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May 19, 2023 · When you come to the end of a poem, you usually have a lot that you want it to do. You might want it to: Sum up the main ideas of the poem. Take the poem in a new direction. Create a surprise. Leave readers with a strong image or phrase to remember. In fact, you might want it to achieve all of these things at once!
- 7 Ways to End A Story
- Leave Readers Guessing: The Open-Ended Story
- Bring Readers Full Circle: Ending Where You Began
- Pull The Rug from Beneath Their Feet: Shocking Twist Endings
- Create Feel-Good Lingering: ‘Happily Ever After’ Endings
- Build in ‘What If?’ – Cliffhanger Endings
- Create Complex Resolutions: Combining Ending Types
- Avoid Cliched and Unsatisfying Story Endings: Ending ‘Don’Ts’
Leave readers guessing: The open-ended storyBring readers full circle: Ending where you beganPull the rug from beneath their feet: Shocking twist endingsCreate feel-good lingering: ‘Happily ever after’ endingsLeaving your story open-ended is an interesting but risky approach. Open-ended closing chapters may work in a literary novel. Yet in a genre romance novel, readers typically expect that lovers will be united. What makes an open-ended story satisfying? It allows the reader to imagine, to fill in the blanks. Without a guide for how we should interpre...
If you prefer a stronger sense of an ending, the ‘full circle’ story ending can be highly satisfying. This is a particularly effective way to end a book if your story began with a mysterious, unresolved situation. [Brainstorm the starting and ending scenarios for your storyusing Now Novel’s step-by-step process.]
The plot twist is a typical ending for the short story. Famous short fiction authors such as O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe mastered the ‘twist in the tale’ ending. Yet this can also be a satisfying ending to a longer work of fiction. Masters of the surprise ending include the authors Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan. Alec Worley, in his post ‘The 5 typ...
A twist ending, especially a shocking, discomforting one, carries the risk of angering readers who were looking forward to an expected resolution. Sometimes you’ll simply want to give readers what they expect and desire of a novel in your genre. A tidy wrap-up can be comforting and reassuring – it’s why most childhood tales end with ‘happily ever a...
If you want to explore your fictional world further over a series of books, cliffhangers are effective story endings. Think of how screenwriters handle plot arcs in thriller TV series. While each major plot arc of each season is mostly resolved, there is something left over that leaves viewers hankering for the next season to start. The bodyguard’s...
There’s no reason why you should have to stick to just one of the story ending types listed above. There’s no single correct answer for how to end a novel. A simple return to the beginning can be effective, but the way David Mitchell returns to the beginning in Cloud Atlaswith new information is both complex and satisfying. It’s a combination of a ...
Some story endings feel hollow and unsatisfying. Here are novel endings to avoid in your writing: 1. The deus ex machina A deus ex machinadescribes when an unlikely story event provides a quick, all-too-convenient resolution. It usually feels contrived. The term is derived from the ancient Greek for ‘God from the machine’. In the Greek theatre, act...
Nov 16, 2021 · Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Nov 17, 2021 • 4 min read. If the beginning of a novel draws the reader in and sets the stage for the drama about to unfold, the end must resolve that storyline and leave the reader satisfied with what happened to the characters. For this reason, learning how to end a novel is critical to your long-term ...
- A Graceful Cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is probably the most famous type of chapter ending, but I want to give you a variation on it. Let’s look at this example from Ann Patchett
- Ask a Question. This technique is very simple. Ask a question to end your chapter. What a perfect way to drive the reader to continue! Who doesn’t want to know the answer to a question?
- Create an Arrival. It’s paradoxical, but your endings should be beginnings. In other words, don’t divide your chapters so that the end of the chapter concludes something and something begins in the next chapter.
- Write a Description. Ouch, you say. John, are you serious about ending a chapter with description? That seems so … lackluster. Or you might be thinking it’s boring.
Sep 25, 2024 · Step 1: Craft a Strong Conclusion to End Your Novel. Step 2: Avoid Common Ending Mistakes. Step 3: Offer a Satisfying Resolution. Step 4: Choose the Right Type of Ending. Step 5: Maintain Consistency in Voice and Tone. Step 6: Engage Your Readers Until the Last Page. Step 7: Reflect on the Beginning of the Story.
Nov 21, 2016 · Here are 8 tips to write better story endings: Build to an intriguing climax. Make sure your ending is earned, not improbable. Leave room for readers’ imaginations. Review the best novel endings for insight into how to end a book. Bring home how your characters have changed. Use the ‘5 W’s’ to create finality.
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Comedy/Happy Ending. The characters achieve the Story Goal and the main character ends up better off in the end. Tragedy. The characters fail to achieve the Story Goal and the main character ends up in a worse state in the end. Comi-tragedy. The characters achieve the Story Goal, but the main character ends up worse off.
