In a post on Lit Hub, Allegra Hyde examines great novel endings and how we can write a successful conclusion to our novels. “For writers working in all mediums, ending a work can be the most challenging aspect of the writing process,” she says. “For many of us, finding that conclusive beat is slippery, maddening, even disastrous.”
Common criticisms include that endings aren’t satisfying, aren’t earned, let down the reader, or don’t fulfill the promise of the story. First, Hyde wonders if those critiques can be ignored. “Do we really want a story to satisfy? To earn?” she asks. Instead, she suggests seeking endings that resonate with the reader. “Resonance is a way to talk about the music of a work of fiction, as well as the multitude of ways a piece might impact a reader,” Hyde adds. “We’re trying to make art. We’re trying to disturb, or subvert, or illuminate, or render a literary experience so vibratingly transcendent that it resonates inside a reader long after the last page.”
So what are some great endings? Hyde cites Middlemarch, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the novels of Cormac McCarthy, all of which have powerful endings. One of the elements these writers have in common is their mastery of time. “Whether or not the fictional work is written chronologically, there is an intrinsic sequence of events that exists in the universe of the story—and at the end of a piece, an author must decide where along that timeline they’d like a work to conclude,” Hyde notes. “That decision has the potential to unlock a final beat of meaning and emotion for a reader. To put this another way: by being intentional about time at the end of a work, an author can create pattern, contrast, connection; they can generate resonance.”
Writers can leverage time by flashing back in time so that the ending becomes retrospective; staying in the present to maintain the linear chronological motion; and flashing forward, pointing to a future beyond the events in the story. Hyde shares a number of novels that use each of these types of endings to create resonance at the end of their stories.
