All stories must come to an end. Whether short story (up to approximately 7,500 words), or novel (approximately 60,000 words or more).

For Animal Farm the end came at 29,966 words, for Madame Bovary 117,963 words, and for War and Peace 544,406 words (for more word counts go to PWxyz)

Regardless of how many words it takes, don’t end a story because you’ve run out of ideas.

In art as in life, the ending is in the beginning. A great end, whether tragic or happy, provokes and inspires.

Write the end of a story that began here:

 photo: Jim Willis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  

When you are done writing the end, write the beginning.