Ending your novel can be tricky. Sometimes you know the ending before you even start writing. Other times the ending might come to you naturally as you’re writing the book. Then there are the times when you have no idea when or how to end your story. Here at Go Teen Writers, we’ve written many posts on story endings, but I noticed that all of our posts are about one specific type of ending: the closed ending.
To be honest, it wasn’t until this past summer when I took an online screenwriting course that I learned there were two types of endings: open endings and closed endings. As the screenwriting teacher explained the difference, I quickly realized why I’d never given this topic much thought. It’s because I usually loathe open endings. I hated to think that my preferences might keep some of you from learning about open endings, I decided to take a closer look at the two.
Closed Endings
When you have a closed ending, your character finishes his quest. He makes it to the end of his journey. He achieves his goal—or he fails. Closed endings don’t have to be happy, but they do need to feel like they have been wrapped up.
Pros of a Closed Ending
-Most mass-market stories have closed endings. General audiences seem to prefer closed endings because they are familiar and expected and bring about satisfaction.
-Most closed endings are happy endings (but not always).
-Most all of the problems are wrapped up by the end. This includes character arcs, the main plot, subplots, and themes.
-Readers feel a sense of closure in knowing what happened to the characters in the aftermath of the story. Some closed endings even have an epilogue to give us a glimpse of that happily ever after.
-Most people read for escape and/or entertainment, and they want to see stories of people who are succeeding at life. Enough people are struggling. Enough people are hurting. Most don’t want to watch more suffering for entertainment. It’s too depressing.
Cons of a Closed Ending
-These types of endings have become formulaic. Many people have grown tired of reading or watching the same story over and over and over again. They can sometimes see the ending coming from the first scene of the story.
-These cookie-cutter endings are not often realistic. We all know life doesn’t work “that way.” Doesn’t mean we don’t like to read about it, but for those readers who happen to be struggling in life, these types of perfect endings might be triggering.
-Sometimes, to meet the formula, these types of endings are rushed, relying more on the formula rather than natural character development. This often happens with romance stories. You just don’t feel like that couple really would have worked out. Why did they every like each other? Poor answer: Because they were the main characters!
Open Endings
In stories that have an opening ending, the main character might not finish his quest, or if he does finish, he might have found out that what he “achieved” wasn’t at all what he set out do to. Open endings tend to be vague, uncertain, or ominous. Some part of the story is left unresolved, forcing the reader to wonder, “What happened?”
Pros of an Open Ending
-Since some part of the story has been left unresolved, the audience gets to make guesses as to what happened. This can cause thought-provoking debate and theorizing in online forums, on internet discussion boards, and even around the water cooler at the office.
-Open endings often inspire a second reading so that readers can understand the story more deeply.
-Leaving the reader to fill in the blanks themselves allows each person to imagine and interpret the story personally. When done well, this can create a sensational classic among readers who are moved to think deeply.
-More realistic endings can resonate with readers and leave a lasting impression. Most of our lives don’t deliver the super-mega-happy endings all the time, so realistic endings can be powerful.
Cons of an Open Ending
-They can be really difficult to pull off as a writer.
-When they are done poorly, they can annoy or confuse readers, who often feel like they just wasted several hours of their lives on a story with no real point.
-They often have unhappy endings.
-They often have confusing endings.
-They can leave readers feeling betrayed when the characters they’ve come to love don’t get the happy ending the reader has been expecting.
Partial Endings
Not every ending is fully closed or fully open, especially in a series. I’ve coined this third type of ending the partial ending since the author tries to close off a large part of the story yet also leave enough unsolved to fill another book or more. These types of endings are never the end for the characters since there are more adventures to be had, though usually more and more is uncovered as the series progresses. Pretty much any series is a good example of a partial ending, but these three are good examples: Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, or Keeper of the Lost Cities.
Which Do You Have?
The key to knowing what kind of ending you have is to ask yourself how much resolution does your story have? If you are tying up all your loose ends, you’re going to have much more of a closed ending that if you leave some threads dangling. If you’re writing a series, you’re likely going to have partial endings until the last book. Then you’ll have to decide whether or not to end your series with a Closed or Open ending. No matter what, your story should lead up to your ending and give some sort of conclusion. How much closure is up to you.
More Posts on Writing Endings
As I mentioned earlier, we have written lots of posts on how to end your story. Here are a few that you might find helpful if you’re working on an ending right now:
4 Tips For Writing A Satisfying Ending To Your Story
Plot Out the Perfect Ending with Blake Snyder’s Five-Step Finale
Where to End the Book
The Denouement: Ending Your Story
What kind of endings are you partial to? Share in the comments below.
