by Anne R. Allen
Mickey Spillane famously said “They read to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.”
I can see the creative writing students rolling their eyes. Mickey Spillane wasn’t exactly a great prose stylist. But the guy knew how to write books that sell. He sold 225 million of them.
And he sure was right about that last page.
He didn’t mean you should leave characters hanging off cliffs so the reader will be forced to read the next book. Cliffhangers make readers feel betrayed. If somebody reads a whole novel and doesn’t find out what happens to the characters, they get angry. And angry readers don’t buy more of your books.
When the Last Page Feels Like a Betrayal
I recently read a major New York Times bestseller by a big-name author. The ending was so terrible I would have thrown the book across the room if it hadn’t been on my beloved Kindle.
I will never read another book by that author.
I’d been hopefully clicking through the pages, anticipating that big moment when we’d find out who the bad guys were and how the hero stopped them. But the reveal was predictable and left lots of stories hanging, so I read on, wanting more.
And yes, there was more: on the last page we discovered those weren’t the real bad guys and some much worse guys were already implementing a much more devastating evil scheme.
The End.
That would have been annoying enough in a series or a trilogy. But this author hasn’t written a sequel. And there’s none in the works, that I know of.
It was as if the author had simply stopped the book with a big. “Neener-neener. So long suckers!”
Maybe the author considered this arty and cleverly nihilistic, but it came across as a nasty betrayal of the reader’s trust.
The Last Page Must Leave the Reader Satisfied
What is a satisfying ending? It’s one that fulfills the promise made at the beginning of the book.
And one that is appropriate to the genre.
If the bestseller I hated had been a poetic, literary meditation on the deterioration of human civilization in the 21st Century, that ending might have worked. But there were no gorgeous passages of philosophical wisdom or sharp commentary on the devolution of Earth’s sentient primates that would make it a literary novel. It was billed as a thriller. And it was indeed a page-turning spy adventure until that last page.
A thriller should thrill, of course. And the higher the stakes, the better. But the hero must get the bad guys and thwart their evil plans by the last page.
The same is true of a Romance. If you don’t have a HEA (Happy Ever After) ending, you don’t have a Romance. And you don’t have a readership, because they’ve all put you on their DRAE (Don’t Read Again, Ever) list.
And a mystery that doesn’t solve the crime? The author might be the next to get that lethal, undetectable poison.
Or an epic fantasy where the hero does not fulfill his quest? Forsooth, knave, surely you jest!
You get the idea. ????
What Does a Final Chapter need to Do?
- Give the protagonist an emotionally fulfilling resolution to the problem posed at the beginning of the story.
- Tie up loose ends in the main storyline
- Make sure no minor character is still clinging to that cliff where you left her on page 105.
- Answer unaddressed “story questions.”
- Remind the reader of the novel’s theme.
- In most genres, show the protagonist has learned something and is the better for it.
- Not overstay its welcome.
I was guilty of #7 in one of my first novels. I was devastated when the ms. came back from the editor with the whole last chapter crossed out.
“But I want the reader to know what happened to all the characters,” I said.
“The story’s over. Nobody cares,” he said.
And of course he was right.
What about Ending a Book in a Series or a Trilogy?
It’s best to write a satisfying ending for each book in a series, although you can hint at what is to come. But don’t fail to resolve the main story arc.
And if you leave a character hanging off that cliff, you’d better have written the next book and make sure it’s available for the reader to buy asap.
For a trilogy, the rules are a little different. A trilogy is basically a three-part novel, so you can leave the reader with more cliffhangers than you can with series novels. But be careful! Use cliffhangers sparingly. Ending a book without a resolution usually annoys rather than intrigues.
Write Your Last Page First and Your First Page Last.
I always say it’s best to write your first chapter last, and last chapter first. Or at least be able to visualize your ending before you begin to write a novel.
I still think that’s the best plan. But I wasn’t able to follow it with my own current WIP. 🙂
Last week I finished the (very) rough draft of the eighth Camilla Randall Mystery, Catfishing in America. Fear of writing that last page paralyzed me for weeks.
All the things a final chapter must do swirled around in my head, making the task even more daunting. Since I’m a pantser, I only tend to jot down notes instead of writing a formal outline. And I’d had a series of medical catastrophes that kept me from doing any creative writing for over a year, so the notes didn’t mean much to my forgetful brain when my muse finally returned.
