Stick the landing

When my kids were little, I occasionally would go into their bedrooms at night and tell them a bed-time story to help settle them down to go to sleep. I hardly ever read them a story. I would just make something up and they seemed to love it.
Sometimes, though, if it was past their bedtime, I would cut the story short and tell them good-night. One of my daughters would never let me get away with it.
"That was no story at all," she would say. Heck, I had told the story for 10 minutes. It just didn't have a good ending, that's all. But to her, it was "no story at all."
There is a lesson for all of us in this little anecdote. Stories must have an ending. That's much different than stories that just end. The reader has to feel fulfilled when the story is done or it will be "no story at all." Plan your endings. In fact, craft them.
If you've ever watched a gymnastics routine, you know how important it is for the athlete to "stick the landing." The same is true in writing.