Seven Ways to End Your Short Story

By Rachel Leitch

You’ve made it! You’ve set up your world and made your characters real in a very limited word count. You’ve let your character make both good and bad choices. You’ve created a small-scale catastrophe for a climax.

And now it’s time to tie off all those loose threads.

With just a handful of words left.

Short stories have a unique potential when it comes to endings. When we stick with a whole novel, we want a satisfying ending. We care about the characters a lot and usually have a strong opinion on how their story should end.

While we want to be satisfied just as much by a short story, we also haven’t invested as much time into the characters, which makes us more open to unusual endings that would simply infuriate us after a 75,000 word novel.

We’re going to explore seven ways to end your short story. Maybe it will jumpstart your imagination and inspiration as well!

1.  Happily Ever After

The classic happily ever after works for short stories, too. The good guys win. The couple ends up together forever. The main character gets what they have worked so hard and sacrificed so much for.

Pros: Everybody loves a good happily ever after. (Even those who refuse to admit it.) We love seeing the character we care about get what they’ve worked so hard for. It gives us a sense of justice, as well as hope for the seemingly unmoving mountains in our lives. They’re enjoyable both to read and to write. They are a tried-and-true crowd favorite.

Cons: People are also very skeptical of the Happily Ever After. Because things just aren’t that simple in real life. Happily Ever Afters can easily come off as trite or cheesy. It can create a false sense of reality, which leads to disappointment when we set the pages down and return to the real world. If your character has made several wrong choices throughout the story, this can also become a cheap cop-out to avoid dealing with their mistakes.

Consider:

2.  The Imperfect Ending

If your character has made some wrong choices or experienced losses that need to be dealt with, or you simply want your story to have an extra touch of reality, you might consider the Imperfect Ending.

Your main character still gets what they want, but it comes with a caveat. The couple ends up together, but they still have challenges to deal with. The good guys win, but they lose something important in the process. Despite the choices they’ve made, not everything works out perfectly. And that’s okay.

Pros: Much more realistic, these endings are in vogue right now in both novels and short stories. They can be just as hopeful as Happily Ever Afters—perhaps more so, because they depict hope when problems don’t just go away. It keeps the readers guessing.

Cons: There is a very slight chance of dissatisfied readers.

Consider:

3.  Maybe, Maybe

Short stories are one of the few things in writing where you can leave readers hanging a bit, leave the ending to their imagination. We get enough of a glimpse to know the character has changed, and then the curtains close on our questions.

Pros: Let imagination take flight! It can be translated a lot of different ways for many different people, inviting it into their own experience. It’s creative, fresh, and new—it’s something you don’t see often in writing. It keeps readers guessing, much like imperfect endings do. It encourages the reader to keep thinking long after they reader and to seek out answers for their questions.

Cons: Because the interpretations can be so vast, it could be taken to mean something you never intended it to mean. This is also not an excuse to not write a complete resolution—we still need to see the character has changed and received closure, even if all the questions aren’t answered. Even the best of Maybe endings can frustrate, confuse, or mystify some readers.

Consider:

4.  Room of Consequence

(Good job getting the Adventures in Odyssey reference.)

Say your character got on the wrong path. Maybe he made wrong choices that have led him to a less than perfect ending. His mistakes have made it impossible to have a Happily Ever After or even an Imperfect ending. And the Maybe ending would just leave everyone frustrated. What now? Is your character simply doomed for all eternity?

No! Having your main character experience consequences and learn from it still brings hope as well—because we all make mistakes. While we still grieve for what the main character lost, we also experience their turn back to the light.

Don’t be wishy-washy. Those consequences need to hurt. And your character needs to prove he/she means what they say to earn readers’ trust back. When they say they’ll do better, we need a reason to believe them.

But even amidst those consequences and time of proving, don’t throw out hope altogether, or your readers will leave for something more glittery (and less discouraging). Don’t leave them in the dumps, show them and your character the way out.

Pros: Books teach us things without directly saying it. And seeing someone make these mistakes in real life and receive consequences for them (even if it’s a situation we wouldn’t usually find ourselves in) can guide us away from similar decisions or mistakes. Because of this, the “Room of Consequence” makes for strong points. 

Cons: Like I mentioned above, if it’s too wishy-washy, readers will not buy it. And if it’s utterly hopeless, they’ll put it down. The temptation of these two options makes it easy to create a cop-out with this type of ending. The “Room of Consequence” is a tight balance as well.

Consider:

5.  Tragedy

Short stories are also a place where the tragedy can be revived. The story ends darkly and terribly, and . . . that’s it. Your character ends up a worse person than they were before.

Pros: This is a unique way to show consequences and encourage readers to make better choices. 

Tragedy can also show a scary, but very real part of life. Unfortunately, life can be a frightening and painful place. In stories, if tragedy is paired with a well-written and connected theme, it can be extremely impactful and even beautiful.

Cons: Prepare for wailing readers. Tragedy can be dark and discouraging. It’s hard to walk the line between impactful, but not too heavy. If it drags you down to write it (beyond the typical sadness that comes from destroying a character) and leaves you in a bad state of mind, then stop. It’s not worth it.

Make sure light makes an appearance, even if your character doesn’t choose it. (This can come through other characters, contrasted lifestyles, or nods to the beginning of the story.)

Many readers will get frustrated or discouraged by these endings as well.

6. Round and Round We Go

This is my fun little name for the circular ending. In this type of ending, the story ends in the same or similar place that it began in. The trick is to make both the beginning and the ending intriguing. 

Pros: The sheer creativity of this ending will attract some readers. (*raises hand*) But the fact is, sometimes life feels like it’s going in circles. It’s tiring. It’s hard. It’s tedious. Sometimes even boring. So an interesting story that seems to go in circles has a unique advantage to readers who are fighting these feelings. 

Cons: It goes in circles. So if you’re not careful, it may become boring or disappointing because it doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

Consider: 

7. Twist

 Your story is strolling along (or galloping along, depending on your plot) towards the ending, then . . . BAM! Something you never saw coming--a character’s identity, a plot twist, or a surprising reveal--pops out of nowhere right at the end. 

Pros: Who doesn’t love a good twist? Twists are what jolt readers into a story. They’re fun to write and they’re fun (*heart-wrenching, stunning, shocking, and occasionally horrifying*) to read. 

Cons: Some readers don’t like being surprised. It’s a rare occurrence, but it does happen. And if a twist takes a story in a new direction than the one they already loved and committed to, it might leave them with a bad taste in their mouth. 

Consider:

How Do I Choose?

You may be wondering, “How do I even choose from these five endings?” Think about what message you want to leave your reader with at the end of the story. Which ending will get them thinking about that? A story’s ending has huge impact when it comes to the story’s theme. Once you find the ending that speaks the best for you, go with it and make it your own.

Consider:

Conclusion:

The possibilities go on and on, as do the combinations of particular endings. (What if you mixed the Tragedy and the Maybe, for example?) Your imagination truly is the only limit here.

Your ending is your last word to your reader. So spark hope and justice and light. And then let their imaginations soar.

*What are your favorite endings? Let me know in the comments below!