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How to Write Awesome Endings (6 Easy Tips!)
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- Опубликовано: 14 авг 2024
- Endings can be brutal to write, but these tips will help save your latest story or novel!
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I read My Sister's Keeper & I had the exact same reaction. I couldn't BELIEVE that book was published with that stupid ending. Just wow!
THANK YOU. Every time I see it in a book store I have to restrain myself from tearing out the last ten pages
Having not read the book and having no plans on reading the book, feel free to spoil the ending for me as I am intrigued now lol.
@@Pirelli913Spoiler:
After winning her autonomy in court, she gets in a car accident and is brain dead, so they use her organs anyhow to save her sister and everyone else lives happily ever after
@@KingDae19 a better but still stupid ending could have been:
...
After she wins autonomy her sister has the car accident and is brain dead.
@@KingDae19just from that paragraph, i can tell that she should've stayed dead😂
Also interesting is a half-resolved ending. I'm planning to have my couple separate because of unresolved trauma in the past. But then one of the characters sees that he can't manage it alone, that he needs professional help. When he has resolved his issues mostly, he comes back to his lover, but instead of falling into each other's arms and ending the story with a happily ever after kiss, I have them be a little reserved in a hopeful way. The character that returned is invited into the house for tea or something, and that's the end. We can only imagine that they will work together on being a couple. I think this is a more realistic ending, but it's also a bit melancholy since a lot of people (myself included) are suckers for that happily ever after in whatever form that may come. So, to end a story on that melancholic, thoughtful hopefulness, well... At least I feel a bit melancholic about it.
That ending does sound like a great place to end the story.
@@BrianWendt thank you😊
That ending sounds along the lines of Cast Away's ending, but more positive. Which, by the way, is a compliment, for the movie had a great ending.
Spoiler:
After being stranded on a deserted island for four years, Chuck successfully escapes and returns to civilization, only to find his fiance is now married to another man. He gets reconnected with her, which results in some awkward small talk before eventually confessing that they still love each other, but since she's a married woman he has to let her go. After getting some counseling about suicidal thoughts, he goes to deliver a package he had been carrying for the last four years with a note how the package saved his life. As he is leaving, he stands in a dirt road intersection in the middle of nowhere looking down the different roads.
The questions it raises: Where does he go now? How does he restart his life? What is the value of life? He survived, but for what? Life is a gift, but what does he do with it?
I did that in my recent novel, too. The story wasn't so much about the romance, but in the end one woman has lost both her lover and her husband and has to decide if she's ready to move on after the events that lead to this. Her husband's brother offers her his help, but she declines by saying she might come seek him after another year has passed. In my older version I added another scene where she visits her lover's grave to ask him for advice, but I cut it. I didn't work with the overall story and made the scene before feel weak. I like it the way it is now, it leaves me on a nice bitter-sweet note. I like bitter-sweet or otherwise ambivalent or open endings a lot.
Your comment made me think of (SPOILER ALERT) the ending of “Sex, Lies, and Videotape.” Sort of an “I think everything is going to be okay” ending.
The ending I most loved out of any book I’ve read is the conclusion of Sofie’s world. The book is a story about a girl who enters into a really unusual correspondence with someone who teaches her philosophy, and as the story goes on there are allusions to some great existential threat. Once you see how she and her teacher solve that problem, it’s simultaneously mind-bending but also makes total sense in the context of what the novel was all about. I also have a soft spot for the ending of 1984. Classic.
That's an ending that I hated! The story, which is the story of philosophy becomes more and more of a fairy tale as it progresses. I also hated that for half the story Sofie is the main character and then all of sudden, after hundreds of pages, I have to get used to the new character Hilde.
This one came up in my feed at a crucial time for me to hear it. Thank you so much! I'll be watching again.
Worst ending of a book was a romance novel. At the end the time traveler started to fade away and the woman (holding their new baby) reached for him. The last words were... Then there was nothing. I threw the book.
It ended on "..."? Yikes...
Man, I hate those ends. So many movies and books have used them.
The guys dies or has to leave, for whatever reason, but at least the women gets to have his baby.
