How to Write Strong Book Endings + 5 Stellar Novel Ending Formats
Bella Rose Emmorey
book editor, rogue behaviorist, digital marketer, writer, brand builder, plant aunt, and cheese enthusiast.
As you become a more experienced writer, you’ll learn how to write strong book endings for yourself. The more you read, the more you’ll pick up on the common elements that make for a satisfying book ending, too.
But if you’re too impatient to read a ton of books before you wrap up your current novel, we’re here to help.
No two novels will ever have the exact same ending (hopefully!), and there’s never a precise formula for getting this right. It’ll largely depend on your genre, promises made at the beginning of your novel, and the overall plot. Even if you're writing a standalone novel vs a series should affect your book ending.
Let's go over how to write endings for standalone novels, series, and what to consider when $ finishing your book$ .
How to Write a Novel Ending for a Standalone Novel
Standalone novels are those written without the intention of a sequel or series and are a complete story from start to finish.
Popular authors who write standalone books are Stephen King with $ Carrie$ , $ Under The Dome$ , $ The Shining$ , and dozens more, as well as Nicholas Sparks with his smattering of romance stories like $ The Notebook$ , $ The Best of Me$ , and $ The Choice$ .
Writing the ending to books like these requires very different steps than if you’re writing a series.
1. Know your ending ahead of time
You’re probably not Stephen King—we think, maybe. (Hi, Mr. King, oh my gosh, thanks for reading. xx) Very few writers have the experience and skill set to write a strong novel ending without knowing where the story goes from the start.
How you write the end should depend on the plot lines, character arcs, and genre you’re writing in.
We highly recommend that if you’re not going to outline your book, at the very least you know how you want to end the story. That will allow you to write the book in such a way that the ending is full and inevitable.
2. Close your loops
All plot lines in your standalone novel should have complete conclusions by the end, unless you’re intentionally choosing to leave something unresolved (which can be tricky). Never draw attention to something that seems vital to the plot, only to completely ignore it at the end.
To make your ending even better, have a single scene close multiple loops at once. For example, if you’re writing a mystery novel of a murder and there has also been an unexplained phenomenon around town that seems unrelated, you can craft the ending to show that the murderer was also responsible for the phenomenon.
3. Fulfill your promises
When we talk about "promises" in fiction, we mean the expectations you set for the reader at the beginning of the story. For an urban fantasy story, you might open your book with a story of the protagonist’s grandmother having gone missing years ago, leaving behind nothing but an old book. The promise you’ve set up here is that the grandmother is out there somewhere, and we’ll likely have a chance to find or meet her (especially if it’s not explicitly stated that she has died).
If you "tease" the reader with something interesting to pull them into the story and never fulfill what you promised, it will leave the reader unsatisfied.
4. Remember your genre’s expectations
Each genre has unwritten "rules" they must meet. A reader who loves urban fantasy wants to be in a modern timeframe where magic is present. So if you throw them in a time machine back to an ancient setting at the end of the book, your reader may be annoyed. Now, you’ve looped in sci-fi and a different style of fantasy into a book they expected to be urban fantasy.
Read books in the genre you want to write in so you understand these unofficial rules. Unless you promise early on a time machine and ancient setting, you’ll run into annoyed readers by the end.
Another common example of genre expectations is with $ romance novels$ —romance readers want a happily ever after. If you don't give them one, they will host a riot in your reviews, and they will show no mercy.
5. Write the unexpected
This isn’t fully necessary, but it is a quality of raved about books. When you can fulfill promises and meet genre expectations in an unexpected way, readers will love your novel.
Nicholas Sparks often does this well, particularly in his novel $ The Best Of Me$ . Nicholas Sparks famously twists his love stories with a tragic ending.
[Spoiler Alert]! Throughout this story, we’re brought back and forth on this couple’s near-miss love story, and we expect that in the end, they’ll be together (the genre expectation). And they are…sort of.
Sparks ends this novel in a tragic-yet-heartfelt manner when the male love interest is in a fatal accident at the same time that the female protagonist's son is in need of a new heart. As you can guess, the male love interest’s heart is a match for her son’s, so she does get to spend her lifetime with his heart, in a way—an unexpected way.
6. Callback to your earlier scenes
There’s something incredibly satisfying about stories where your protagonist has an itch they just can’t scratch and seeing them finally relieved of it. This is usually something completely unrelated to the main plotline and is more of a character trait, but it adds a major sense of closure for the reader. This can be a callback to a specific scene, but it can also be as simple as a joke from earlier in your novel.
Examples of stories ending with a callback include—
$ Zombieland$ : Tallahassee finally gets a Twinkie by the end, a treat he’s been seeking for too long throughout the story
$ Airplane!$ : At the beginning of the story, we see a passenger in a cab who is waiting for the drive to return. The driver runs inside and ends up boarding a plane. At the end of the movie, we see the passenger still waiting in the cab.
Not only can callbacks work in novels and films, but they can also be effective in shorter pieces. In $ An Envelope$ , the short story by Hannah Lee Kidder, the protagonist's first observation is how quiet her apartment is (after a breakup and her boyfriend moving out). She's pleased with the peaceful atmosphere.
At the end of the story, the empty apartment is described again, but after the protagonist has processed her loneliness. It's essentially the same description, which calls back to the opening, but it's framed with a different tone and meaning.
Sometimes the callback is funny, and sometimes it illustrates the point of the story to your reader. It gives them a moment of understanding as they recognize that repeated element, which can make an ending feel satisfying.
