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

[Samuki Elm]

I can't say I've found the experience so flip and easy as the others who've already replied seem to.

Here's the thing: It really boils down to your process and your purpose. In other words - where do you (the writer) start and how do you travel? And why are you taking the journey in the first place?

Some writers begin with the beginning - they write the opening of the story, then figure it out from there. Some writers start with the ending - this is what I do - because they want that ending moment to be the foundation, and then they build backwards.

Some writers don't begin with the plot, but instead create the setting first (think Tolkien obsessively dreaming up his Middle-Earth). Others will start with the characters - make the characters full and dynamic and then go from there.

Point being, there's a lot of starting points and a lot of ways to proceed. I'd suggest you identify your own process, and then maybe experiment with others to see if they feel comfortable. I'm not a big believer in the idea that "stories write themselves" - I think there are writers who are good at incorporating a subconscious element drive their writing. But ultimately, it's about you. The way you think, the way you observe, the way you analyze, the way you create, the way you parse those thoughts, and the way it comes out of your head. And it can only help to understand how your mind is working.

And the other key part: purpose. Why are you writing this story? And I mean that in a deeply personal way - why do you feel motivated to write? What's pushing you? Is it because you want to break new ground - tell something that hasn't been told? Is it because you want to publicize something - make an idea well-known? Is it that you feel something is just bothering you and writing will get it out of your head? The reason can be vague or specific, large or small, whatever - there's a reason in it somewhere.

The "How I Met Your Mother" writers, for example, were probably not writing with the motive of "to create a great story with a well-crafted ending" - it was probably "to create 30-minute sequences that will make people laugh" - hence, the weakness of the ending. Their issue is that the general framework of their ending was already set - Ted would have to end up with the Mother at some point - and so that constrained where they could go with the story, and any possible changes they might have intended. And, again, they likely did not write the majority of the show with a strong eye on building towards a perfect plot resolution.

So ... yeah. I hope all that gibberish made sense to someone.

//this ending sucks.

 

[T8B95]

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...

The trick I was taught was to make sure each character's name begins with a different letter. Just to add my two cents

Curious though, how fantastical is your material? I usually write in either low fantasy or historical fiction, so my names usually have conventions I can start from (God bless Roman naming conventions).

OT: I usually find that I have the ending in my head when I start writing. It's getting to that point, and getting everything in between, that gives me such grief.

 

[Something Amyss]

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.

TV Shows have to be especially hard, since you don't necessarily get the capacity to determine everything in advance. Changes will be made in the process, and a show may be renewed for longer than intended or cut short. However, HIMYM writers had made it clear they were going with an oddball ending, so the lack of satisfaction may not have been so much that it was bad. People seemed mad that their own personal ending wasn't official, from what I saw.

Which is the problem with a lot of shows built on mystery and drama, too. You're never going to cater to what fans had built up in their heads, and so you can't please everyone and might please nobody.

Also, there's the resolution issue. Everyone expects sitcoms to wrap up at the end, and I've never found this a very satisfactory way to go. This is why I like endings like Eureka's "Just Another Day,"[footnote]though I'm annoyed with the cancellation, announcement of six wrap-up episodes, then the cancellation of the wrap-up episodes. Seriously, what the hell SyFy?[/footnote] or the final episode of the Sitcom "Gilmore Girls." They give some resolution, but make clear that the world keeps on spinning. Not every person pairs off with their destined life partner, there is still conflict, but we hit the major points. For example, the fate of Eureka.

This also may not satisfy everyone.

The short answer to endings is it's easier to write a good setup than a good response or resolution.

As a writer, I try and look for a logical conclusion to what I'm writing. I've got one novel where I'm pretty sure the resolution will be unsatisfactory to more than a few people should I ever be published, but it's my work and I don't really care to change what i write to suit the masses. Not because I'm some pretentious asshole with lofty delusions of artistic genius, either. I know I'm writing dime-store novels. But I'm still the on who has to "live with" the choices I make.

So the question is, what do you want in a "good" ending? Or a better one?

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

Placeholder names will at least stop you from losing progress. Even if it's just Randogmuy.

