This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

I hope you enjoyed this week's episode, three things to know about the ending of a story.

There are three parts of a story that are difficult to write. The beginning, the middle, and the ending. I was going to start this episode by referencing the ending of a story as one of the hardest parts but then I realized it's all hard.

Each has its own special set of challenges but today I want to talk specifically about the function of a story's ending and a few points that sometimes cause confusion and or are taken for granted.

Whether or not a story works is dependent on how well its beginning, middle, and ending hang together.

Are they all of a piece?

Does the beginning ask a question that the middle develops and the ending resolved.

When viewed in this manner, it is quite clear that all three parts are equally important.

And yet it is difficult not to be inclined

to give the ending special status.

After all, the ending is what proves the story, right? Indeed, the ending, and particularly the climactic moment that decides the plot

conflict can function as a confused writer's guiding light in figuring out just what the story is about and how to wrangle

its unwieldy earlier sections.

For instance, I often talk about how the climactic moment can be used to determine what your story is about,

who your protagonist is,

whether your story offers a cohesive plot,

and whether your story offers a resonant theme.

This is because we never know what a story is about until we reach the ending.

Regardless what has come before, the ending provides the final commentary.

The ending is what indicates whether the author finds this story's series of events

to be tragic, comedic, triumptial. series of reasons it can be so helpful for writers to have a good idea of their endings

before they start writing. If you know what you're building toward it's much

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