7. Don’t leave too much up for interpretation
Unless you’re writing a specific literary fiction thought-piece, you don’t want the ending of your novel to be too confusing with too much left for interpretation. This can have readers walking away confused and unsatisfied.
Confusion often makes readers feel dumb, and nobody wants to feel dumb. Then, in an effort for the reader to feel better about themselves, they’ll likely leave you a poor rating and even a nasty review—even if the book until that point had been good.
8. Collaborate with beta readers & critique partners
The best way to tell if your novel ending is confusing or if there are elements missing is to use beta readers or critique partners. Have them comment directly in your draft on the confusing areas with our collaboration feature so you know precisely which places to fix.
You can ask questions like:
Do you think the ending is satisfying?
Are you wanting for anything more in the ending?
Can you tell me how the character has changed over the novel?
Was anything confusing?
Were any of your questions left unanswered?
How to Write a Novel Ending for a Book Series
The way you write a series book ending is similar, but also very different from a standalone novel. You want to follow the same advice as above for series:
- Collaboration
- Closing loops
- Creating callbacks
- Fulfilling genre expectations
- Fulfilling promises
But there are a few things you want your ending to have in order to get readers to move on to the next book in the series.
1. Close the main loop
Just like in a standalone novel, you have to close the main loop in the plot. For example, in $ Hunger Games$ the main plot is Katniss surviving the hunger games. By the end of the first book, we have a full conclusion to this plot and know exactly how she ended the games.
2. Open the main loop of the series (& your next book)
Using Hunger Games as another example, by the end of the first book we know that she and Peeta have survived the games, but there has been another major loop opened that can set up the core conflict of all the books in the series:
The oppression of citizens outside The Capitol.
This loop is addressed throughout the series. The conflict of the second book’s plot is also opened in the first: Katniss has unintentionally awoken rebellion amongst the citizens and now she and her family are in danger again.
By the end of the first book, the readers not only feel satisfied that the first book’s promise is met, but it also intrigued them for the next and series-long conflict.
3. Write strong characters
Writing good characters is important for any novel, but for a book series, characters are a huge reason readers consume multiple books. Yes, the plot should be fun and intriguing, but it’s the characters that pull your reader along for 2, 3, even 6 books.
Even if your plot is average, a few good characters will hook readers until the end, and onto the next book.
Here’s how you can craft a strong character arc through to the end of your novel:
- Give your character a plot-conflicting flaw
- Write scenes that challenge this flaw
- Create opportunities for your character to grow out of their flaw
- During the climax or at the end, let your character overcome the flaw
4. Introduce an intriguing new character
At the end of your novel, or even during the climax, introducing a new character that can stir the pot is a great way to get a reader to pick up the next book. Why? Because if your new character is interesting or likable or creates the promise of conflict with your protagonist, a reader will sit and wonder about the scenarios they’ll be put in.
Here are a few tips for what type of character to introduce when writing the ending of your novel:
- Give them a job that will be needed in the next book
- Give them characteristics that are conflicting with your protagonist (intrigue)
- Give them a crucial role for the villain (or make them the villain)
- Create humor in their traits or dialogue (something fun to look forward to)
- Expose an existing character for being "not who they seem"
5. Create romantic conflict (if you have a romance)
Many book series include a $ romantic subplot$ , so we can’t skip this important step. Readers love when your characters finally come together romantically, but if it’s all rainbows and sunshine leading into book two, you may run the risk of losing their interest.
If, when creating the conflict and opening the loop of your next book, you create a plot point that challenges the romantic relationship, it will intrigue your readers to see what will happen to the couple.
6. Plot the next book first
It won’t do you any good to write up a wicked ending to your story if you have no idea what the next book will be about. Unlike standalone novel endings, for a book series, you have to "sell" your reader on the next book by the end of the previous.
Before your reader is finished, they should at least know what some of the next book’s plot will encompass. That means you have to know what that plot will encompass in order to open the loop, introduce a new character, and create intrigue.
5 Strong Novel Ending Formats
We’ll be real with you: there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to writing a novel ending. There are 5-sizes-fits-all (kidding!). The truth is, your ending should be unique and specific to the story you’ve told.
That said, you’ll find common endings that seem to satisfy the average reader and in this line of business, you want the reader walking away feeling like their time reading was well spent. So here are five strong ways to end a novel that are proven to please.
The Twist: This format for ending your novel is a popular one in that, by the end of the story, there is a major twist revealed. This can be a character twist, a $ plot twist$ , or any unexpected turn of events.
The Betrayal: A hard but strong ending to a novel can be when your protagonist is betrayed, and now a whole other set of challenges faces them. This format is typically used for ending novels in a book series.
The "In Over My Head": If you end a book in a manner that showcases just how much bigger the conflict is than the protagonist first thought, it’s this format. Hunger Games is a great example of this ending style.
The Big Sad: It’s not easy to pull off sad endings that are satisfying, but it’s entirely possible. Like Nicholas Sparks’ The Best Of You, when you end a book in a very sad way that is still fulfilling on the elements to write a good book ending, this is the format you’d use.
The Ambiguity: When you write a novel ending meant to be interpreted by the reader, and can have many different meanings, this is the format you’d use. The idea is to create conversation and showcase how there can be many correct ways of viewing a certain conflict.
Writing a strong novel ending doesn’t have to be complicated. The more you read and write, the easier and more natural these steps will become.
Happy writing!
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