Greetings Storytellers! Last month I introduced the topic of endings and how important they are to creating a satisfying and lasting impression of our books: Writing the End, Part One. Now, it’s time to browse through some common types of endings.

Not all types of endings are mutually exclusive, and the goal isn’t to pick one kind of ending and force your story to conform. Instead, it’s to focus on what you want to emphasize as the most important element of your book, what final experience you want to give your readers as they close the last page. It’s how you fulfill the promise you made at the story’s beginning.

There are 8 common ways to end a story.

• Resolved Ending
• Unresolved Ending
• Ambiguous Ending
• Surprise Ending
• Tie-back Ending
• Altered World Ending
• Altered Character Ending
• The Epilog

Today I’m going to chat about the first four.

1.    Resolved Ending