Oh yippie, bite me.
for me i would write something that ties everything together and uses the theme as an ending and it is just simple.i dont ever over complicate it or over simplify it
Simple is great, especially when you have a standalone book. Find the loose ends, tie them up, make the reader happy.
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty indeed.also i have been thinking a bit on character development in my story.i wanted that the main characters dad fought in the war to try fight for rights to live with human and every time he came home he would be more scared by the amounts of lives he had to end and how many families he ruined.i want that that stated making him drink and become an angry drunk and would abuse the main character and making her want er dad die on the battle field by the amount of abuse she gotten.
Tip 4: Balance satisfaction and surprise... If you guys want a great example of this, read Brandon's book Entry Wounds. Seriously one of the best endings I've read in years. No spoilers here, but I still think about a month after finishing. The other tips are great too.
I agree. Enjoyed the end!
Yeah, Jodi Picoult does love her twists ant the end. I had read a few of her other novels before I read My Sister’s Keeper, so it wasn’t quite as unexpected to me because I knew that twists at the end are kind of her style. She was an author a liked a lot as a teen mostly because her endings always make you think. But My Sister’s Keeper is definitely one of her more jarring and dissatisfying twist endings. If you ever wanted to revisit Picoult, I’d recommend Plain Truth or Keeping Faith. It’s been a while since I’ve read any of her works (so I’ve only read some of her older ones) but I remember liking those. Plain Truth does have a twist at the end but it’s not completely out of left field and more just makes you keep thinking and reconsider things, not want to throw the book out a window. I don’t remember Keeping Faith having a huge twist at the end but it’s been decades since I read it so take that with a grain of salt.
Taylor Sheridan talked about the ending to the movie Hell or High Water. In what had been a pretty action-packed movie, it was a tense conversation between adversaries. The studio told him to cut the scene. He refused, saying this scene is why I wrote the screenplay. I found that to be a valuable lesson. Write the story to tell the ending
Worst ending for me was from the anime "Erased" while the most frustrating for me was from the play "All My Sons". Thank you very much for posting this video, it was extremely helpful
I know that the ending is one of the things you must get right for a story because people might not always remember how a story begins but they will remember how it ends.
So usually my writing process is one of the first things I do after I come up with a beginning middle and end, if I put a lot of focus on the beginning in the ending things are usually the two first things that I write and complete when storyboarding a story I write.
Well, there is this episode of Little House on the Prairie. Little Carrie falls into a well/mine shaft and the entire village works with all they got to save that little girl. One engineer but drunk has another idea than digging and convinces Carrie's dad to use another approach. The shaft collapses and not just Carrie's mother but the entire village stands there in shock. But then, Dad calls carrying the little girl on his arm. Dirty but unharmed. He got to her just in time. Unforgettable happy ending.
"Let's end this." (The video ended)
Yeah, sometimes I don't know when to stop, so that I write on and on, and it becomes mundane instead of a poignant, good ending. In that case, I need to step on the brakes and rewrite. But in general, I find writing an ending much easier than a good beginning.
You are amazing bro. Love your vlogs. Catching up on all of them now.
Thrilled to hear it. Thanks for watching!
What is the WORST ending you've ever encountered in a story? Let us know, and be sure to mark for SPOILERS!!!
I'm not sure about books that I've read, but as far movies go, a few chick flicks made me cringe at their endings. However, the ending that infuriated me the most was Sucker Punch. I really loved the movie, art direction, and almost everything about it except the ending. But, I still love watching it even though others don't.
@Windex Didn't bother me to be honest. What, too cheesy for you at the very end?
@@berry186 Now I know to go into Sucker Punch with lower expectations about the ending
Ah, because there are lessons to be learned! Sometimes a character's actions shouldn't be rewarded, and Pet Sematary is an example of book with some dark choices.
It's been 8 years since I've read it. I recall the wife coming back from the dead and putting a hand on the husband's shoulder at the very end. Honestly can't remember if the husband was still alive or zombified.
But I think the point was that their bad choices led to that particular ending.