Luckily, when I finally sat down to write that last page, I realized the ending was still in my head. I’d envisioned that scene from the time I wrote the first line.
What helped me remember was reading the first chapter again. Once I tied them together, I knew what to put on that last page.
Now, of course, I still have to revise that first chapter. I’ve got lots of revising to do.
Work on Your Last Line as Hard as You Work on the First
Authors tend to obsess about the first line of a novel. We may spend forever polishing and perfecting that sentence, hoping it will entice new readers.
But we often dash off the last line in a rush to write that final “The End” on the manuscript. We forget the last line has as much power to hook readers as the first.
My favorite last line in classic literature is the ending of The Importance of Being Earnest.
“On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”
Oscar Wilde’s line, which is designed to get a laugh, not only gives us the title of the play, it also ties up all the threads of the story. Jack refers to the fact that pretending to be named Ernest got him engaged to his true love, plus “earnestly” coming clean solved the tangled mess he and Algernon made with their deceptions. And, of course, it turns out Jack’s real name is Ernest.
We are not all writing comedy, and a line like that would be out of place in a drama. But it is satisfying to the writer and the reader alike when you can tie up all your themes and story threads on that last page.
When I wrote The Best Revenge, my prequel to the Camilla series, I knew I wanted to end with the line, “Living well is the best revenge.” By giving Camilla a newspaper column called Living Well, I set that ending up early on. A number of readers have told me they enjoyed that last line.
Another famously satisfying last line finishes The Great Gatsby:
“And so we beat on, boats against the current, drawn ceaselessly into the past.”
With it, Nick is telling us what destroyed Gatsby — his obsession with Daisy and the past.
I’d hoped to end The Gatsby Game, my novel about a Fitzgerald fanatic, with Fitzgerald’s line, but the book isn’t a comedy, so using the line came across as a bit silly. However, I was able to title the last chapter “Boats Against the Current.”
I’m not saying every author should obsess over their last lines, but do give yours some real thought.
It may just sell your next book.
***
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) June 19, 2022
What about you scriveners? Do you obsess about last lines the way I do? How do you feel about books that end without resolution or leave you with a cliffhanger? Do you spend a lot of time writing that last page? Do you have a favorite last line?
Strong endings of chapters are important, too. Check out this post from author-publisher Jessica Bell.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
THE GATSBY GAME
What happens when a writer starts believing he’s living in a Fitzgerald novel?
Based on a real-life corpse found on the set of a Burt Reynolds movie.
(For more on this, and the tabloid accusations that Burt Reynolds murdered David Whiting, see my book blog.
When Fitzgerald-quoting con man Alistair Milborne is found dead a movie star’s motel room — igniting a world-wide scandal — the small-town police can’t decide if it’s an accident, suicide, or foul play. As evidence of murder emerges, Nicky Conway, the smart-mouth nanny, becomes the prime suspect.
She’s the only one who knows what happened. But she also knows nobody will ever believe her. The story is based on the real mystery surrounding the death of David Whiting, actress Sarah Miles’ business manager, during the filming of the 1973 Burt Reynolds movie The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.
Only $3.99 for the ebook from:
Amazon , Kobo, Barnes & Noble , Scribd,
Available in paper from:
***
featured image via WikiCommons
Thank you for this article, Anne.
In my happy home, unresolved endings divide. My husband, like you Anne, hates them. But I… I love them. I appreciate an author granting me permission to conceive my own ending.
Leanne–You are a rare person! Literary short fiction, like the stories in the New Yorker, are often open-ended, but novels almost always have a beginning, a middle and an end. You give hope to those writers who can’t end their novels. 🙂
What a great post, Anne.
I am a fan of writing backwards. I like to have an ending in mind before I start writing.
Granted, the ending might change a bit, but it gives me a goal to write towards and reign my characters in. (They tend to take on a life of their own and change the plot).
And yes, I have DRAE many authors because I hated the ending of their over hyped novel.
Ingmar–That’s exactly how I write. I need to have that ending as a goal. And my characters do try to hijack the story and take it in a totally different direction. I usually jot down notes for the ending, but I didn’t with the current WIP. The last two big bestsellers I read had awful endings. One was cheap and too obvious and the other didn’t exist. Made me furious.
I like to start at the beginning, but I’m all for jumping to the end, and writing your last few pages before you reach page 20. In other words, you need to define where the story is going….as soon as possible.
Anne—Mickey Spillane was right. Getting that last chapter just right is super important and your advice here is gold!
