Decisive. A true "ending" resolves the issues and conflicts in the story once and for all. Yes, there are ambiguous type endings in some stories ... but if you think about it, even though that's where those stories conclude, it's really not an ending in the true sense of the word, since the characters' storyline continues after the last page of the book or final frames of the movie. The best endings are ones that resolve the central conflict in the story once and for all, for better or worse. In Lord of the Rings, the One Ring is cast back into the fiery pits of Mount Doom, the Ring is unmade, and Sauron is defeated as a result. That's pretty decisive, but can you imagine if the storyline following the Ring wasn't resolved? This epic story follows the Fellowship's quest to destroy the Ring, pitted against the evil Sauron's quest to reacquire it. Imagine if neither of those objectives were achieved; if the Ring were lost along the way, or Frodo decided to keep the Ring for himself and ran off with it. It wouldn't be a truly decisive ending, because the Ring didn't reach a decisive end that the audience could say, "That's what happened to it." When you're writing your own endings, make sure that your ending is decisive. Whether it's a happy ending or a sad ending, make sure your readers are 100% clear on how the central conflict is resolved, and what happened.


Set Up. An ending must also be properly set up. It can't come out of nowhere, and it's not going to be satisfying if the audience never had a chance to see it coming. This is particularly true of mysteries, the success of which is largely based upon a reader's ability to follow along with the narrative and try to figure out what's going on. In Lord of the Rings, the quest to destroy the Ring is set up all the way back in The Fellowship of the Ring when the Council of Elrond decides the Ring is too dangerous and must be destroyed. From that point on, we know exactly what has to happen, the ending (the ultimate fate of the Ring) is constantly at the forefront of the audience's mind, and everything from that point on develops and advances that conflict. They have to travel into Mordor, the heart of Sauron's power, to destroy it. They lose members of their party along the way. As Sauron's power increases, the many characters in the book begin taking sides, allying themselves either for or against the Fellowship and their mission of destroying the Ring. On a smaller level, when Frodo is unable to resist the power of the Ring and intends on keeping it, then Gollum, in a bid to get it from Frodo, ends up causing his own death and the destruction of the Ring ... all of that is perfectly set up earlier in the story by showing Gollum's obsession with the Ring, and Frodo's struggle to resist its power. Without that set up, the ending wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as it was, because we as an audience wouldn't understand the significance of the decisions that were made by these two characters, or fully appreciate the irony of how that conflict is resolved. When you're writing your own endings, make sure that you set them up properly so that your readers are fully engaged in the conflict and understand how the resolution came about.


Inevitable. This is the tough one. Along with being decisive and set up, your ending has to be inevitable; the story has to seem as if it couldn't (or at least shouldn't) have ended any other way. This is particularly important because it's the most important aspect related to audience satisfaction. If the ending isn't inevitable, you run the risk of having your audience not only feel like it could have ended better, but perhaps even thinking of a better ending themselves. In Lord of the Rings, the larger ending with Sauron's armies versus essentially everyone else is inevitable; as Sauron grew in power, it created the unavoidable situation where he was going to clash with the people attempted to save Middle Earth. And in the smaller ending with Frodo and Gollum, it was an inevitability that Gollum, someone corrupted and warped by desire for the Ring, would make a play for it and try to claim it as his own. And that Frodo would be tempted to keep the Ring for himself, since he'd been struggling with its influence for the entire journey. When you look at the way Frodo decided to keep the Ring, Gollum attempted to wrest it from him, and in the struggle, Gollum became the architect of his own fate, you realize that the ending really wouldn't have been as satisfying if it had happened any other way. If Frodo had just thrown the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom, Gollum's character wouldn't have naturally concluded his story arc. If Gollum had attained and kept the Ring, it would have ruined the Ring's story arc of either being destroyed or reacquired by Sauron. And if Frodo had killed Gollum, it would have been less poetic than his own greed and lust for the Ring destroying him. When you're writing your own endings, make sure that those endings are the inevitable conclusion of all the moving parts and stories that play into it. Find the best possible resolution for every story arc and make sure your audience realizes your story shouldn't have ended any other way.


Unexpected. As if a decisive, set up, inevitable ending weren't hard enough, it also needs to be unexpected. Having a reader able to expect or guess the ending is just about the worst thing that can happen. Your audience should think they know how it's going to end ... and then you should serve them up something completely different. It can't come out of left field (see "Set Up"), but it shouldn't be something you can see coming from miles down the road either. In Lord of the Rings we think we know what's going to happen. We think Frodo's going to get to Mount Doom and throw the Ring into the fires, complete his quest, and that'll be the end. But he doesn't. The power of the Ring corrupts him and he decides to keep the Ring. He's going to throw away everything they Fellowship has worked for! He's failed ... but then Gollum shows up and fights him for the Ring! And, perhaps most unexpectedly of all, the Ring (along with Gollum) falls into the fires when the twisted hobbit is so consumed by his own desire for the Ring that he impulsively bites off Frodo's finger - Ring and all - which seals his own fate and causes both him and the Ring to tumble into the fires. Make sure your stories have an unexpected ending that the audience doesn't see coming. It should be one that they can appreciate, in a, "Wow, why didn't I think of that?" kind of way.