It's not a writer's job to write an adequate ending, it's a writer's job to write a shitty ending and then to work with their editor to make it a good ending.
Unfortunately, our culture's individualism kinda gets in the way of that

That's an absurd description of an editor's job. That can be part of an editor's duty, but it is neither inherently so nor should it be expected. This has nothing to do with individualism, either, considering the culture of storytelling predates our modern culture and wasn't reliant on editors.

 

[DerpHerpilous]

My only real disappointment with the How I Met Your Mother ending was that what'shisface didn't somehow transform into Bob Sagat. That was the ending I really wanted to see.

 

[FPLOON]

-snip-

So... What you're saying is... that everyone should see Vertigo?
I approve!

But seriously, in terms of overall story-telling, unless it's some deep character-driven study or something like that, it's all about the climax with it comes to episodic series and movies in general... It makes the whole point of the story worth following throughout...

So, yeah... I'm with Enamour on this one...

 

[KazeAizen]

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.

I do think it is all a matter of keeping your perspective and expectations in check. The Star Wars prequels are a good example of this except in the reverse order if you will. Instead of showing you the end of the story we see the genesis of everything we came to know and love. However it was coming up on nearly 20 years since the last Star Wars movies. 20 years with "Episode VI" stuck in your head knowing that there was more to the story and that they were eventually going to tell it. Nothing could've lived up to those expectations no matter how good and the fact that the films themselves, save episode 3 in my opinion, weren't exactly the most flawless of films. True I love them and still do to this day but I can't deny those faults which were amplified 3 fold by the hype surrounding them pre release. I want to say that's also part of what happened to Mass Effect 3. I haven't played a single one of the games but I'm willing to bet that was a contributing factor to the fall out which, to me, was one of the saddest, and absolutely most pathetic displays of fans pissing and moaning that I have ever seen in my life.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is probably going to have a similar effect of "meh" because it has a devoted following and its been over 6 years since the last main console installment of the series. The only game series that I have played that has had a definitive ending luckily had a good enough ending that I was totally satisfied with. That was Portal. Even though me and fans may want more I think that, in terms of Chell's story, there should be absolutely no more Portal. There should not be a Portal 3 with Chell as the main character. The ending for 2 was honestly one of the most perfect game endings ever and there are very few series endings I would call perfect.

I'm actually at the point you are talking about now with Naruto. I have followed it for many years and I'm finally seeing and ending in sight. I don't know though if the ending to it will live up the expectations of fans.

 

[Daniel Ferguson]

Well, as a writer, I can advise you (or rather the writers) to read up on how to write an ending.

All things need to be resolved. There also has to be a plot to the episode, if it's a series. A clip show is a crappy way to end a series, but sitcoms do it.

If it's an action-oriented fiction, then a big battle is almost mandatory. Make it big, make it crazy, ramp the stakes up to 11. Go nuts, throw everything in. And don't forget to account for emotion in the characters: fears, anger, pain, anything else that's relevant. I don't know if any tv show/movie series/book/game/manga/comic writers are reading this, but that's my 2c.

 

[Enamour]

For OP, you asked for advice and help on endings?

Before we jump into it, I want to tell you two quick stories.

Story 1. "My cat pissed on the carpet."

Story 2. "Jack, I am going to stick this hot dog up your ass."

Story 1. Uninteresting. The pissing has already happened on the carpet. It's not very interesting, which is why talking about cats is usually mind numbing and stupid. There's no tension, no thrill, no mystery, no event or action taking place. "Oh, you have a cat? It probably pissed on something in its lifetime eh?" (I love talking about cats.)

Story 2. What does the sentence tell us? Someone has a hot dog and for some reason, wants to stick it into Jack's pooper. So... we have a.) intent, b.)unrevealed motivation, c.) unrevealed relationship between our characters. So how do we create tension using that sentence? First we create a scene to lend plausibility and answer some questions:

Two men are chained to opposite walls of a small room, empty but for the packet of sausages and key to their shackles which lay in the middle of the room. To escape they need the key. Tom looks at his arch nemesis and long time neighbor Jack. Jack stares back with equally apparent hatred.

Tom stretches his foot towards the middle of the room in an attempt to reach the key, Jack laughs at his attempts but also wants the key "Jack, I am going to stick a hot dog up your ass as soon as I get loose.".

Bam! Now you have some tension building while you tell your readers about your characters' attempts to escape.