Pantsers don’t have outlines! lol I feel your pain 🙁
But, next week I’ll be writing about a quick, easy way I’ve discovered to keep track of what you’re doing and where you’re going *without* stopping or slowing down to write an outline.
Eagerly awaiting that post, Ruth! We pantsers need all the help we can get.
Ruth–Your post next week is going to be a huge boon to pantsers. Outliners too. It’s going to be one for people to bookmark!
You’d better believe I obsess over last lines! You’d also better believe that if a book leaves the main storyline unresolved, I let fly a stream of expletives and never read another book by that author.
Liz–I feel as if I’ve wasted my time, even if I’ve enjoyed parts of the book. If it has no ending, I’m furious.
Anne, I’m in total agreement on cliffhanger endings. In the nihilistic late 1960s, there was a brief trend of movies that ended w/o resolutions. They just stopped…as if the author or director had run out of mind-altering substances. Maybe the audience was supposed to drop acid to discover their own endings.
I don’t recall the titles which says a lot about how effective that technique was.
Esp. in unsettled times, I think readers crave resolution, giving them hope that justice can be done and evil is not always rewarded.
Debbie–I think you’ve got a good insight here. Back in the 50s and 60s, we saw “the theater of cruelty” where the audience was the enemy–bourgeois morons who had to be shaken awake. Satisfying endings make people feel good, and the point of art was to make people feel bad. But then we lived in what seemed like a safe, secure world. Now the entire world is in upheaval and we’re all living in some metaphorical Ukrainian basement waiting for the bombs to stop. We need our books to give us hope that evil doesn’t always triumph over good. Even if it isn’t true.
Hi, Anne
Absolutely good point. I was part of an anthology call where at least half the writers received a comment that the ending didn’t work. (I was accepted for the anthology.)
That bit at the end is called the validation. If a writer is having trouble with their endings, it’s likely because they’re ending the story on the climax. The validation wraps the story up and essentially tells the reader the story is finished. But you want plenty of examples, watch NCIS. It’s that little bit right at the end that’s maybe 30 seconds or a minute.
Kris Rusch talks about them here: https://kriswrites.com/2022/05/04/business-musings-endings/ She mentions how a really good movie was ruined because they botched the validation.
Linda–Thanks! I always learn stuff from your comments. The need for “validation” after the climax is so important. Good TV shows always offer it, as you said. In a procedural, the police team get together back at the office and show they’re okay and maybe discuss how the DA has charged the bad guy. Maybe there’s a little humor to lighten things up. The viewer goes to bed feeling that all’s right with the world.
And thanks for the link to Kris’s post. There’s gold in there! I love this, “If you, as a reader, turn the page to find no more words, the writer has screwed up.” I’ve done that so many times. I turn the page, expecting the next chapter, and there’s nothing but an ad for the author’s next book. A reminder never to read it.
Great information as usual, Anne.
I also hate it when an author writes a cliff-hanger ending so the reader will buy the next book. I read a book like that not long ago and determined I would not buy another book from that author.
I’ve never written the last line first as I’m beginning a novel, but I can see the reasoning behind it. I usually have a pretty good idea where the story is going, but sometimes the characters surprise me.
“The Gatsby Game” sounds terrific. Good luck with it!
Kay–I’m not saying you should always write the last line first, but it helps to visualize that last scene. As Yogi Berra said, “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going because you might not get there.”
🙂 You can still allow characters to surprise you–and new ones can appear. But it helps to have a goal for your journey. Like those people going to Canterbury. They know where they’re going, but there’s lots of room for stories along the way.
Anne, I love those “Yogi-isms.” My favorite is, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
Fred–That’s a good one! 🙂
Thanks, Anne. This column SHOULD have been a pastiche built upon a tired truism, but you always manage to bring it home the right way. Absolutely correct, brava.
I’ve had a couple of readers tell me the ending of my books left “my heart feeling full”. I very much like that idea- whether an epic fantasy continues into a new adventure or not there needs to be a sense of completion, promises kept.
I’ve also had some comments that my books end too fast. We’re talking 200k words here! But I think that may be a different aspect of the same sensation. I can’t say I think about the last line much, but the last chapter, certainly.