Will You Help Me?
I have been working hard every weekend to revise my draft of Hunger, and I’ve finally scheduled a cover reveal!
Will you help with my cover reveal for Hunger?
The journey of Eli and his friends is finally coming to an end, and I have a gorgeous book cover for book two in the Thirst Duology, designed by the talented Emilie Hendryx. I’m preparing to share that cover with the world this coming January.
I’m super excited to release this one, and I do hope that everyone will enjoy how I’ve ended this adventure and set up the future Safe Lands trilogy. If you’d like to help spread the word, I would be ever so grateful. ♥️
The cover reveal is happening Thursday, January 21. You can sign up by clicking here.
Thank you for this post! I’m writing my first novel and I’ve decided to have a partially closed ending. But this post made me really think about how I can structure it and make it less predictable!
I’m glad it was helpful, Skyemma. I think as long as you’re actively thinking about what is predictable, it will be a big help toward keeping your story from being just that.
I think about all of my stories are partial endings. That’s more the endings I enjoy reading, so that’s more what I write. Anyway, LOVED this post!!!!!!! I’ve heard a little about closed and open endings, but didn’t know a whole lot, so this post was SUPER helpful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oooh, a cover reveal for Hunger!! THAT’S SOO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been DYING to read Thirst. *crossing fingers I get Thirst for Christmas*
So glad it was helpful. Yeah, I didn’t know about them, either. I like to do partial endings too, though mine usually lean more toward closed endings. I like to give my main character enough closure to make my readers happy, but I don’t always do that for side characters.
Yay for Thirst! I’m excited for both books to be out in the world, mostly so I can write something new. Ha ha ha.
I never realized that there were many different kinds of endings, so this is awesome!!!
I’ll have to say that I’m a bit partial to partial endings. Almost all of the books I read have partial endings. I really don’t like the feel of a closed ending that’s been rushed, when I don’t feel each character got the ending they deserved. My WIP has a partial ending, as I’m planning it to be a series. I don’t think I’ve read many books with a open ending… do you think that The Giver would fall into the open ending-section?
I do think that the Giver is a good example of open endings. Unofficially, I think more literary fiction has open endings and more commercial fiction is closed. None of that is every 100% one way or the other, but it’s a general trend.
Yeah, I’m with you. I prefer closed endings, but I don’t like them forced or too convenient. I like closure for my readers… eventually. But I’m also big on trying to be realistic, and since I often write fantasy with wars, not everyone lives. It’s super hard to give readers what they want AND be realistic.
Thanks for posting this. Last week, I was writing the 3rd act of my first draft & it hit me every time I get to that point- I don’t know what I’m doing. I haven’t studied how to write endings! I’ve made a point to research it & then you post this timely post ?
I’m so glad this was timely for you, Tonya. I’m glad I linked in those other ending posts too. Hopefully you’ll find some good and helpful information between all of those! Honestly, endings take practice too, so give yourself lots of grace if things don’t turn out the way you hoped the first time. You can always keep working on it.
This is a really interesting post. My current WIP has something of an open ending, though it probably wraps up more plot points than most and is decidedly optimistic. I generally like closed endings that aren’t entirely airtight, i.e. at least one thing is left unresolved or questionable. I (predictably) haven’t read many books with open endings, though one that comes to mind is the Jinx trilogy by Sage Blackwood, though that just sort of… peters out and is both unsatisfying and painfully emphasized. I think the trick to an open ending is NOT forcing its openness down the reader’s throat.
Oooooh, YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE closed endings where there’s some sort of question or something at the end!!!!!!!!! They are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me too!
Wow!!! I never thought about the types of endings before. Probably because I’ve never completed a novel. But I hope to finish a novel. I’ve started three this year and I can’t decide which one I want to be devoted to.
Ooh, that is so exciting about Hunger coming out!!!!!!!
Katherine, that is a common problem to have when you’re first starting out. For now, just keep having fun writing and see which one you like best. That might be the one to choose to try and complete. You can do it!
Open endings make me sort of think of the old horror movie “The Blob” (my cousin says the only thing scary about that movie is how corny it is, haha.) when at the end, it has in big letters: “THE END” but then it morphs into a question mark, so you really don’t know if that was it for the blob or not.
Helpful post! My current WIP is going to have a closed ending, but I think, looking at it, there’ll be one or two little things that might leave readers sort of wondering, coming up with what might’ve happened to a certain character. Thanks for another great post! I found it very interesting!
That’s so funny, Riley! I think I’ve seen the Blob a long time ago. That little bookend does kind of leave the viewer wondering, wondering…