In Part I of Where are the Brakes on This Thing, we discussed a few of the challenges of creating a satisfying conclusion to your novel. In Part II we’ll take up where we left off.

Climax Scene

As you draw near to the end of your novel, there will be a powerful climax scene. You need to be thinking about this, planning for it, and watching how the threads of the plot can bring you to this point.

By now you are intimately acquainted with your characters; you know them well. You know how your hero is going to act to bring this climax about. Your main character’s actions will come into play. Let that MC have center stage. This is not the time to have a scene that is told about after the fact.

Throughout the novel your MC has undergone a distinct change and your climax scene will demonstrate that change. In fact, those loose threads mentioned earlier should, for the most part, be tied up prior to the final climax scene.

Nothing New

This is not the time to introduce anything new or different. The ending is no place for exposition. Can there be a change of setting? Yes. But it’s best if it’s a setting that has already become familiar to the reader.

The same with characters. Unless it’s a walk-on cardboard character, it’s best to keep to your principal actors.

In bad fiction, plot and characters are manipulated to achieve a desired end; in good fiction, everything that happens at the close seems inevitable. What makes the difference between the two? Practice and hard work.

Make Things Happen

Once the climax has run its course, and you’re into the conclusion, ensure that it’s an actual scene and not simply interior monologue. Make things happen. In the same way that a good scene makes a good opening; a good scene can lend itself to a good ending. Even if your entire novel is more about inner attitudes, work to come up with something the MC can do as opposed to just thinking about it. Show don’t tell.

As you near the close, everything narrows. All narrative clutter must go. Subordinate characters are off stage. Now only the major characters are left.

No need to try a clever twist such as introducing a new left turn in the plot. By this point, your novel has already established a context which involves the rules, the personalities, the stakes – you have everything you need to maintain momentum. Don’t waste it. In other words, keep the ending as simple and direct as possible.

Happy Ending – Or Not?

Will the ending always be happy? That question is highly subjective. What is happy for one person may not be so happy for another. Where the problems arise is when the author thinks it will be clever (cute?) to create a sad ending just to be different. Big Mistake!

Once you, as the author, step outside of the natural flow of the story just to be different, you could ruin the entire effect. That effect you have worked so hard to create throughout the entire novel. This is no time to get cute. Continue to stay within the theme and boundaries you have already created (albeit unaware).

When you follow these tips, techniques, and strategies you can write a so-called sad ending and the reader will be happy.

Do what’s right for the novel, and you’ll have a story that ends in the right place, at the right time, in the right way!

The Norma Jean Lutz Classic Collection now has three 3 available titles:

Flower in the Hills, Tiger Beetle at Kendallwood, and Rockin’ Into Romance

These clean teen reads, while authored in the past, offer timeless story lines that teens love. 

As an editor, writing instructor, and novel critique consultant, I’ve had the privilege of reading hundreds of manuscripts in my career. (I could probably say thousands, but I don’t want to appear presumptuous. smile) Through those experiences – and through my own novel writing – I’ve seen the challenges of creating a good novel ending.

Most beginning authors can plunge into the first chapter with some degree of abandon, but endings? Now that’s a different story. It can be nerve-racking – rather like coming right up to the edge of a precipice. How far is too far? How close is close enough?

You Missed It…

When I read a novel manuscript that runs on for several pages after the end, I want to yell, Whoa! You missed the jumping off point. It’s back there. I never blame or point fingers, because knowing exactly when to stop is not an easy task. Especially if you are a first-time novelist.

One of the reasons it’s not an easy task is because you, as the author, want so much for your reader to come to the final page and lay the book down with a sigh of satisfaction. (If not a big smile of satisfaction.) Because you know that no matter how good the novel is, if the reader is disappointed in the resolution, the story has failed.

Whose Satisfaction

There’s a difference between reader-satisfaction, and author-satisfaction. It’s good to be aware of this fact. Be careful that your own satisfaction is not simply due to relief of completing the work. When you arrive at that last page, that last scene, that last line – step away from the work for a few days and let it cool then come back and objectively assess your closing solution(s).

We’ll assume for the sake of this discussion that your novel has been plotted correctly and now you’ve now come to the close. At this point, all story questions must be answered. Can you pull it off? Can you gather up all the loose threads, create a strong climax, and present the denouement as the pace slows and the curtain closes?

With practice, the answer is, Yes you can.

Who’s Right?

Some novel writers will warn you not to even start your novel unless you know how it’s going to end. Others will say they have no idea how their story is going to end until they’re halfway through the novel. Which one is right?

It’s the same with most all aspects of novel writing – they’re both right. Writers differ; they do what works best for them. You’ll find what works best for you.

The point isn’t when you know how the story will turn out – but that you know it soon enough to pull it off successfully

Coming Attractions

In Part II of Where are the Brakes on This Thing? How to End Your Novel we’ll continue looking at ways to create a pleasing conclusion to your novel. This is just one more way of moving out of the amateur level of novelist, and into the professional.

Photo Credit: © Lidian Neeleman | Dreamstime Stock Photos

The Norma Jean Lutz Classic Collection now has three 3 available titles:

Flower in the Hills, Tiger Beetle at Kendallwood, and Rockin’ Into Romance

These clean teen reads, while authored in the past, offer timeless story lines that teens love.