My second favorite ending is in The Awakening by Kate Chopin, surprising and intense. My FAVORITE ending is in McTeague by Frank Norris, so bittersweet and tragic but funny and beautiful. Both profound books for me but I'm no literary genius so how to end my books? Time will tell. : )
Brandon, I always dig your videos, but this one was especially helpful! It prompted a rare creative flash that solved two of my problems at once:
I'm writing a screenplay where I think a happy ending is appropriate, but it seemed a little too obvious. Also, I had a "loose end" character who had disappeared after doing her part early in the story. It struck me that I could keep the Star Wars -like "Hooray for the heroes; thanks for all your hard work" ending, but: The "loose end" character shows up quietly, and a certain main character gives her a "good to see you again" nod, leaving the audience thinking "wait, he KNOWS HER? If he knows her, that implies...etc. etc. etc." It doesn't take away from the feel-good ending, but it adds something to think about.
If I read a bad ending, I’m following the philosophy of Death of the Author, and think of my own ending.
One good genre for unresolved endings is horror. Sure, the protagonists have escaped, but the horror remains. Or, as in at least one ending, the ones that escaped wasn’t the protagonists, but the horror.
The Rage of Dragons was good for the first 90 percent and then completely changed because the writer had a four book story arc that was already planned out. He did not put in a transition from book one to book two that made sense and abruptly changed the character to set up book two.
Hello! Thank you for this informative video! I am writing a book named bloody purist, phantasy horror book with family drama and comedy elements. What i will do to close the story is use circlaritiy then resolve the plot with keeping the story open ended a little for a potential sequels.
Love your shirt! DUUUUUUVALLLLLL
I barely remember it but I remember being super disappointed in the end of the movie "Oculus" I don't remember the specifics but I remember feeling like the movie built up a bunch of rules about how the evil mirror worked and what it's limitations were, but then they all got thrown out and broken at the very ending for a twist "bad guy wins" and the plan never mattered ending.
Haven’t seen it but it’s on my list
Twin peaks... they say. At least in concideration of the excellent quality of the series up to that point.
King Bran.
Worst series finale I've seen on TV was LOST. I watched the whole thing for a fucking copout. And I have a friend who loved it. I will forever call him a moron with bad taste.
Greatest series finale I've seen on TV was The Shield. It tied up all the main loose ends and the main character had the greatest downfall in TV history, from top of the world to alone and broken.
Thank you so much, this is so helpful
Awzum! Cool ideas. Sometimes I like twist endings if it benefits the protagonists 😎🤘
Yeah, if they're properly set up and they have meaningful impact, I love them!
I also hated the ending of My Sister’s Keeper. It felt like a cheat. I’ve avoided her books ever since.
I have a 105k manuscript in a four act structure. Got an editor, and it's 95% complete except for the falling action/resolution. I can't seem to wrap it up. I mean, it's killing me. Thanks for the video.
Worst ending was needlessly killing a fun, highly enjoyable character just to make the end seem like it took sacrificing. It was great to see the hero’s win but the cheap shot death stuck with me.
The Sopranos.
So when I watched the finale with my dad, we were both like WTF?? when it ended. Initially I thought it was dumb, but I warmed up to it as I thought about it more.
Spoiler alert for the novel Hannibal. Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling become lovers and escape to Buenos Aires. WTF? They changed the ending for the movie, which was more believable.
Great clip. Thanks 😊
The ending of John LeCarre's Our Kind of Traitor feels as though it was written by an author on a deadline, who had lost enthusiasm for the story and just wanted to wrap it up ASAP
You know what a really good example of a fantastic unanswered question is the new hunger games where we never find out where Lucy-Gray is alive or not
That's so true! Personally I didn't like the ending of that book. The little 1v1 at the end felt like it came outta nowhere, but everyone else seemed to feel it coming so that's just me.
Go Colts! 😜
You monster.
A very satisfying ending to this comment thread :)
Worst ending to a novel I've read:
(SPOILER ALERT)
"Cruel and Unusual" by Patricia Cornwell. I picked up the book because of the way it started: An autopsy of a convicted serial killer, still warm from the electric chair. Why were there interstate toll receipts in his pocket when he'd been in prison? And why did similar murders continue to be committed?
In the last few pages, the author throws in a mundane explanation which, to me, was very unsatisfying and un-guessable. She summarily explains that the prisoner had been in a creepy relationship with a barely-mentioned prison guard, who had accidentally put her own toll receipts in his pocket. He'd never had any excursions out of the prison.
