# Types of Endings!



## Kyle R (May 9, 2012)

While plotting my novel, I've been thinking of different types of ending strategies to use. A few came to mind.. some cliche, others notable. Here are some off the top of my head. I've given them nicknames for ease of reference:


*- The Inciting Incident Loop aka the "Here We Go Again!"

*This is where the inciting incident, the event that sets everything into motion at the beginning of the story, is repeated at the end of the story (hinting that a new journey will begin with different characters).

Example:

_The Happening_ begins with a mysterious wind blowing into a town. People begin to act strangely. The story begins. The ending scene takes place in a different part of the world with--you guessed it--a mysterious wind blowing into the town. 


*- The Hero Becomes a Martyr aka the "William Wallace"

*This is where the hero dies for a cause, or to save the lives of others. This could involve leaving loved ones behind to grieve, but leaving them inspired to become heroic themselves.

Example:

_Braveheart_ ends with William Wallace being tortured and mutilated, refusing to submit to English rule. He calls out "Freedom!" before his death.


*- The Hero Saves the Day aka the "Happily Ever After"

*This is where the hero, against all odds, manages to stop the runaway train, kill the hundred-ton monster, defuse the atomic bomb, and catch the buxom hottie before she falls off the cliff--all with only a split second to spare.

They catch their breath, look back at the rubble, and, with a smirk, the hero ends with a catch phrase reminiscent from earlier in the story. "Next time, let's go to Bermuda instead." The girl shakes her head and reluctantly cracks a smile, then leans her dirt-caked face on his shoulder as they limp off into the sunset.

Example:

See 90% of Hollywood movies.


*- The Deux ex Machina aka the "Whew! We Sure Got Lucky There!"

*This is where the villain is so powerful that all hope truly is lost, until an unexpected miracle, help from an outside force, saves the day.

Example:

_The War of the Worlds_ left Earth cowering under the stamping tripod feet of the blood-drinking, force-shielded Martian exterminators, until suddenly the aliens all caught runny noses and died. 


*- The Big Reveal aka the "Haha! Fooled Ya!"

*This is where the entire story is revealed, in the end, to have been a dream, a story being told, or the characters were not who they seemed.

Example:

_The Sixth Sense_ ended with Dr. Malcom Crowe discovering that he had been a ghost the entire time, haunting young Cole.



---

What other ending types can you think of?

What type of ending are you using in your current story?


----------



## Tiamat (May 9, 2012)

How about the "What the f*$# just happened?!" ending?  The one where something major has just happened, the characters head towards it and -- poof! -- the end.  Think "The Giver" (where Jonas and Gabriel hop on a sled out of the "utopia," think they see a Christmas-like village, and then it's over) or "The Handmaid's Tale" (where Offred is arrested, but it might be by the good guys, and then it's over).


----------



## Vertigo (May 9, 2012)

Of the ones Kyle listed, 2 and 3 are the best. Of course, they're also the most common, but that's because they bloody well work on a consistent basis. The others are all recipes for frustration if not executed to perfection. 4 is more potentially workable than the other two, but it can't be too much of a applied-phlebotinum ass-pull or everyone will roll their eyes.

5 is also potentially not awful so long as it's not a dream. You can't write a whole novel and then on the last page say it was all just a dream. People will hate you.


----------



## Potty (May 9, 2012)

Where the hero beats the bad guy but end up becoming the bad gy himself... but i guess this is classed as the "happens all over again" ending.


----------



## Kevin (May 10, 2012)

Potty said:


> Where the hero beats the bad guy but end up becoming the bad gy himself... but i guess this is classed as the "happens all over again" ending.


 sounds like a bio of Castro.


----------



## Robdemanc (May 10, 2012)

There is the one where the hero loses.  This is different from where the hero becomes a martyr.   Like the original Stepford Wives movie, the main character discovers the terrible truth but its too late to do anything about it and she is turned into a robot.  They seem to be quite rare and perhaps need to be done sparingly.  The Omen comes to mind too.


----------



## Potty (May 10, 2012)

I want to read more where the bad guys wins


----------



## Euripides (May 10, 2012)

I saw this thread and instantly thought 'Ending to Mass Effect 3!!!!' (video game)
 That ending would fit the Dues Ex Machina and the WTF just happened, endings.