Will–If an ending makes the reader’s “heart feel full” you’ve really done your job right. I know what people are talking about when they say an ending is “fast”. They want a story to taper off more, instead of reaching a climax close to the end. This can happen if your climax is a battle scene, or a race to save the kid before the serial killer does her in. Once the outcome is clear, there may not be a whole lot more to say. It’s the nature of certain types of action stories. The end can seem abrupt, but as long as it’s clear what happened, I think you’ve done it right.
For my trilogy, I actually have ending all planned out. Thing is, I haven’t worked on it since I got the second volume from my very competent editor. I do plan on working on it, as soon as I decide to pull myself up by a turban wedgie and stop procrastinating by working on everything else.
Overall though, I do try to make all of my stories have a satisfying conclusion. I had one story that after I’d finished, I really detested the original ending, so I spent the next three weeks going over it in my head until one popped in that worked for me, and thuus I was able to fix the story.
I normally don’t come across unsatisfying endings, only unsatisfying middles that annoy the crap out of me that makes me not want to finish the book.
GB–It sounds as if you’ve got the old revision-itis! Facing edits, especially when they involve cutting deep and “killing your darlings” can be daunting. I hope you can jump that particular writer’s block and dive in. Especially when the third book is in there, wanting to get out.
I’m reading a book with an unsatisfying middle right now. I bought it expecting a fun crime caper, but it’s morphed into a study of the intricacies of the film business. I read three paragraphs and start to daydream. It will be a miracle if I get to the end. At this point, I just don’t care. And that’s not what you want for the middle of a book.
I have a feeling the majority of us prefer the ending being the crown jewel. The beginning should lift the crown up, the middle be the glitter, and then it sets in place on the hero’s head.
Traci–Oh, I love this metaphor. The middle must glitter! And the ending places the crown on the head of the conquering hero. Perfect!
I just finished the second novel of my series and I ended it with what you might call a cliffhanger. Now I’m thinking that’s not a good idea. I’m betting my developmental editor would not like the way I ended it either! So, back I go – gotta re-write it. Thank you for all the tips and examples!!!
Patricia–The best test is to imagine yourself reading the novel. Would you be satisfied with that ending? If not, you should probably give it another look. Rewriting. it’s what we do. 🙂
Evening, Anne and I’ve got the porch light on for Ruth. I’ve been travelling today and thinking while driving and can’t get Top Gun – Maverick outa my head. The ending is outstanding storytelling. Maverick and Penny soar off into the sky. It just doesn’t get better than this.
Garry–I’m one of the few people in the world who hasn’t seen it, but I know that people who generally don’t like military/macho movies loved the new Top Gun. Sounds as if we should all study how the film was constructed to see why it was so satisfying to everybody. An ending like that–thrilling and romantic, probably has a lot to do with it.
An important article, well done! A tiny addition: A satisfying end also sells that book since readers will recommend it.
Stefan–Great reminder! That last page doesn’t just sell your next book to the reader. It also sells the book to all the reader’s friends! Word of mouth is how books build sales.
Excellent post Anne! I learned my lesson in writing the Rowena Through the Wall fantasy trilogy. Even in a trilogy, you need to have at the very least, a “we won the battle but the war is not over” ending. Readers need to be rewarded for their hours of reading. They need to feel the protagonist and friends have accomplished something.
Melodie–It’s true that Rowena books made me want to read the next one, but I didn’t feel pressured. Great tip “win the battle, but let them know the war isn’t over.”
I used to hate those TV shows that stopped in the middle of a rip-roaring story with the words, “To be continued…” In the pre-streaming days, if you weren’t going to be home a week later, you’d never see the ending of the show.
Angels and Demons had one of the worst endings I have ever encountered. Fortunately, the run-up to the ridiculous ending was beyond excellent. Still, that lousy ending hangs around long after the book has been returned to the shelf.
For both my (published) fantasy novels, I had the ending in mind from the beginning, even though I’m a pantser too. But the first one ended in a battle where the narrator and his wife are in the midst of battle. It has been prophesied that they would both “fall beneath the weapons of the enemy.” The last line was, “Let them come. I will kill them all.” But when I finished with that, I realized it was totally unfair to the reader. So I added an unplanned chapter that began, “I did not kill them all, but I killed many.” and then explained how the prophesy was correct, yet he and his warrior wife did not die. One of my readers told me she was prepared to be displeased because she was afraid they would be killed, and glad they weren’t. Good decision on my part!
Fred–Excellent decision. That last line is poetic and powerful, but adding the epilogue to show they didn’t actually die is how to make your reader happy.