Alice is advised to begin at the beginning, go on till you come to the end; then stop.
The last part , “then stop” is pretty tough. Most of the time a story is unlike a theorem in maths. The conclusion is not thought of at the beginning. Even wonderful authors have trouble ending the story. I don’t want to give any example of lame endings to truly great works.
A bit of a dialogue. An incident which caught your fancy. Fears. Anything can start a story. Often that momentum carries through the middle game. I am talking about the so called pantsers. But the ending is tough.
A story which ends in the natural phase is rarely seen. If it does the end appears to hang in the air like a monkey’s tail.
So how do you work out the ending. Lived happily ever after is dead.
Is it possible to start from the end. Stories have a life of their own; they grow and evolve. And maybe the most natural ending is the most appropriate even if it is lame.
That is the way life ends.