In a post on Killzone, PJ Parrish offers advice for ending your scenes and chapters and story on a bang. “Often it’s the ending that resonates strongest with a reader,” Parrish says. “Everything you write before it leads up to it. And if the ending is good, everything points back to it.”
Strong endings rely on pace and structure. You want to plan your novel with the ending as a goal, not merely a stopping point, and you don’t want to linger in your story too long after the denouement. Parrish identifies several different kinds of endings, including:
- Tidy ending. The story is resolved and all questions are answered.
- The closed circle. The story leads back to the beginning, tying the start and finish together with a parallel scene, imagery, or event.
- Open-Ended ending. The story ends, but some questions are left unanswered and your protagonist has clear options.
- The ambiguous ending. These stories have endings that can be interpreted in several different ways and events are often unresolved.
- The twist ending. Often running alongside unreliable narrators, the twist ending pulls the rug out from under the reader, upending what they thought they believed all along.
- The ticking clock. Thrillers rely on the ticking clock, with the ending revolving around the moment time runs out.
So, how to plan for a strong ending? Parrish recommends:
- Knowing how your story will end as you begin writing. At the very least, understanding the central question will give you an idea of the shape of your ending, as you know you must answer this question before your story closes. “If you can articulate the central question of your story, you have a good jump on knowing how it ends,” Parrish says.
- Earning your ending. Your ending should feel both surprising and inevitable. The rest of the novel should also reflect the tone you anticipate for your ending.
- Writing more than one ending. Stuck for an ending? Parrish recommends writing several and asking peers which works best. “Usually, the shortest one, the one with the emotional kick, is best,” she says.
