Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38999
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38999
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### Leave the readers imagining the future.

For me, at least, a satisfying ending, besides the things you have mentioned, leaves me imagining the future, for the MC(s), and/or for the world they live in.

It should signal a new phase in life for the MC(s). Something has changed, either in them personally, or in the universe more generally. Perhaps they have learned or come to believe something new that will play a role in their lives.

Death can be that kind of thing; the MC's best friend is dead, or their parents or brother or mentor. But it isn't the only thing that can serve.

I have had, in a coming of age story, best friends come to a new (not sexual) understanding of each other. In a new adult story I have had a protagonist, sexually experienced but not previously in love, incidentally in the course of the story fall in love; and after the mission is over the finale is about her going to a new city, that will be her home as she begin her new life with her new love.

An unsatisfying finale is (IMO) "another day at the office". Okay, we saved the world, see you guys in the morning. Gotta run, it's pizza night at my house!

You could say this is an unwritten contract with the reader; that the whole story, all the trials and tribulations, **_mean something_** life changing. It doesn't mean the characters can't go on more adventures and change in other ways, but whatever they have done has ramifications for the future.

It does not necessarily have to be about them. A good scifi story with a satisfying ending might be the _discovery_ of FTL, or some new form of FTL. The story ends with hints of how this begins to have impact on the society: The story **mattered** and the ramifications are becoming apparent.

That is the payoff at the end of the story. Yes, you wrapped everything up, but the reader **still** wants to know, "What happens _next_?"

Original score: 12