Final Chapter or Epilogue?

TulipMama · Sep 14, 2020

Hello,

I'm having trouble defining the last 'chapter' of my book, and I wanted some help here.

In the past I more or less thought of Epilogues as a shorter last chapter. The final action has been done, the BBEG has been defeated, the heroes bask in their collective character arcs and enjoy a beer for the final 'real' chapter. The next thing is the epilogue where we find out that the hero is going back to his life as a beet farmer and the daughter of the BBEG will rise to burn those beats to the ground in a thematically appropriate fade to black with 'dun dun duuuuun' playing in the background.

My chapters tend to run at about 3000-3500 words, and my epilogues (all two of them) clock in at about half that. Just enough to find out where the side-characters landed when the dust settled. I know that word count does not a chapter make, but it's a silent rule in the back of my head that pops up unbidden and helps me keep my over-all word count reasonable.

Man I have a hard time keeping my thoughts together. Where was I?

Right, so my current WIP has 29 chapters and an epilogue that I just decided to beef up to see what happened to my main side character. MC really fumbled the ball in chapter 28, spent chapter 29 beating herself up about it, and in the epilogue I wanted MSC to really drive home that MC needs help so such epic ball fumblage doesn't happen again. Aside from some other loose ends and a semi-climactic reveal at the very end, this has ended up being the star of the show for my epilogue, and has brought the word count up to just under 2500.

To me this says: Hey, we've got some genuine, primo-grade character development here. You don't put that in epilogues, that goes in chapters. Word count is an illusion anyway, make this Chapter 30, no epilogue, the end.

My question, if I still have anybody's attention at this point, is does my weird, self-imposed definition make this a chapter, or epilogue? What would you call an epilogue? Would you call this (admittedly poor description of a collection of scenes) an epilogue or chapter?

It's an odd thing to get stuck on, but I am, in fact, stuck on it. Please help.

Tulip Mama <3

Introversion · Sep 14, 2020

For me, I consider an epilogue to be a sort of authorial commentary / reader wish-fulfillment on the main plot. Remember the final scene in the Harry Potter films, where we see the characters a decade or more later, and how they’ve got on with their lives? We didn’t need that for the plot. It was a little gift from the author, a dessert after the main course, to satisfy our curiosity.

Or, an epilogue might set us up for the next book / film, to hint at why things aren’t as neatly wrapped / despairing as shown.

Is that how you think of what you’ve written?

CathleenT · Sep 14, 2020

I like Introversion's metaphor that an epilogue is a dessert, not a main course. So to answer the OP's question, if you've got real story happening, it's a final chapter, not an epilogue. Adding to the plot would make it an easy call. Character development...I'd have to read it. Sorry.

But the good news is that if you're going trade it won't matter because you'll have editors to weigh in on this. If you're self-pubbed, I have never read a review where someone trashed an SP author because they used an epilogue instead of a final chapter. In fact, I've never read an SP review where they mentioned an epilogue at all. And I haven't read all of them, obviously, but I have read quite a few. It's a decent sample size.

I think the most important thing is to end the story well. I don't think many people are going to be on your case as long as you do that. Picking on someone who wrote a good story for form seems to be the kind of nit-picky thing that happens to big authors like Rowling. Honestly, if all they can criticize you for is this, it's probably a good problem to have.

Maybe you've inadvertently discovered The Great Reviewing Secret. Perhaps reviewers who can't bear to gush save the whole last chapter/epilogue thing as their ace in the hole if they can't find anything else to complain about. : )

ETA: This is the sort of question that can best be answered by a skilled beta friend. This is why I prize those relationships sooo much, and why it's worth every bit of effort and the occasional uncomfortable moment to form them.

TulipMama · Sep 14, 2020

Introversion said:
For me, I consider an epilogue to be a sort of authorial commentary / reader wish-fulfillment on the main plot. Remember the final scene in the Harry Potter films, where we see the characters a decade or more later, and how they’ve got with their lives? We didn’t need that for the plot. It was a little gift from the author, a dessert after the main course, to satisfy our curiosity.

Or, an epilogue might set us up for the next book / film, to hint at why things aren’t as neatly wrapped / despairing as shown.

Is that how you think of what you’ve written?

The epilogue for my first book? Definitely. All the characters moving on with their lives in a short blurb after MC finished the plot.

This one, maybe? It's a urban fantasy detective/police procedural. The BBEG is caught in chapter 28, final interview and 'how he dun it' covered in chapter 29 along with a bunch of self angst for MC. What was written ala first draft was her settling up with the two surviving victims, then visiting her comatose mom and giving a hint that there're more books to come. Feels proper epilogue to me.

I just added a chunk where she visits her partner for the book who got his face stepped on because she flubbed the arrest in chapter 28. It led to some personal revelation about being an aggressively anti-social human shaped dumpster fire. I label that as character arc material, not tying up loose ends. Does that make it more chapter than epilogue? I think so? I still feel hesitant to change the title above it from 'Epilogue' to 'Chapter 30' and it's bugging me

CathleenT said:
I like Introversion's metaphor that an epilogue is a dessert, not a main course. So to answer the OP's question, if you've got real story happening, it's a final chapter, not an epilogue. Adding to the plot would make it an easy call. Character development...I'd have to read it. Sorry.

