Sticking the Landing: How to Nail Your Novel Ending

Beginning. Middle. End. It’s so much fun to come up with a great beginning for your novel, and we’re all proud of ourselves when we slog through that muddle in the middle, but then...we just want it to be over. And as a result, are you giving short shrift to your ending? 

(5 Steps to Avoid the Muddle in the Middle of Your Novel.)

How many times, and you know it has happened, have you been reading a perfectly good book, and you’re engaged and turning the pages as fast as you can, and then, up comes the ending and What? Are you kidding me? You say, That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!

And the whole book is ruined, and your relationship with the author is ruined too, isn’t it? Because you don’t trust them anymore. And you’re unlikely to pick up the next book they write.

Yes, it’s page one that sells this book, but the last page that sells your next book. To have a successful and memorable novel, you have to stick the landing.

Ending a novel is the most individual thing there could ever be, because each ending is so intensely intertwined with each beginning. And that’s a good thing—because the beginning is where you will start discovering the ending. Here are some ways to find the ending of your book.

First, very commercially, let’s think about genre expectations. In a romance, your ending is commanded: It’s got to be HEA, happily ever after, or at least HFN, happy for now. And that’s one challenge of romance writing—because the reader knows that’s what the ending is going to be, it requires the author to be especially skilled at creating an immersive story. The fun in a romance novel is getting there, right? But heaven help you if you write a romance novel without a happy or happy for now ending. Don’t fight it, writers, just do it.

Crime fiction, too, has a kind of command performance ending. In a mystery, the mystery must be solved. The crime must be explained, and the bad guy discovered. You can try to get away without doing that—but make sure you know how to duck and cover when the reviews call you out on it. One of the reasons we read mysteries is for that clink of the handcuffs and the announcement of justice. That order is restored and all is right with the world.

(Yes, we can all think of wonderful mysteries or thrillers with an ambiguous or cliffhanger ending. First timers, you want to risk that? You don’t. Just tell us what happens, and let the good guys win.)

In a romantasy, you can get away with the umbrella quest-of-the-series continuing, but in each individual book, at least one major battle or conflict must be resolved. And it will become the stepping stone to the next installment.

In literary fiction, a character should learn something from the journey, or become a different person. Think of literary fiction as a chrysalis from which your character emerges at the end.

So as you head for your ending, keep those considerations in mind. What kind of ending will the reader expect? Of course, you can make the journey as twisty and surprising and gasp-worthy as your skill allows! But bottom line, it still has to fill the genre bill.

What is the core question your book is asking? In a successful novel, your ending will be contained there. Where is the missing sister? Who took the gold? Who killed the millionaire? Will the plague wipe out civilization? Who is the real spy? That question must be faced, solved, and then… answered in the ending. Tied up with a ribbon, all questions answered.

If someone asks a reader: How did it end? They should be able to tell it clearly.

In a series, you’ll have two threads: the plot thread, and the personal thread. If you’re writing a series, the personal story of the sleuth will not be ended—it will just be tantalizingly continued. But you better be sure that the specific crime the novel presents is solved.

In searching for your ending, whether it’s when you’re creating your outline or when you hit page 351, ask yourself: Who was my main character at the beginning, and what did they want? They should either get that at the end, or realize that’s not what they really wanted at all! And then they get the new thing.

A story is about the desire for something, the journey to get it, and then attaining that goal.

The ending should not happen to the main character. The MC should cause it to happen. Is your character empowered enough to control the ending? Or are they passively letting the world take over? When you empower your main character, the ending will be the result of their actions and choices and decision-making process.  And that will make the ending satisfying and rewarding.

Beware of the pages-long explanation, especially when the bad guy is holding the good guy at gunpoint. Why don’t they just shoot the protagonist and get away? Because the author has to tell the solution, right? So that means the bad guy has to explain everything for two pages. (Often in the guise of proving how smart they are, which is exactly opposite of what they’re really being. Which gives the police just enough time to come and rescue our heroine.) Agatha Christie will be forgiven for this eye-roller of a final chapter, but you will not.

Bottom line: The main character should drive the ending.

You can often find your ending in your first line. In the first line of my book The House Guest (a financial thriller), about-to-be-divorced Alyssa is thinking about division. Personal division, emotional division, physical division, financial division. As the book progresses, her belongings and friends are subtracted from her life, and her problems multiply. In the end, when she is empowered and successful—the last line of the book has her thinking about addition. See how it all works separately—and thematically? 

I’ve heard it said: “The first line is your whole book.” Can you make that happen?

One really fascinating way to discover your ending is to think about your book as a movie. Even if you don’t know the specific ending, or how to get there, I bet you can come up with what would be the last frame of video in the movie of your book. Who is left standing? What is their situation? What is the emotional tone? How do they feel? What are your characters facing in the future? What does that mean?  Can you see that screen grab of the final moment? Great. Now. You just have to get there—but you have a specific and thematic destination.

And don’t forget your theme! After the big climactic scene (you have that, right?), that’s not the end of the novel! Take a few pages to let the story sink in, to gently remind readers of your themes, and to let the reader assimilate the new world and new realities you have created. And hey, this is your chance to be poetic! This is where the power of the story sinks in—and what can make a “fine” book into a memorable one.

And this is not the time to rush. Make sure the rhythm of the end of your book matches the rhythm of the beginning. I know I know, you’re so sick of the thing by the time you get to the ending you just want it to be over. But we’ve all read books where we can feel that emotion emanating from the author, haven’t we? Give your gorgeous book its well-deserved bow, and even a curtain call.

And then give yourself some extra applause. When you type “The End,” the feeling of completeness should bring tears to your eyes. You’ve made your story captivating from the beginning, surprising in the middle, and in the end, satisfying and rewarding. 

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