Here's a kind of demonstration for you. I should be doing other things instead of writing long winded posts on Escapist.

To demonstrate "tension building" I wanted to use the story of Persephone and Hades as an example but I figured it would be more revealing to simply throw together a plot outline for an action movie instead. I am going short hand here so I'll basically be stealing shamelessly.

Let's choose a character and give him a background.

Chet Manly - Main Character -

He's a manly man, the manliness of which is hinted at in his manly name; Chet "Motherfucking" Manly. He's in Iraq/Vietnam, a US soldier, he used to be a hero until one day he accidentally killed a mother and her two children; gunshots from a doorway caused him to reflexively fire a burst at its location. The bad thing here is that he's a really good guy and a father of two children; and he's a soldier just like the guy whose family he has shot. So the military sends him home and tries to keep his mistake low-key to avoid embarrassment. From the dead family's hut he had taken a talisman of sorts, something physical he keeps with him throughout our narrative, this serves as a reminder to the reader of the parallels between this guy and the Iraqi/Vietnamese guy whose family he had shot.

Was in Vietnam/Iraq and has returned home to his family. Our readers knows he suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome because we have a nightmare scene and/or he's in the supermarket and completely loses his shit when he's startled by the PA system or someone bumps into him with a cucumber which he mistakes for a gun or whatever "trigger" will suffice.

What we could do to heighten the tension in the supermarket scene is to precede (put before) it with bits where he's painting the house and in the background he hears the TV; the news is saying that 6 US soldiers have shot several unarmed Muslims, the footage has leaked out, the world is in an uproar. Something like this actually happened in 2010 I think. To make it more interesting you could just use the real historical event in your story; say that this character who was sent home for shooting innocents falls under the same "real world" scrutiny as those real life US soldiers. So Chet Manly is already stressed and then something startles him and he loses his shit Nicholas Cage style. I would actually want Cage to play this, I love him a little bit.

Ok, less detail now. Someone breaks into Chet's house, intent on murdering him but Chet was on the roof of the house at 3AM in the morning feeling a little PTSD, while an assassin slits his family's throats and they bleed to death while Chet is actually at home. Boy, Chet just can't catch a break can he? He hears a noise from the house and finds the assassin in the hallway. They fight, Chet wins. And then discovers his dead family.

We could let the assassin survive and paint him as the "tension lynch-pin", meaning that Chet and the assassin have a "personal thing" going after the house scene and that the eventual killing of said assassin could serve as the moment where the tension is released or climax is reached. Maybe they shared a history.

But no, let's use a different nemesis. Let's say that there's a General. He was Chet's superior in the war maybe and got promoted later. So why the General? Easy, he knowingly sent soldiers into that village knowing that there would only be a civilian population and thus broke some international law. With this new scrutiny that we've seen on the TV he's determined to cover up his past mistakes and Chet Manly is the biggest mistake, tension increases.

Chet finds "military hardware" or a Seals tattoo on the corpse and guesses who had sent the assassin. With his guilt from the war, the sorrow of his dead family and a new born sense of purpose Chet sets out to avenge his family. Chet is framed as the murderer in the media; he lost his shit and killed his family; the TV reporter mentions an incident at a supermarket. The police and the FBI are out to find him; this is high profile, the world is already angry and another story of a US soldier losing his shit does not look good while this other shooting thing is still in the media. Tension increases because now Chet has to fight the military with all of society against him.

He enlists the help of a female Black Water mercenary, a childhood friend, maybe an old love interest. Maybe our movie is a little classy so Charleze Theron plays this role.

Shooting scenes, things happen, something explodes. Mercenary friend dies somewhere along the line after she had supported Chet emotionally as well as materially, going so far as to lose her own life helping him in his attempts to exact justice and to prove to the world that he's innocent. Tension increases.

Chet shoots people, gets wounded himself and eventually stumbles, bloodied and battle weary into the General's office. They talk a bit, all is revealed and laid on the table as the orgasm kicks off. They fight, the general runs, Chet kills 2 more soldiers and corners the General with a ceremonial sword he'd found on the wall. The General is a badass and was a fencing champion blah blah blah. Chet can't catch a break, he's tired, wounded and bloodied and now he has to face a master swordsman, tension increases.

