Does Your Story Have an Open or Closed Ending? (2024)

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.

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