough. The end of a story should leave us excited for the next book, or with sanctification and finality on top of whatever other emotion you’d like your readers to feel. Learning how to do that is the art of writing.	C!Various
	Show: Clarity Consistency Worldbuilding Emotion Message
I’m putting this one last because while it is important—to a point where there is no point if there isn’t a message—it should never be the FOCAL POINT of a story. Showing us the consequences of actions that illustrate the message is the point, but not the be-all, end-all. Remember, when the message becomes more important than the story, all you’re doing is preaching. May as well find a church and podium to yell from.	C!Various
So there are five things that will help you write good endings to your scenes, chapters, and books. Look forward to videos going into beginnings and middles later on!	C! Various
	EXERCISES
So, for exercises today, think of an ending you didn’t like. It could be one you wrote yourself, or one from an existing story. Try to figure out why you didn’t like it—which of the above five boxes did it not check—and rewrite it in an outline or summary at least. What would have made it better? Don’t know exactly how to do that? Well, you’ll never figure it out unless you JUST GET WRITING!	C! Various Large grin at end.
And that’s it for today! Don’t forget to leave a comment below, like, and subscribe for more! I also have a patreon if you would like to support me. As always, thank you so much for watching, and until next time, GOODBYE, MY LOVELIES!	C!Various