Tips in Creating A Captivating Ending

There are a plethora of novel concepts available. Everybody has at least one, if not more.

The concept is the simple part. What is the second-easiest task? Starting to write the narrative.

This may surprise you since you may be feeling stuck. You have been sitting in your brilliant idea far too long, idling in neutral. Therefore, what is preventing you from getting started?

Fear.

However, fear of what?

You may have the most excellent book concept since Chicken Soup for the Amish Vampire Left Behind. However, unless you demonstrate your ability to complete—and by complete, hut that curtain with a tremendous thud—all you're going to receive from publishers is Fifty Shades of Wait and See.

Thus, how can you guarantee that your narrative does not fizzle when it should be thrilling?

1. Keep the End in Mind Throughout

Avoid the wish game, believing that everything will work out on its own when the time arrives.

Whether you're a careful outliner or a pantser, have a concept of where your tale is heading and consider the conclusion daily. How you see the narrative concluding should influence each scene and chapter. It may alter, develop, and mature as you and your characters go through their natural arcs, but never leave it to chance.

And if you're towards the conclusion and concerned that something's missing, that the punch isn't there, or that it falls short of the strength of the other parts of your work, don't hurry it. Allow a few days, or even a few weeks, if required.

Take a look at everything you've written. Take a leisurely stroll. Think. Consider it. Make a note of it. Allow your subconscious to take care of it—play what-if scenarios. If necessary, be obnoxious. Compel that conclusion to sing. Make it memorable.

Musts

• Be kind to your readers. They have consistently invested in you and your job. Provide them with appropriate compensation. Allow it to seem rushed by not rushing it.

• Make it unexpected while being fair. You want readers to feel as though they should have anticipated it—because you've planted enough hints—but not as if they've been duped.

• Never, ever settle. If you're not entirely satisfied with each word, scuttle it until you are.

• Don't despair if you have too many ideas for how it should finish. Simply force yourself to find the finest one. When in doubt, avoid the smartest or intellectual. The reader yearns to be moved. Pursue the heart.

• It should be rewritten till it gleams. Always maintained that all writing is rewriting, and nowhere is this more true than towards the conclusion of a book. When do you know it has been sufficiently rewritten? When you've progressed beyond improving something to just differentiating it.

2. Nothing Can Ever Come After the End

This is self-evident. However, I say it nonetheless. Because too many novices believe it makes them seem smart to leave things vague, or they wish to reserve something critical until the Epilogue. Avoid making that error.

Modern readers who have grown up watching television and movies appreciate chronology—beginnings, middles, and endings. They anticipate the conclusion doing its function. Artsy people may believe it's cool to pause and enjoy gassing on-talk programs about how life isn't always that clean.

That is fantastic. I've watched enough of those films to know that the majority of folks do not like sitting there shaking their heads when the lights come up. They exchange scowls and exclaim, "Really?" Is that all? "Are we to speculate on what will happen next?"

All of this serves as a reminder to me as a writer that I only have one job and that I must commit to doing it again each time. Create a narrative universe for my readers and provide them with a pleasant experience. They've committed their time and money in the belief that I'll keep my part of the bargain—which requires a beginning, a middle, and an end.

That is not to say that every conclusion is happily-ever-after, with everything neatly wrapped up. However, the reader is aware of what occurred; questions are addressed, issues are handled, and riddles are resolved. And, as someone who happens to have a hopeful outlook, my art will reflect that.

If you're going to write from a different perspective, at the very least, be consistent. End your tales with your perspective on life, but do not just end.

There some tales conclude prematurely and therefore seem manufactured. If they conclude too late, you have asked your reader to indulge you for an extended period. Be prudent. Like how you select when to enter and depart a scene, you must carefully consider when to end your book.

3. Remember Your Hero

This may seem self-evident, yet I have seen it violated. At the conclusion, your protagonist should take center stage. Everything they've learned through the problems that have occurred due to their efforts to address the heinous predicament you've put them into should have prepared them to rise to the occasion by now.

Perhaps they have been imperfect, weak, and defeated up to this point. However, their character journey is nearing completion.

The action must take place onstage, not just be discussed, recalled, or recounted. It cannot be remedied by a miracle or through their realization of anything. They must take action.

That is what elicits an emotional response from a reader, and if your writing moves you, it will impact your readers tenfold.

Consider yourself the captain of a colossal airline. Your viewers have been taken on a lengthy, exciting trip by you. At this point, pull it in for a landing.