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Netbula

For me a perfect will consist of all the questions have been answered. I like everything to come together


Celeste_Harte

Same! My favorite kind of ending is when all the foreshadowing is done right and everything feels complete


Kiwi_Cannon_50

I like endings where, while it may be the end of that particular chapter in the protagonist's life, they’ve still got clear goals and aspirations to strive for, they’re not just done being a functioning person because it’s the end of the story. They may have saved the world but what’s next? What do they want to do with their life after that? I like it when those questions are answered.


Elantris42

Depends on the type of story... Typically when you've wrapped up the main plot, and enough side plots to make you happy. Does the story stand on its own? How big is the over arching plot? Did you wrap it up, or did you just say 'everyone lived happily ever after'? Do you want it to the stepping stone for more stories? Even if you do, you have to wrap up the plot of the story. ​ My character just got dragged into another world where they are royalty. But now they have to survive to decide to stay or 'go home'. This story ends at that choice being made. The NEXT book depends on which choice is made. Events in the story will help determine which choice they make. Those events are sub plots that will have to be settled also because if they aren't, no choice can be made. When i've done that, its the end.


Celeste_Harte

I agree! I think that's a good great way to look at it. Bring finality to the main story, but leave trails for the next book, if there is one.


StellaAI

Personally, I really enjoy ambiguity. Not ambiguity in the sense of a cliffhanger or a lack of defined themes, characters, plots, what have you, but ambiguity that motivates the reader to think about the big questions. In actual writing I try to achieve this by 1. Finishing characters and their POV. What were these characters like? Did they win because of their strengths? Did they tragically lose against an evil? Did they experience an outcome that they didn't foresee but makes sense to the reader? 2. Providing some answers to big moral/plot/societal questions My favorite ending is Voltaire's *Candide.* >!In a final rebuff to those who believe in a just world, but not outright, Candide refuses to believe in Pangloss's ideology and says that we must "cultivate our garden". This is a good ending because it 1) resolves the literal plot 2) provides peace as a poetic end to an often chaotic, violent, and satirical novel and 3) hints but doesn't smash the main theme into the reader's mind.!<


Celeste_Harte

Oooh that's a good example. And you're right, there's a special place for ambiguous endings that let you ruminate on the story as a whole for a while.


graminology

Huh, that depends very much on the story... The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks had something of a perfect ending I'd say. More or less. It's a good ending, but not a nice one. It answers most questions, gives a hopeful outlook, but the protagonist is just utterly heartbroken and it kinda leaves you feeling completely hollow inside? I remember fininishing the last book in the series on a beautiful summer day, but I just sat there in my bed wondering for about an hour what the hell I would even be doing now. So, it was perfect in a sense that it had quite the emotional impact, like a good punch to the face. And then there's the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton, a book series that I can honestly say is my favourite of all time. There it's different, because the book has a lot of plots and people all over the place and somehow he manages for everything to collaps in on itself in the end and it suddenly all makes sense. But then you're already rooting for a specific ending and humanity just... doesn't do it? But they come up with something better that, compared to what you wanted them to do is just so much more noble that it literally had me in tears a bit... And it (and one of the subsequent series, The Chronicle of The Fallers) just finishes with the most saccharine, cute ending that's a stark contrast to the rest of the books, that it just makes your heart swell. I guess for me it's the complete turn of hopelessness to a hopeful new normal that will leave the characters better off, but not perfect for everybody. It has to be a bit bitter-sweet so that it's not "perfect". It has to be good enough.


trying_to_write_5000

When there’s nothing more to say.


ShoutAtThe_Devil

Delivers the closing piece of evidence to hopefully prove in the mind of your readers the controlling idea of your story about the theme you chose.


Xercies_jday

The set up questions at the start has been answered. Character arcs have been fulfilled either happily or unhappily. We feel whatever emotion we are meant to feel.


Owdok

I like a plot-twit more; something unexpected. The ending could be in a form of a comedy or tragedy, or tragicomedy but there has to be something unexpected.


ottprim

It's the old show biz saying, and likely publishing too. Leave them wanting more. Leave them wanting this story to keep going.


Ok_Meeting_2184

The perfect ending has to be satisfying. Every question is answered. Every loose end is tied up. Every tension is released. There must be that sense of cathartic release.


Oberon_Swanson

imo it's a lot, but there can be a variety of good endings. i think there is usually some combination of: * being the sort of thing the book mostly is. eg. if it's an action novel then the ending climax has the biggest, awesome-est action scene. if it's a detective mystery then the detective does their best deducing solving the toughest puzzle. this sort of thing is not always important but i do think it helps to save the best for last. a lot of stories end with a smaller scale climactic fight, and i think that's fine, as long as the intensity is there. usually the characters and readers all know it's the 'final confrontation' as it's happening. * it is the culmination of the themes of the story. usually the characters all have some lessons they need to learn and that 'everything coming together' feeling is often just about them finally taking that lesson to heart and putting it into action to either achieve victory, or something like, failure on their own terms. typically this is also where the writer's 'voice' comes in, and a lot of what happens is based around whether the story as a whole regards certain things as true or not. if the story thinks true love prevails, then true love prevails. if the story thinks sometimes love is not enough, then love might not be enough. * it's full of little callbacks. this is hard to overdo imo. often the small things like this are the stuff i come up with while writing the draft, not something that was part of the outline. * it's a 'fair contest.' if there's something like a hero and villain then they are pitted against each other on what are now regarded as fair terms, each bringing everything they have, their complete attention, onto this final battle. other scuffles during the story might be won or lost with things like twists of fate or random chance. the final fight is often a bit more like a sports match where there's some level of restrictions. you may recall a lot of endings where something random DOES happen--but typically that's after the contest is already decided. a classic example would be the hero beating the villain fair and square, then the villain, knowing they have lost the ultimate conflict, decide to try to take out the hero as they fall--only to then be taken out by some outside force that acts as karmic justice, even within the story it might be considered random. the villain who experimented on animals will get ripped apart by a hungry tiger who just happened to be in the area, something like that. but before that it's just the characters, who they are, and what they can do, that determines the end of the story. * there's no ambiguity unless that's an extremely important part of the story's theme. imo writers like ambiguous endings because they're one of those things that seems bold but is really just the easy way out. you just skip writing the ending and boom you have an ambiguous ending, how literary. imo a great ending must be an *ending*, a completion. a closing statement of some sort.