Editing for Endings

I guess it depends on what the problem with the ending is.

I read a book last summer by an author I truly love but the ending was terrible. It was so open ended it felt like there was a chapter (or three) missing.

Personally, I find I have trouble with the pace of the ending. There's a big rush to the finish and then I have to bring it back down a little at the end and that's difficult.

You might also find that the way in which events are resolved in an ending are anti-climactic.

As far as fixing your ending, maybe you should ask yourself what you expect from an ending in a similar type of book? Happy ending? Everybody dies? Open-ended? All the loose ends tied up?

Then ask yourself what you expect from your book. Guy gets girl? Evil destroys the world? Heroes win but there's a sense that it's a temporary victory? In other words, what are you trying to accomplish, not just with the story as a whole, but with the final four or five chapters specifically.

I always find that when I'm having trouble with a section of something I'm working on (whether it's the beginning, middle or end) that it usually stems from not having a concrete idea of what I want to accomplish. This means knowing what I want to happen plot-wise, but also knowing what kind of reaction I'm looking for. Once I figure those elements out I can start figuring out where I'm missing the mark.

My first, (and only agent to date), suggested I cut the last three chapters from the ending. I wanted the book to stand alone, so I wrapped everything up after the final encounter. She said even with the last three chapters, she could tell the story is part of a larger story and there would be sequels. Because of this, she felt cutting the last three chapters would heighten the story and ending because the main conflict was resolved, but all the other stuff that followed was just fluff. After considering her advice, I had to agree, the ending she suggested was stronger by itself.

I have one novel I have rewritten the final two chapter at least four times and each time I have beefed up the images, the stakes, the final outcome so that the story reached a justifiable ending instead of a cop out ending. I added more internal character thoughts and actions than just the external action going on in those two chapters. My beta readers loved the final version.

There is another thread in the forums about cop out endings, so this has been talked about before...

The purpose of the ending is to answer all the story questions asked during the course of the book. The climax deals with the big story questions and plotlines. Any denouement deals with anything unresolved by the time and events of the climax.

Usually when an ending falls flat for me as a reader, it's because the writer was unaware of what questions s/he'd asked throughout the story, ones that I was invested in, and went off to answer questions they either didn't ask, had already answered (but apparently wasn't aware of having done so) or doing exactly what's expected (but doesn't fit the book they read). Really irks me.

Case in point: I just finished reading a book where the central story questions were centered on the heroine would avenge her brother's death and, secondarily, her getting out of the hellish location she was trapped in. The climax neatly answered the brother's death question. The denouement handled her escape from Hell--however the author suddenly brings back in a love story angle that had ended and was dealt with for 100 pages back into the denouement so the heroine and her "true love" could literally drive off into the sunrise together.

That's why extra eyes are great because I'm sure that in the author's mind, she hadn't wrapped up the love story as tightly as it read. I'm sure she thought it was still hanging on there even though the heroine hadn't given it a second thought for 100 pages.

IMO, betas need to read the entire thing or else they can't know what the ending needs to be.

ajkjd01 said:

Other than making your beta readers wade through the entire thing to figure it out, anyone here have any ideas or suggestions to revamp an ending thats just not quite there?

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Look at the rest of the book. The problem might not be the ending itself but something leading up to the ending. I ended up having to revise my entire book to make the ending work. In the ending, the characters confront the bad guy who reassembles a weapon from the past. Because of how the events take place in the book, the main characters did not know what the weapon actually did until this point. Since I tend to leave things until I got there, I never answered this particular question. Once I did, there were little pieces and scenes all throughout that needed to be filtered in so the ending would work.

DeleyanLee said:

The purpose of the ending is to answer all the story questions asked during the course of the book. The climax deals with the big story questions and plotlines. Any denouement deals with anything unresolved by the time and events of the climax.

IMO, betas need to read the entire thing or else they can't know what the ending needs to be.

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Ditto. And this is probably why endings aren't discussed as much. They can't be taken away from the rest of the piece for a critique, like the beginning can.

Just thought I'd add an observation about 'bad' endings...

There are a few books with terrible endings that come to mind. The main thing they have in common is resolving the main conflict in an unsatisfactory way that betrays the worldbuilding and rising action.

In one book, the author decided to bring in an unknown major villian who was 'secretely' behind the conflict the whole time. This villian appears in the last 20 pages of the book. The ending read like the author grabbed a random book, cut out the last 20 pages and stuck them on the end of his book. The MC and villian then fight to the death and the conflict is resolved. It was such BS that I literally threw the book across the room.

In another book about an Earth Colony that lost its technology, the whole point of the conflict/story was obtaining this sacred device that had all the cummulated knowledge of modern Earth. In the end, the MC gets the device, obtains the knowledge, defeats the antagonist, and then, in the final act, the MC decides to destroy the device for no good reason. It was just such a bad ending given the importance of this device to the entire colony, it literally made no sense whatsoever...

Throughout the story, the reader in a sense is the Main Character, and as such, there is a certain reasonableness of action. When the MC commits a final act that is just 'out of character' it can ruin the entire book. LIkewise, when the ending betrays the worldbuilding and rising action, it just rings as false.

Mel...

I'm having trouble with ending a play I'm writing. The first ending is relatively sedate and a realistic response. However the second is more dramatic and persues an idea suggested at the beginning.
I normally know the ending when writing a short story- it's less complex than ending a novel or play as there is normally only one idea or theme in a short story and they are not about plot (although they need some sort of one).

DeleyanLee said:

IMO, betas need to read the entire thing or else they can't know what the ending needs to be.

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Agreed. I've rewritten the end of my WIP three times to get it right, but I wouldn't have thought to do that if I hadn't gotten good, honest betas to read it through for me.

That aside, I find that if I'm having trouble seeing how to fix something, giving it a day (or a week) to simmer can be helpful.