How to make your ending as good as your lede: A live chat at Poynter

You know all about writing good ledes, but what about the ending of your story?

Your ending won’t do much to attract readers. If they’re reading the end, you’ve already got ‘em. But it’s the thing they’ll remember as they leave, and it has a big effect on how they’ll feel about what they’ve just read.

Here’s the wonderful writing teacher Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute on endings:

If your story is short, you want your ending to “stick the landing,” the way a great gymnast completes a vault.

If your story is long, your ending should serve as a reward to your reader for following you to that destination.

Don’t you remember that movie you saw that had the terrible ending? Remember how you and your friends grumbled as you left the theatre? Don’t make your readers grumble when they finish your story.

Clark will be hosting a live chat today at 3 p.m. EDT at Poynter.org called “How to write an ending that’s at least as good as your lead.”

He doesn’t spell “lede” the way I do.

Twitter users can tweet questions ahead of time — you have almost an hour from the posting of this item — with the hashtag #poynterchats. And you can replay the chat any time after it’s ended.

I highly recommend it. And by the way, if you’re not a regular visitor to Poynter.org, I recommend becoming one. It’s a great resource for any writer.