I think I am plagued by the idea that my resolution has to be brilliant. Like I'm M. Night Shyamalan and all my stories have to end with a clever little twist no one saw coming. (Not a fan of his movies, personally.)

For example in STAR WARS.

1. The external events of the story end with the destruction of the death star.

2. Luke's character arc ends with him accepting the mystery of the force, thereby allowing him to become a hero.

(3. And in STAR WARS there's a third character arc -- that of Han Solo, who goes from "I'm in it for the money" to sacrificing his personal freedom to helping Luke.)

Now it's not a coincidence that all three "endings" come together the final moments of the story.

Also, let's remember than in any story there are only two possible endings to the external story:

1. Success.
2. Failure.

But and ending is more than that -- it's how it's perceived by the hero. So with that in mind, there are really THREE possible endings --

1. POSITIVE: The character gets what he wants. (Luke in STAR WARS)
2. NEGATIVE: The character doesn't get what he wants. (harder to find in SF/F, but think of the ending of CHINATOWN)
3. IRONIC: The character gets what he wants, but isn't happy about it (Ender in ENDERS GAME).

(You could have, in theory, the character not getting what he wants and is thankful for that, but that's lacks a dramatic punch, don't you think?)

Taking all of this, I start examining possible endings from various angles with the goal to answering the two primary questions: (1) How does my story end? (2) How does my hero end up? The key is that how your character ends up MUST have consequences on the story's ending. What if Luke had learned the way of the Force but someone else blew up the Death Star?

Here's another example, from a novel I read a few months ago, which I won't name.

The hero is sent on a quest to retrieve lost treasure. So there are only two endings possible to this external story -- he succeeds, he fails.

But how does he feel about the ending? Well, in this novel, it was ironic -- he success, but his success saddens him because his "girlfriend" dies.

Thus, the ending to the external story.

What about the hero's story? Well, it's a redemption story. He is at odds with his god at the beginning of the story, and when he finally comes to peace, it is at the climax of the story, and that peace is essential to the ending.

Once I learned all this, endings became easier to understand and work out. Also, stories became easier to tell because if you know the ending, you know the things that must be done within the middle of the story to prepare for the ending . . . and finding beginnings can be easier, too. If the hero is at peace with his god at the end of the story, he must be at odds with his god at the beginning. If Luke learns the way of the force at the end, he must not have a clue about the Force at the beginning.