But the good news is that if you're going trade it won't matter because you'll have editors to weigh in on this. If you're self-pubbed, I have never read a review where someone trashed an SP author because they used an epilogue instead of a final chapter. In fact, I've never read an SP review where they mentioned an epilogue at all. And I haven't read all of them, obviously, but I have read quite a few. It's a decent sample size.

I think the most important thing is to end the story well. I don't think many people are going to be on your case as long as you do that. Picking on someone who wrote a good story for form seems to be the kind of nit-picky thing that happens to big authors like Rowling. Honestly, if all they can criticize you for is this, it's probably a good problem to have.

Maybe you've inadvertently discovered The Great Reviewing Secret. Perhaps reviewers who can't bear to gush save the whole last chapter/epilogue thing as their ace in the hole if they can't find anything else to complain about. : )

It does have plot elements, but mostly for future books. Even if this thing never get's published, I'm writing a whole series gosh darn it! Anyway, ya, character arc leads me away from dessert and back into the meat/potatoes area. I suppose that in that sense, I'm pretty definitively in a final chapter over an epilogue.

Is it weird that I find this a little disappointing? I agree that an epilogue is a treat, and I feel bad that I'm technically denying any readers who are tasteless enough to enjoy my novel the final morsel even if I am giving it to them under a different brand. Either way, I'll go into my editor and change that title!

indianroads · Sep 14, 2020

I view prologues / epilogues as the bookends of the story - usually if you have one, you include the other.

Ages ago I wrote a novel that started with a prologue of the MC as an old man sitting out on his back deck chatting with his grand daughter.
The novel was his reminisces of a tragedy in his life when he was her age.
The epilogue concluded the story by MC taking his grand daughter inside where her lunch was waiting.

Yeah - it's trite, but it was my first novel, so yeah... I could have written it better. But, it illustrates how I look at prologues & epilogues.

ChaseJxyz · Sep 14, 2020

I would see an epilogue either like a "Legally Blonde Ending" (we get to see what everyone got/did with their HEA, like HP or all the Stark kids going their own way at the end of GoT) or a "Marvel end credits scene" (oh no CLIFFHANGER! Or teaser for the next one). The epilogue would be fundamentally different in some way from your last chapter, such as from a different POV, in a different place entirely (like seeing Thanos being evil out in space while the whole movie took place on Earth), or in a different time (like several years into the future). If you have some sort of "frame story" then the epilogue would be wrapping that up. For The Handmaid's Tale there was only an "epilogue," which was a bunch of academics discussing the "historical text" of the story and how real it might be.

Z0Marley · Sep 16, 2020

Hi Tupip Mama, giving you some <3 right back!

TulipMama said:
To me this says: Hey, we've got some genuine, primo-grade character development here. You don't put that in epilogues, that goes in chapters. Word count is an illusion anyway, make this Chapter 30, no epilogue, the end.

My question, if I still have anybody's attention at this point, is does my weird, self-imposed definition make this a chapter, or epilogue? What would you call an epilogue? Would you call this (admittedly poor description of a collection of scenes) an epilogue or chapter?

Personally, I think the best way to determine this is to answer: How many days, months, years has passed from this point from the 'final act'? An epilogue usually shows you 4+months into the future. Anything character-development wise should either be its own chapter or included into the closing chapter somehow.

Elenitsa · Sep 22, 2020

I learnt to end with a final chapter. I do not call it epilogue, even if in many cases it has the value of an epilogue. It makes for a rounded story tied with a bow, and readers like this more than publishers, who do not like epilogues.

Roxxsmom · Sep 22, 2020

I always thought of epilogues as something that sometimes appeared at the very end of a stand alone novel or trilogy or series, where the action is complete, the plot is resolved, and we are being treated to a scene of the happily ever after or whatever. Romances do this a lot ( such as a cozy little domestic scene with the couple who gave up their family fortunes to be together now living well on the fruits of their own hard work), and sometimes you see it in fantasy novels, where the protagonists are living in the world they help create. They are not always required, but they can be satisfying to the reader if there is something left hanging at the end of the plot denouement, or if there's a natural desire to see the people you grew so attached to reaping their reward in some way.

I've never thought of them as "hooks" for a sequel, though I suppose they could be used that way. Generally the sequel hooks in fantasy and SF would be unresolved plot or side plot element--that unanswered question.

I don't think there's a set requirement for the time that needs to have elapsed since the last "scene" of the story. It could be days, months, or years, or even (possibly) immediately after. It simply shows something that happens "after" the main plot is resolved that gives the reader a sense of added satisfaction or closure. Occasionally, I've seen characters left for dead re-appear in epilogues. With epistolary or first-person novels, sometimes the epilogue is told in a different narrative viewpoint, such as a historical note about the larger context of the memoir or autobiographical tale. In the Handmaid's Tale novel they did something like this, as I recall.

Final Chapter or Epilogue?

TulipMama

Introversion

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

CathleenT

I write

TulipMama

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

ChaseJxyz

Writes 🏳️‍⚧️🌕🐺 and 🏳️‍⚧️🌕🐺 accessories

Z0Marley

Elenitsa

writing as Marina Costa

Roxxsmom

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