The general dies. Chet goes to jail for a while but the FBI finds evidence to support his story. The whole "corrupt general" thing is swept under the rug. Years later Chet is now a farmer somewhere in the South. He has a new wife, maybe she's a sweet African American lady with a child of her own but is now also expecting Chet's child.

They walk in a golden field of lightly swaying corn as the sun sets at their backs; she heavy with child, he leading her young son/daughter through the field by the hand. The last images we see are of Chet's fist around the talisman he had taken from the hut. Throughout the movie we showed the talisman continually and made sure that the viewer/reader could see that his hand was clenched around it. In this final image we simply show his hand visibly relaxing (released tension) around the talisman, our way of telling the viewer that he lives happily ever after.

Bam! A basic structure. I've seen this movie so many fuckin' times.

 

[Enamour]

Movies to watch if you want to explore tension building.

The American - George Clooney

On IMDB I see it only has a score of 6.3. But I would attribute this to the apparent lack of "action" in the movie as all the tension is built wordlessly. Subtle facial cues and tense body movement tells the story. You will be bored if you expect to be brain dead through this movie. What most people don't seem to realize is that if you, as the reader/experiencer expect your media to do all the work then you will only have a shallow and ultimately less than satisfying experience. Anyway, Clooney, subtlety and a well pieced together movie that builds tension masterfully.


The Lives of Others - My most favorite of dramas.

German movie about the Stazi (think Russian KGB) during the Cold War, 1984. Artists, actresses, spies, politicians, human rights and the most orgasmic climax in anything I've ever watched.

 

[Something Amyss]

That... Actually is an editor's job lol book writing is a cooperative.

It's not an editor's job. It's at best part of an editor's job but even that isn't a given.

And yeah, editors weren't always used. Go back and read the results, most of them sucked.

Andf most edited books suck, too, regardless of whether the editor decided to take a hand at crafting the ending. Sorry, that's not a good argument.

 

[FrankatronX]

I believe endings are harder than any other part of writing because we do not experience a single set of self referencing events that all ties together neatly. That's not how human experience works.
This can be done and it does give a great ending (Often the best in my opinion will leave wiggle room for more story later on) but it all comes down to what you want for your ending and what feeling you'd like to emote in your audience, so give them the ending YOU like.

 

[AustinN]

Saying this without reading the rest of the topic, so forgive me if I repeat what others have said.

A friend of mine said that he thinks the reason a lot of endings are disliked is because they try to add some kind of twist, instead of just giving us a straight up fight between good and evil. Take from that what you will.

I'd say you'd have to look at the reasons as to why the ending failed to see what to avoid. One of the biggest pitfalls? A lack of planning. It did in the X-files, it did in LOST, it did in Mass Effect, and so on. Some writers just keep adding things without ever trying to figure out how they're going to bring it all together. I think that when you create an expansive world, you should at least have an idea of where it's all going. Part of the problem in writing satisfying endings is tying everything up. Some plot points might be left unresolved, because the writer doesn't have any idea on what to do with them even when the endings comes around. With long running anime, the cast usually gets so big that certain characters end up being left in the dust. But even with all those problems, it amazes me how so few writers who write by the seat of their pants are actually good at it. Take The X-files. They got 9 seasons and two movies. Even if they were making things up as they went along, there's no reason they shouldn't have to been able to wrap things up.

But planning things too intricately can be dangerous too. With HIMYM, a lot of people feel that it had the opposite problem. The writers stuck to their planned ending without taking into account the way the characters had changed and the story had developed. Now why a lot of the stuff that happened in the later contradicted what they knew would be the ultimate conclusion, I couldn't tell you. Anyway, some of the problems with planning too much is that you'll have a better idea, the characters will develop in a way you didn't expect, maybe a character will be more or less popular than you expected and you'll want to give them a reduced or expanded role...

I think that the difficulties in writing an ending depend on what industry you're writing for. With live-action shows you're usually never sure how many seasons you're going to get. You might have a plan, but you get canned before you get enough seasons to let things come to fruition. But what if you get renewed even after reaching the end of your story? Supernatural wrapped up it's main plot in it's fifth season. It's scheduled to go to at least season 10, and it's been struggling to find a new overarching story every since. What you can do with the characters also depends on the actors. Sometimes you won't be able to use them because of scheduling conflicts, because you can't afford them or because the actor is having problems on the set. That's another danger of planning too far. You may have a big storyline you want to do for one character, but suddenly become unable to.

