Narrative writing: how to write an ending the story has earned

Quick Answer

An ending is earned when it grows out of something already in the story and the main character's own choice brings it about. This page gives one story setup with a planted detail, then three endings and line-by-line notes on what each one does. General practice from Braintree Coaching Australia, not a Department example.

Who is this workshop for?

Year 5 and Year 6 children who can already plan a story with a problem in it and now want the last paragraph to land. It suits narrative practice for NSW Selective, scholarship or school writing tasks.

The Selective Writing component is one open response, so the form can change from year to year; the NSW Department of Education explains the task on its Selective practice tests page. Nothing here claims narrative will be the set task. The skill carries across forms. Finish with something the reader has already been shown. For the format itself see our Selective writing test guide.

What makes an ending feel earned?

Three things, in this order:

1. It comes from the story. Something in the setup, usually small and easy to miss, becomes the thing that matters at the end. We call this the planted detail.
2. The character does it. The problem is not solved by weather, a stranger or a dream. The main character chooses an action.
3. The change is shown, not announced. The reader sees what is different through one action, not a sentence saying what the character has learned.

Read the setup below once, and notice the detail in bold. Then read the three endings and see which one reaches back for it.

The story setup

Ines had promised her grandfather she would look after his rowing boat while he was in hospital. On the first Saturday she walked down to the jetty and found the boat half full of rainwater. She bailed it out with a chipped plastic cup, one cupful at a time. Under the back seat her fingers closed on the half-used tube of sealant, hard and stiff with age, and she pushed it back into the shadows. The water had come through a thin gap in the planks near the bow, and it was already seeping in again. Ines sat on the jetty and watched it. Her grandfather had rowed to the island every Sunday for forty years, and this Sunday he was being allowed home. She had told him the boat was fine. She had told him twice. Nobody else would check the boat before Sunday. The tide was turning, and the light was going orange over the water.

Planted detail (in bold above): "the half-used tube of sealant". Ines finds it and pushes it away. A reader who notices it will wonder when it comes back.

Ending A: the sudden rescue

Just as the water reached the seats, a fishing boat chugged around the point. The skipper, a stranger with a kind face, leaned over the rail. "That boat needs a mend," she called. "Leave it with me." Within minutes she had towed it to her own workshop, and by dawn it was dry, painted and better than new. Ines hugged her, and the stranger waved and sailed away. On Sunday her grandfather came home and they rowed to the island together. Everything had worked out perfectly, and Ines never had to worry about the boat again.

What each line does

Line	What it does
"Just as the water reached the seats, a fishing boat chugged around the point."	Brings in a new character and a new boat from outside the story. Nothing earlier prepared for them.
"That boat needs a mend... Leave it with me."	The stranger names and takes the problem. Ines has no part in it.
"by dawn it was dry, painted and better than new"	Fixes everything at once and in a summary sentence, so there is no action to picture.
"Ines hugged her, and the stranger waved and sailed away."	Closes the stranger's part. Ines's only action is a thank-you.
"Everything had worked out perfectly, and Ines never had to worry about the boat again."	States that the problem is over. The tube of sealant, the lie to her grandfather and the leak she was watching are all left unused.

In one sentence: the problem is solved by someone else, so the ending tells the reader nothing about Ines.

Ending B: the lesson told to the reader

Ines stared at the water for a long time. Then she realised something important. She had been afraid to ask for help, and she had told her grandfather a lie because she was proud. She understood that honesty is always the best policy and that problems do not go away by themselves. From that day on, Ines always told the truth and never hid her troubles. She learned that being brave means admitting when you are wrong. On Sunday she told her grandfather everything, and he smiled, and she knew that she had grown up a lot that summer.

What each line does

Line	What it does
"Ines stared at the water for a long time."	A pause. It is the one line that stays in the scene.
"Then she realised something important."	Announces that a thought is coming instead of showing one.
"She had been afraid to ask for help, and she had told her grandfather a lie because she was proud."	Explains the character's feelings in a summary. The reader is told what the story had only hinted.
"honesty is always the best policy and that problems do not go away by themselves"	Gives the moral in the writer's words, as general truths and not as something Ines does.
"From that day on, Ines always told the truth and never hid her troubles."	Jumps far past the story's time and promises a change with no scene to show it.
"She learned that being brave means admitting when you are wrong."	A second statement of the same moral.
"she knew that she had grown up a lot that summer"	Names the change, in a summer the story never showed.

In one sentence: the ending is all explanation, so the reader is handed the lesson and has nothing to work out.

Ending C: the earned ending

Ines pulled her hand back out of the shadows. She had pushed it away once already. This time she held up the half-used tube of sealant to the last of the orange light and twisted the stiff cap until it cracked. A thin grey thread crept out. She pressed it into the gap with her thumb, again and again, until the tube went flat and the seam no longer showed water. Then she sat back on the jetty. The water stayed where it was. On Sunday she would tell her grandfather the boat had leaked, and show him the mend.

What each line does

Line	What it does
"Ines pulled her hand back out of the shadows."	Returns to the exact place where the setup left the sealant. The reader is back in the scene.
"She had pushed it away once already."	Admits the earlier choice. The reader remembers it.
"This time she held up the half-used tube of sealant..."	Reuses the planted detail word for word. This is the moment the setup was waiting for.
"twisted the stiff cap until it cracked"	Shows effort with a physical detail, and picks up "hard and stiff with age".
"A thin grey thread crept out. She pressed it into the gap..."	Ines does the mending herself, with the thing she was too worried to use.
"until the tube went flat and the seam no longer showed water"	The tube was only half used, and now it is finished. The problem ends on the same object that started it.
"The water stayed where it was."	A short sentence that confirms the result without explaining it.
"On Sunday she would tell her grandfather the boat had leaked, and show him the mend."	Shows the change through a choice: she had told him the boat was fine, twice, and now she will say it was not.

In one sentence: the ending uses a detail the reader was shown earlier, the character acts, and the change is in the action.

How do the three endings compare?

	Ending A	Ending B	Ending C
Where it comes from	A stranger who was not in the story	The writer's explanation	A detail in the setup
Who solves the problem	The stranger	No one; the problem is dropped	Ines
How the change appears	It does not	It is stated	It is shown in one action
Uses the planted detail	No	No	Yes, word for word

Can my child write an ending for a new setup?

Here is a second setup. The detail in bold is the one to use; the rest is background.

Kofi's pumpkin was the last one growing in the Year 5 garden. The others had shrivelled in the heat, and Mr Dale had pinned a note to the shed: water restrictions, buckets only. Every morning before the bell Kofi crouched beside the vine. Its leaves had curled and its one fat green pumpkin had stopped getting bigger. Kofi had not told anyone he was afraid it would die. At lunchtime the tap behind the hall was dripping, and the fence by the shed was hung with a rain gauge cut from a plastic drink bottle, empty for three weeks. On Friday the judges from the local show would walk through the garden. Kofi watched the sky, which was a hard, bright blue.

Your task: write a five-sentence ending in which Kofi does something that brings the story to a close. Use the bold detail. Do not add a rescuer, a dream or a sentence that tells the reader the lesson.

Self-check (three questions):

1. Can I point to the planted detail in my ending, word for word?
2. Does Kofi do something, rather than something happening to him?
3. Could a reader see what has changed without me writing "he learned"?

If the answer to any of these is no, change one sentence and ask again.

What to do next

For more practice tasks see our Selective writing prompts and the persuasive opening workshop. For how teacher feedback compares with automated feedback, see AI and teacher feedback. A timed practice is in our free mock tests.