08:05 A science fiction story about characters interacting with virtual characters who live in a computer simulation, falling in love with each other, then moving to the physical plane in robotic bodies in order to be together, and then, out of a sudden, one of them (the virtual one) getting brutally murdered by random strangers on the street over a bunch of pennies, leaving the other one a wreck of a human for the rest of his life. Probably just because the author of the story wrote himself into a corner and didn't have any better idea about how to end his story, but he didn't want to work on it any longer. Which is rather unfortunate, because the premise of the story was great.
Found this channel from the good dialogue vs bad dialogue, now going back and viewing all the other videos. So here is a worst ending. Book 1 of what is supposed to be a 4-part series ends with the protagonist sending her husband (critically injured) off with her brother to hope that his life gets saved, she surrenders to the bad guys and then it literally ends with "To Be Continued" (after about 180k words) Book 2 (equally bloated, length-wise) came out, and yeah, you could have totally blended the last chapter of book 1 and added the first of book 2, cut at least 50% of the words (the author is overly verbose) and it would have been one chapter. (Book 1: The Governor's Daughter; Book 2: The Prodigal Daughter) There's a whole lot more to criticize, writing-wise about both, but cliffhangers don't need to have a literal "to be continued" slapped on the end, as if the author just decided "well, that's enough words for now".
I found like six books with this title. What is the author's name?
@@Skye_Writer Maria Eleni Dampmann
New writer, once again great video. You need to stop. I was pretty well done with the story except some of the dialogue.
I had to go back and put your Circular idea in.
Now you got me putting a better twist after the ending.
You have too many good ideas. If you don’t stop, you will keep from ending story. Just kidding, keep it up.
Hahah glad the video helped!
Have you watched, "The Lighthouse" before?? If so what did you think of the ending??
I personally loved it.
As for my least favorite ending, Call of Cthulhu. I love all of H.P. Lovecrafts stories, but the ending for how Cthulhu was laid back to rest was very unsatisfying.
For a movie though my least favorite ending ever is.. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D. SPOILERS.
The reveal that she was the cousin of leatherface absolutely pissed me off, for a multitude of reasons. Then the last scene where shes carrying him around in a horse trailer also made mad 🤣😂
Watched the first half of The Lighthouse (that's the one with Robert Pattison and WIllem Dafoe right?), but didn't finish it. Now that you're telling me the ending's interesting, I might have to give it another shot.
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Yes that one. And yeh its definitely not for everyone which is understandable as to why you didnt finish 🤣😂. Its weird to say the least
@@PuppetMaster-Blade I watched it when I was exhausted, and it wasn't the most energetic movie for keeping me awake haha
It was a good watch, but I definitely preferred The Witch. Not super-mind blowing, but satisfying.
I dispute point 1. Coming full circle is endings of procedural series. Each episode ends where it started, and it's very bad and stupid. In addition, such an ending conflicts with point 4 and after the fact creates a feeling of primitiveness and predictability of the finale.
In a book: The closing scene of "The Count of Monte Cristo". I can't really put my finger on why, but to me it felt like Dumas was trying to force a happy romantic ending on Edmond, which I can not agree with. The tone is so vastly diffrent from the story that I got really frustrted, even thou the scene itself isn't that bad.
In a movie: "The Gallows". Really? Why did they have to force another scene at the end to explain to me what has happend, but in a way so bad and outragous that it makes me dislike the movie in hindsight? This ending (and the one from "Splice" for that matter) are just so one could make a second movie, if, by chance, the first one becomes a hit. Sadly, the ending made it so that not.
In a series: "Platinum End". Like 80 to 90% of the story the ending is plain frustrating and feels forced just to bring across the author's world view and morale. Stupid. I think this one is the worst ending ever created, even counting the series without a real ending which got canceled halfway through.
The movie Premonition. The twist ending must have been put on as an afterthought after the script was written, because it logically didn’t match with many parts of the story. The movie is only worth watching if you want to know how not to write a story.