My advice? I guess to just have an idea from the start of where you want things to end up, and treat your characters with the respect they deserve.

On the subject, am I the only one who noticed that 2012 seemed to be the year of bad endings? Mass Effect 3, season one of the Legend of Korra, Mahou Sensei Negami...all series that are considered to have crappy endings. All in the same year.

 

[The White Hunter]

Lots of things have sucky endings, DBZ for example has a shitty cop-out non-ending.

FMA has a good ending if you ask me, it sticks to the messages it's teaching and wraps it all up pretty well ina satisfactory way. At least, the manga and Brotherhood do, the original anime ending is depressing as fuck though.

 

[AgedGrunt]

Writing by yourself is nothing like having an editor or being part of a production, so there's something to say for the luxury of creative control.

It's good to write or conceptualize endings ASAP, though, to at least have narrative coherence. But seriously, give yourself the most freedom before you become attached to characters and get bogged down in plot.

 

[Tono Makt]

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?

All of the above. Add to that the way stories will regularly progress in ways the writer did not anticipate - particularly in the case of ongoing fiction, like TV series, book series, etc., where there is time for fans to become attached to characters or NOT become attached to characters - and endings become fantastically difficult to write.

Here's an example: I create a wonderful story around a Marty Sue who's so super awesome in everything. But I'm smart enough to realize that my Marty Sue isn't going to be a great character for everyone, so I create a few people for him to hang around with and it becomes more of a Superfriends. I manage to write the perfect story at the perfect time, and people love it. So I keep writing stories about the Superfriends. I've got bad guys, I've got good guys, I've got a plot where the main character is going to become the King of Fantasyland in the end.

But as time goes on, more and more fans like Marty's older brother Jimmy, who's sarcastic, lazy, self centered and pretty much the worst parts of Marty in human form. But the fans love him, want to see more stories about him. So I write more stories about him, and less about Marty. I didn't plan on Jimmy being so popular so I don't know where to go with him. As a writer I'd love to just have him die off in a horrific way that's entirely his fault - and justified because of who he is - but I know my fans would hate it, and might stop reading what I write. So the ending I had in mind years ago - Marty becoming the King of Fantasyland - isn't viable anymore due to unforeseen circumstances. And the ending is coming up soon; I'm bored with this story, I want to move on. Readership is down because they're bored. It's just plain time to end this story.

So... I improvise. And the ending is meh because I just don't have it planned out. I spent years setting up one ending only to find it no longer fitting into the story. Not because I'm a bad writer, not because I'm incompetent, but because circumstances changed as things went along. I don't have the time to build up a new ending, so I hastily cobble together some things, shoehorn other things and generally try to give some of the fans what they want, and Jimmy ends up being the King of Fantasyland. But he hates it, he's incompetent and after a few weeks he's deposed in favour of Marty. No one really likes it but it's done, and it's time to move on.


As for advice? Try not to deus ex machina the ending. (See: Mass Effect 3) Look back on the entirety of the story you've created and try to stick to the setting and tone you've set up. Try not to ignore major aspects of your story even if they are inconvenient now. (See: LOST) Try to have a general plan in mind from the beginning (See: Babylon 5), though you want to keep it somewhere between Too Vague (The Good Guys Win) and too Detailed (Good Guy A kills Bad Guy B with Bad Guy B's Secret Weapon, which creates a tidal wave that crashes over the entire world, destroying all of Bad Guy B's secret naval bases and Saves The World). And don't be afraid of doing something controversial, like a Fade To Black (See: The Sopranos) or Back to Square 1 (See: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King). This isn't to say those were GOOD endings, but don't be afraid to use them if you feel it would be best for your story.

Lastly, take whatever advice you get from random anonymous interweb dweebs with a huge grain of salt. Even if we've managed to get published somewhere we aren't experts in the field, and what worked for our stories probably won't work for yours. We're writers - we just love to type up lots of words in ways that are entertaining but not necessarily helpful.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I can't really speak as a writer, as all I have ever done up to this point has been mandatory stuff as part of my studies.

