According to David Morrell, “the (story) end is even more important than the first page, and rushing can damage it.” Many great novels are remembered for their first sentences or first paragraph, but what is equally important—if not more so—is how you end your novel.
Great writers are readers, and as readers, we know that after completing a novel, the story end (or act three) typically remains the most vivid in our memory. So, if your act three is surprising, satisfying, or—even in some instances—exactly what readers expected, then for most readers it was worth the hours that they invested. Even if a novel is mediocre at best, a great ending can redeem that novel.
In this article, you’ll learn how to keep your readers coming back for that great ending.
1. Resolve the Main Conflict
Regardless of how you choose to end your story (negatively or positively), you need to ensure that the major crisis in your novel gets resolved. Act three of every memorable novel resolves the major plot issues, even with books in a series.
However, resolving the main conflict in each book of a series requires careful planning and execution. The goal is to ensure that readers feel satisfied while also leaving room for the overarching storyline to progress.
2. Tie Up Loose Ends
The loose ends are any indirect main plot issues that you might have introduced throughout your novel. These loose ends often stem from subplots that you forget about because of all the action in the main plot. How you choose to end your story should depend on the magnitude of the loose end.
If a loose end relates to where the neighbor who watered the protagonist’s brother’s plants ends up, then you could dedicate a paragraph to resolving that. However, if a loose end relates to where the neighbor who stole all the money in your protagonist’s account ends up, then you could dedicate an entire scene to resolving that.
3. Introduce A Twist
Having a twist at a story’s end is a practice that is mostly done in mysteries and thrillers. However, any genre can use a good twist in act three. A good twist can thrill readers and keep them coming back for more.
But how do you create a good twist? Well, for each author this process might vary. But there’s one approach I know about that resonates with me. This involves creating three to five different endings for your novel as you write. During the initial stage, you shouldn’t worry about justifying these alternative endings.
However, as your novel progresses, you’ll need to discard the endings that are too far-fetched. Then you can select the two best alternative endings and develop them. Finally, you can select the best of your two alternative endings and work that into your act three, as a twist.
You should also prepare yourself to go through your novel and justify this twist at different stages, so it becomes plausible to readers.
4. Avoid Rushing
The writing process can become very long and time-consuming. Therefore, when you finally arrive at act three, you might be tempted to rush to that final period. The reason different writers rush the final act of their novel might differ.
Some writers rush because they are frustrated, and they just want to get to the end. Other writers rush through a story ending because of excitement, they’re anxious and can’t wait to finish their novel. Professional writers rush to the end of their novels when the deadline for them to submit their manuscripts is fast approaching.
Still, the reason you might come to rush at the end of your novel can be something completely different. The key is to identify that you’re rushing, then take a break for a day or two. When you eventually return to your novel, try to channel the discipline that you will need to move at the best pace for you.
The best thing you can do for your act three is to write it with the surgical precision of a surgeon, and this will challenge you to write as intentionally as possible.
5. Choose a Solid Ending
One of your main goals as an author is to always ensure that your story arrives at a natural end, which comes about because of the actions of your protagonist. However, this natural ending can take one of many forms. In fact, most novels tend to end in one of six ways:
Resolved Story Endings
A resolved ending is the traditional approach to writing act three of a novel. This approach includes resolving the main conflict and tying up all loose ends. Therefore, a reader doesn’t have to speculate about what might have happened to any prominent character in your story.
Most resolved endings are positive; the protagonist wins, and the antagonist loses. A few resolved endings are negative. Your protagonist might die, but the story is still resolved because your readers know what happens to every relevant character in the book.
Unresolved Story Endings
Unresolved endings are most popular in books that are within a series. The closing chapter of an unresolved book ends on a cliffhanger, and if the reader wants to learn what happens to the protagonist, they’ll need to purchase the next book in the series.
Most writers tend to make the first book in a series free or extremely affordable, in anticipation that the first book will sell the following books in the series. The goal is to get the reader to fall in love with your characters and storyline, so they’ll want to spend both time and money to see where the story goes.
Some readers, however, don’t appreciate cliffhangers, and when they get to the end of an unresolved story that might lead to frustration. This frustration can lead them to not want to even continue with the series, as they only want to read a complete story in one book. Therefore, it’s good to disclose that your books are one in a series. So, a reader can potentially prepare for an unresolved ending.
Ambiguous Story Endings
Stories that end ambiguously are left open to interpretation. This approach to ending stories is less popular when compared to the others on this list. However, these books tend to spark discussions, as readers want to know if others interpreted the ending the way they did.
Books with ambiguous endings sometimes have large communities, where readers discuss what they thought happened.
Expected Story Endings
Stories that end expectedly are often feel-good stories, like fairytales and romance novels. Regardless of the obstacles that the protagonists might face throughout the story, readers trust that in the end, things will work themselves out.
Unexpected Story Endings
Unexpected endings are synonymous with plot twists. These stories are suspenseful and just when the reader thinks things are going to go in one direction, the story completely changes course. The key to creating a great unexpected ending is to ensure that the plot twist is both surprising and plausible.
A reader shouldn’t see an unexpected ending coming, but at the same time when the story ends unexpectedly a reader should be able to look back into the story and go “Oh I see how that happened”.
Expanded Story Endings
These are the stories that end with an epilogue. If a writer is unable to resolve the main conflict and all the loose ends in the main narrative of the story, then that writer can utilize an epilogue. Epilogues are usually set in scenes that start days, weeks, months, or years after the main narrative action. In an epilogue, readers get to learn what happened to the major characters after the story ended.
6. Show Character Growth
In act three, your main characters shouldn’t be the same as they were when the reader first met them in act one. Throughout the novel, your character should have overcome different challenges and garner new experiences that influence different aspects of their personality, behavior, beliefs, emotional maturity, and/or appearance.
Character growth is a crucial aspect of any story as it adds depth and realism to your characters, making them more relatable and engaging to your readers.
Final Thoughts
A reader’s time is important and if at the end of your last book a reader wasn’t satisfied, they’re certainly not going to read your next book. Therefore, you should always ensure that your novel at least has a resolved main conflict, and if it is one in a series you should disclose this information upfront.
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