In real life, endings are always depressing and unresolved.
game of thrones series TV - worst ending I've ever experienced and 100% felt betrayed by the writers of the show
Now You See Me 2 had a terrible ending that ruined the AMAZING ending of the first Now You See Me-spoilers
Morgan Freeman's character was on the main characters' side all along. That's right-the previous twist where the true leader beat him is completely meaningless. The conflict has been fake the entire time-the policeman going after them AND the consultant were on the same side of the main characters.
I mean, imagine if Joker was actually on Batman's side to sharpen him, and then helped him beat Darkseid or something-that would work, maybe, if done really well. But then Darkseid was a good guy too, trying to make Joker the best man he can be. That's what this was like.
Picoult writes very good books with very bad endings it seems. Worst ending I've read or seen? Eleanor and Park, probably.
Yeah, I don't understand how she manages to sell books. Who wants to get all wrapped up in a good story only to find a silly nonsense twist at the end? Yuck.
The twist ending in the Burton Planet of the Apes, by contrast, was uuuuuuuuuuuh trash
The worst ending I've ever seen isn't a book, it was a film: Surrogates starring Bruce Willis.
I won't spoil it here but them premise was a really interesting scifi setting where people spent their lives in bed, experiencing the outside world through humanlike robots - surrogates. In the end, the society's entire way of life hangs in the balance where Willis's character is solely responsible for choosing what happens, and there's a hollywood return to normality. Complete destruction of immersion because that would have horrific consequences for so many people while the sun comes up and happy healthy music is playing to reward the decision.
Speaking of twist endings, the worst ending, at least that I can recall from the last 10 years, was the end of Danganronpa 3. Spoiler warning for below:
Basically, the entire game's story is a red herring as you are led to believe that it is a direct sequel to the previous games. In the final 30 minutes or so, you're info-dumped that all the characters were brainwashed into their current personas, and previously wanted to participate in the battle royale, which has become a quasi - reality tv show. There is also an attempt at breaking the 4th wall and guilting players into not wanting to have more danganronpa games for the sake of the fictional characters' health. But its all just so ridiculous and nonsensical, it toys with the reader in a bad way, and its just crammed into 30 minutes at the end.
Other danganronpa games have had twist endings but they're worked up to properly - hints are left earlier as to whats really going on so the player is expecting something along the lines of what the truth is.
Only beat the first 2 Danganronpa games. Still need to play 3, so I avoided the end of your comment. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard bad things about the ending though
Worst ending ever: beef. Second to last episode took a radical turn, last episode did yet another. Then for no reason, bang, over, made zero sense... What were they thinking?
The resolution (and tbh I wished they had stopped it an episode short) was that they were essentially mirror images of each other but in different contexts and by accepting each other externally they accepted the "worst part" of themself internally. I also don't think it stuck the landing ... Got what they wanted to say thematically but it just didn't fit the rest of the narrative well
@@notmyrealpseudonym6702 we watched a semi-serious comedy, suddenly, completely out of the blue, turn into a very gritty crime drama, then wasted most of the last episode tripping in a mildly-funny-at-best, far too long, sequence... and then bang, coma time or whatever, done.
it was shit.
you make promises when you begin a story, and one of them is always theme. you can evolve it, maybe... boondock saints is a good example. they started at like, 90%/10% and then made it 10%/90%, or more.
beef? it was as bad as mike meyers showing up at the end of when harry met sally and murdering everyone, roll credits.
Doctor Who - We all know the Doctor has a daughter. He thought she died but then she regenerated after he left and we never see her again - WTF BBC??? Okay - BBC always leaves tons of plot lines unfinished. So annoying.
Two horrible "forced twist" endings I've encountered:
1) "24" Season 1 -- not going to spoil this, but let's just say there's a duplication of an earlier plot device that makes no sense and only serves to deliver an ending with a different tone than expected.
2) "Kill La Kill" -- Suddenly certain characters are revealed to have a nonstandard sexual orientation, though nothing of the kind is even hinted at throughout the whole series; it feels like pandering -- like enough people complained, "hey, how come there's so much sexual innuendo all throughout this series but no representation for us?" that the writers panicked and shoehorned in a completely bogus-feeling potential relationship.
worst ending ever: Game of Thrones
Spoiler… alert.. 😐 .