I think the problem for endings is the fact that you want to tie up all loose ends as well as you can without betraying the themes of the story.

The problem arises that the ending has to start converging those threads and sidestories at a reasonable point in time so as not to feel like a deus ex machina or what my friend calls a "School Days ending":

Spoiler

One of the characters flips out in the last episode and ends up murdering a bunch of people in an otherwise upbeat high school anime. Like, out of nowhere.[/quote]

I think that is what causes bad endings, as picking the right point to converge can make the difference between a bad ending and a good ending.

There is always the problem of pleasing the crowds, but personally, I cannot say if that is as much of an issue as much as making an ending that actually "feels" like its a part of the story.

 

[Ikasury]

the end is the point you're trying to get to, if you know what that is, relatively, then everything else is just the journey...

honestly i have no issue with endings, good ones wrap everything up, but the general reason i feel most endings are 'meh' is because A) there's too many people involved in the writing process so things get botched up for shows and the like B) they never REALLY considered the ending C) people are just sad to see things end that they invest in...

the big 'ending' gamewise to bring up here is the ME3 ending, since we all know it (mostly) and it caused the biggest stir... personally, as a writer, i can't see how they COULD have ended it 'better', following the continuity of all stories, that's pretty much how it was going to end... specifics wise it was kinda weird, but over all, yea, heroic sacrifice and writing a new begining with the hero's end, isn't that how EVERYTHING ends? but the primary dissatisfaction from that comes from the audience not wanting it to just 'end', the idea that 'that's it' gets people quite angsty and nowadays people complain a lot more openly...

there have been few endings i thought bad enough to be considered 'TERRIBLE!! rawr!' (the end of FMA Shambala movie particularily stands out to me -.-) and those usually only derive from a case of 'that doesn't make sense!! rawr!!' as in for the character, the world, and everything previously established...

the best endings i would say hint at the possibility of more, it dissuades the initial 'angst' of the audience that 'its over' because they can think of new things to go on afterwards, there's a reason we're all psychologically obsessed with the concept of a 'happy ending', even tragedies have GREAT endings (usually some of the best honestly) because you get the backlash vibe of 'i survived' (as the audience) so you appreciate things more for the next few hours after watching/reading whatever... endings that abruptly just 'end' make people angry, so are typically seen as 'bad' as generally they are abnormal in the context of the universe... if it makes sense IN the context of the universe (such as a Gainax ending a-la 'Panty and Stocking') then it can actually enhance everything you felt before and make you laugh/cry/feel vindicated/whatever...

the end, like a conclusion on a good paper, is suppose to reaffirm why you bothered with this series to begin with, sum it up emotionally and leave you with something to think about... i highly stress on the emotions garnered by the end as that is how the wider audience is most likely to take it, if the end 'feels' flat, it will be and recieved either neutrally or negatively, if it is bursting with emotion it could confuse or scare away people, like all things it requires that nice little niche area of 'just right' and in my experience 'with a touch of snark' :3

Endings of note i find excellent examples of 'good endings: Cowboy Bebop, anything in the Xeno-series (Xenogears, Xenosaga, etc.), Ender's Game (the book), Watchmen (Comic and Movie), Blue Gender, Pulla Magi Madoka Magica (Especially 'Rebellion' movie), and probably my favorite twist-epic-ending-it-all-makes-sense-in-the-end-of-all-time 3rd Birthday's end for Parasite Eve franchise...

endings are 'the end' but even they have to give the fan 'hope' in some fashion, if not we end up feeling rather cheated...

 

[Ikasury]

Spoiler

All of the above. Add to that the way stories will regularly progress in ways the writer did not anticipate - particularly in the case of ongoing fiction, like TV series, book series, etc., where there is time for fans to become attached to characters or NOT become attached to characters - and endings become fantastically difficult to write.

Here's an example: I create a wonderful story around a Marty Sue who's so super awesome in everything. But I'm smart enough to realize that my Marty Sue isn't going to be a great character for everyone, so I create a few people for him to hang around with and it becomes more of a Superfriends. I manage to write the perfect story at the perfect time, and people love it. So I keep writing stories about the Superfriends. I've got bad guys, I've got good guys, I've got a plot where the main character is going to become the King of Fantasyland in the end.