I'm a sucker for matryr endings or tragic-y endings especially for romances (Cyrano deBergerac).

Yes! More endings where the bad guy wins.....or there is a shimmer of the good guy winning, but potentially going bad if the story was to be continued.


----------



## Kyle R (May 10, 2012)

Euripides said:


> I saw this thread and instantly thought 'Ending to Mass Effect 3!!!!' (video game)
> That ending would fit the Dues Ex Machina and the WTF just happened, endings.
> 
> I'm a sucker for matryr endings or tragic-y endings especially for romances (Cyrano deBergerac).
> ...



I googled "Mass Effect 3" and was very surprised to see the huge dissatisfaction from players over the ending. It seemed like the entire gaming world was up in arms, even forming Petition Websites, to demand the gamemakers make a different ending.

I was unable to find what the ending actually was, though I'd likely not understand without playing the game. But, I did find this article where a guy explains how the ending was actually better than most everyone realized, putting it in the "Haha! Fooled Ya!" category when people didn't even realize it was a Big Reveal at all. (In other words: People reacted negatively to the ending because they thought it was real, when in fact it might have been a dream sequence.. or something.)

Read this: Did the Real Mass Effect 3 Ending Go Over Everyone's Heads? - Forbes


----------



## Jon M (May 10, 2012)

The ending where the character gets what he wants, but discovers that it isn't anything like what he thought it'd be.


----------



## Euripides (May 10, 2012)

What Forbes brings up is what's called 'Indoctrination Theory' aka 'it was all just a dream.' The indoctrination theory was a fan based attempt to make sense of the huge WTF that happened in the last 10 min or so.

Someone had posted a great article about how the ending to Mass Effect 3 fails on many levels of story writing from a techincal standpoint. 

They tried to pull a dues ex in the last 10 min of the game and did it really really poorly. I'm okay with dues ex if it fits into the narrative framework (like the WoW aliens getting colds....kinds of makes sense) or is somehow foreshadowed. But the literal ghost in the machine at the end of Mass Effect 3 offers 1 of 3 choices, and one of the choices (for a purely sci-fi storyline up to this point) is to somehow synthesize all existing organics and all machine-based lifeforms into some sort of 'new' DNA form. So many issues with that. It's space magic in sci-fi.


----------



## Euripides (May 10, 2012)

Now I'm wondering what the ending to my favorite play 'Pygmalion' could be classified as.....


----------



## Pirisinian (May 13, 2012)

There's also the esoteric happy ending, where you think the ending you've written is a happy one, but due to a massive error of judgement on your part, everyone else begs to differ. It often takes the form of Fridge Horror.

For example, the ending of the Twilight saga, wherein everything is supposedly happy. Except for the fact that the volturi are still around and Jacob has imprinted on Bella's daughter, which just might be the most unintentionally creepy thing I've ever seen.


----------



## Walt1093 (May 13, 2012)

Morbid endings always stick with you, they really to puch the reader in the gut


----------



## QDOS (May 14, 2012)

Hi

  There is only two types of ending for me* Gripping *and *Satisfying. *

   Depending on your view of the fictional world portrayed and the character you route for... statistically the most successful are endings that empower the reader, give a certain buzz, create that warm feeling of having been driven through but survived the action.

  Is it a flaw of nurture or nature that we are tainted, seemingly to enjoy the actions of the bad guy, while their comeuppance,their demise played out in gruesome manner also derives further pleasure. :disgust:

   But of course I always route for the hero... heroine. (_Glad I spelled that last one correctly_)   :tears_of_joy: 

  QDOS :read:


----------



## Gonzalothethird (May 15, 2012)

I love to leave my endings ambiguous (particularly because I favor series).  The story’s challenge has been solved, yes, but the characters’ lives are going to continue to change. They've struggled for what odd amount of pages and we're left with them victorious, but there's that saying, "There's always a bigger fish." And then "we're gonna need a bigger boat." 

It’s the metaphoric “a storm is coming” while the final scene is walking through a storm.


----------



## Robert Donnell (May 19, 2012)

I really hate endings that explain everything or worse don't explain anything at all.

What I did at the end was go back to the beginning and arrange for it to have not happened at all the way it was in the book.


----------

