Writing a story is a mixture of art and craftsmanship, much like the handcrafting of a fine timepiece like a Swiss clock.  Sometimes every gear and flywheel falls into place and it works perfectly the first time, a masterpiece, a stroke of genius, but most times, some tinkering is needed, or worse yet, all of it must be junked and redone.  The same applies to stories.  The ending of the story, even though it comes at the end, is not a distinct part of the story, but a continuation of the whole, an element of the gestalt that makes up the whole story.  For a clock to tell time correctly, every part must work perfectly.  And for a story to end right, every part must work towards that ending.

Let's say that you've finished writing a story and you're unhappy with it, that the ending doesn't work and you can't figure out what's wrong with the story.  Everything's there:  a fascinating world, tech-fu, magic-fu, horror-fu, intriguing characters struggling with real issues, action, and adventure.  But it just plain doesn't work.  Your guts tells you that you have a good story, but it falls flat or feels wrong at the end.  What do you do?

Before we can fix the story we must understand what makes a good ending.

Components of a good ending:

1.  The conflict stated at the beginning of the story must match the resolution at the end of the story. (A good story always has conflict which means a psychological or physical struggle.  It is the larger than life crises that fascinates us as readers.  The resolution, whether successfully solving the conflict or not, must be appropriate, must match the conflict's scope and type.  A small problem should have a small solution.  A large problem should have a large solution.  A psychological problem should have a psychological solution, even though the psychological solution may have its roots in a physical action.)

2.  The ending must logically proceed from all parts preceding it.  (Illogical endings falling from the sky will generally confuse your reader.)

3.  The ending must be emotionally satisfying.  It must leave the reader with a sense of closure.  (The reader must understand what has happened and what you are saying at the end.  They must understand your message, whether it's a moral message or just a statement about life, it must be clear, but it can be subtle.  There should also be no loose ends.  Every element in the story should be used meaningfully, whether physically, psychologically, or symbolically.)

4.  The ending must be dramatized.  (Having your ending off stage is a symptom of "fear of climax."  No matter how painful or difficult the ending will be, you must write it, because this is what you have promised your reader.  If you leave the last scene out of your story, it will be like having a gaping hole in a jigsaw puzzle; your reader can figure out what is missing, but your reader won't be satisfied.)

Let's say you have all these components.  What generally happens is that all of these components are present, but aren't focused.  They don't work in synchrony.  Like a clock with a gear in the wrong place or a misplaced spring, it won't run very well.

The best thing is to analyze the story, figure out its basic components, decide what is out of kilter, and fix the problem.

The answer sounds simple, but it isn't.  It's a lot of work.

To understand the anatomy of your own story you must ask yourself some questions.

1.  Who is the protagonist?  Whose story is it?  Which character goes through the most changes, the most challenges?  Who struggles the most in the story?  This will tell you where the focus of the story is.  The view point character is not always the protagonist.  Sherlock Holmes is the protagonist even though Dr. Watson is the view point character.  If you discover that your protagonist isn't who you initially thought it was, you'll have to reconsider every component of your story and its relationship to the protagonist.

2.  What is the conflict?  What issue does the protagonist resolve or struggles to resolve?  Is this conflict made apparent to the reader at the beginning of the story?  Sometimes the problem is that the conflict is too minor for the length of the story.  Either the story has to be shortened or the conflict has to have more meaning for the character.  What type of conflict is it?  Is it physical, psychological, mental, or spiritual?

3.  Where is the climax of the story?  Which page does the protagonist have the final struggle?  Is it near the end of the story?  Is the conflict dramatized?  It should be.  What is the length of the climax in pages?  Is it too short or too long?  Is it two sentences in a twenty page story or is it two pages in a four page story?  What is the right length for the climax?  The cop-out answer is "the correct length."  This is where art comes in.  Knowing the correct length for different components of a story is a gut level skill.  The number of words used to describe any component of the story should be in proportion to that component's importance.  Or the more words you use to describe something, the more important it becomes in your reader's mind, and there had better be a payoff for reading all those words or the reader will feel cheated.

4.  Does the ending make any sense?  Does it logically proceed from everything before it?  If not, what foreshadowing is missing or did your story take a wrong turn and head in the wrong direction?  Or is your ending right and your beginning wrong?  Maybe you need to restate your conflict and revise the story accordingly?  Does the resolution match the conflict stated at the beginning of the story?  Is the scope of the resolution proportional to the importance of the conflict?  Getting rid of an ant problem with a nuclear device is as inappropriate as a character committing suicide over a broken nail (Unless you are working on a humorous story.)

5.  Is the ending emotionally satisfying?  Does your reader understand what your ending means?  If the protagonist achieves his goal, what did he give up?  If the protagonist failed in achieving his goal, what did he refuse to give up?  In most stories, a character reaching his goal without struggling or sacrifice doesn't satisfy the reader.  There's a certain justice that most people subscribe to:  People must earn their rewards.  Is the ending too predictable?  Too cliche?  What other possible endings are there?

Once you understand the heart of your story and hopefully have an inkling of what is wrong with it (wrong protagonist, wrongly identified conflict, incorrect pacing, missing foreshadowing or inappropriate ending, unclear ending).  You'll have to decide what the right element is and fix the story.  This may require killing your babies.  You'll have to start sacrificing all those wonderful sentences and scenes that don't help your story reach that satisfactory ending.  Like a man trying to save a sinking ship, you must throw out unnecessary baggage.  But in this world of word processors and computers, you only need to cut and paste these gems into an idea file for future use.

Once you rewrite your story, you should put your story away for several days and then reanalyze it again.  Does the ending feel correct?  Does it need more work?  Continue the process until you're done.
Everyone's creative process is different.  Every story's genesis is different.  So, there is no scientific method to fix a story, but there are tools available, whetstones to sharpen the mind and lenses to focus the internal eye.  All these tools are there and it is the artist, the craftsman within you, that must reach out and create; chistle words into blank paper.

As you go through this process on more and more stories, your critiquing skills will increase and your endings will become more successful.  We are all born blind, but wisdom opens our eyes and lets us see the path before us.  And thus with experience you should be able to see the gestalts of your stories more clearly and discover that the proper ending was always there, like the sculpture waiting to be freed from within the marble.

Write, create, and enjoy yourself!