But as time goes on, more and more fans like Marty's older brother Jimmy, who's sarcastic, lazy, self centered and pretty much the worst parts of Marty in human form. But the fans love him, want to see more stories about him. So I write more stories about him, and less about Marty. I didn't plan on Jimmy being so popular so I don't know where to go with him. As a writer I'd love to just have him die off in a horrific way that's entirely his fault - and justified because of who he is - but I know my fans would hate it, and might stop reading what I write. So the ending I had in mind years ago - Marty becoming the King of Fantasyland - isn't viable anymore due to unforeseen circumstances. And the ending is coming up soon; I'm bored with this story, I want to move on. Readership is down because they're bored. It's just plain time to end this story.

So... I improvise. And the ending is meh because I just don't have it planned out. I spent years setting up one ending only to find it no longer fitting into the story. Not because I'm a bad writer, not because I'm incompetent, but because circumstances changed as things went along. I don't have the time to build up a new ending, so I hastily cobble together some things, shoehorn other things and generally try to give some of the fans what they want, and Jimmy ends up being the King of Fantasyland. But he hates it, he's incompetent and after a few weeks he's deposed in favour of Marty. No one really likes it but it's done, and it's time to move on.


As for advice? Try not to deus ex machina the ending. (See: Mass Effect 3) Look back on the entirety of the story you've created and try to stick to the setting and tone you've set up. Try not to ignore major aspects of your story even if they are inconvenient now. (See: LOST) Try to have a general plan in mind from the beginning (See: Babylon 5), though you want to keep it somewhere between Too Vague (The Good Guys Win) and too Detailed (Good Guy A kills Bad Guy B with Bad Guy B's Secret Weapon, which creates a tidal wave that crashes over the entire world, destroying all of Bad Guy B's secret naval bases and Saves The World). And don't be afraid of doing something controversial, like a Fade To Black (See: The Sopranos) or Back to Square 1 (See: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King). This isn't to say those were GOOD endings, but don't be afraid to use them if you feel it would be best for your story.

Lastly, take whatever advice you get from random anonymous interweb dweebs with a huge grain of salt. Even if we've managed to get published somewhere we aren't experts in the field, and what worked for our stories probably won't work for yours. We're writers - we just love to type up lots of words in ways that are entertaining but not necessarily helpful.

yes... while i will say Deus Ex Machina isn't necessarily 'bad' (i'm probably one of the few people that didn't mind the original ME3 ending on a literary standpoint) it can and has often been overdone to the point the 'point' of it is completely lost... but yest, keeping up with your work is the best thing to do... i got a piece that's over 500 pages and looks nothing like what i originally planned, but honestly i find it more interesting as it evolves itself, if you're a writer NEVER try to force your work into a nice little box like so many things do nowadays, either strictly following the hero's journey or point B (the end) is stuck solidly in the ground and you won't move it no matter what so what does come along and develop screws everything up and you're left with no idea where to go... stories take on a life of their own, i'd care less honestly about the audience's opinions and more on making the work true to itself, consider who's reading/seeing it sure, but don't alter things drastically based on their opinions (like jimmy taking over fantasyland ) honestly that's a worse ending, changing FOR the audience only to come up with some copout and taking a left turn back to the original end eventually anyway... that's just weird and disorienting ._.

but yea, i liked that example :3

 

[norashepard]

I'm about to sound like a gigantic douche but whatever: Writing is essentially a really elaborate way to discuss a question, and thus the ending should answer the question in some way. TONS of writers don't know this though, so they try ending things in ways that have nothing to do with the overarching discussion the book is trying to have and then bang! Bad ending.

Spoiler: HIMYM Spoilers

How I Met Your Mother is a perfect example, because the question is right in the title. It failed in the end because it completely tossed aside the mother (even killing her off cheaply) so that Ted could be with Robin, without a lot of build up to that ending. If the entire series had focused more on Ted's love of Robin, in a bigger way than what it did at least, the ending would have been fine, because there would be a new question of "Will Ted and Robin do the thing?" As it is though, that question was seemingly answered already by having Barney and Robin married.

Basically, endings that don't match the preceding story always fuck up, but that's not always an obvious thing to writers.