Concluding your book well is a challenge. It’s one thing to start off with gusto, another thing to make it through a potentially drooping middle, and still another to finish with flair.
Missing the Mark
One example of a book that had stepped lively and well until the end is Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River. The end of the book really comes when the father dies. Written powerfully, this scene leaves the reader stunned by the rapturous conclusion of the father’s life, as he’s swept into a figuratively peaceful river. But the author has left many important story strings still dangling. So he must tie them up. (The ending would have been downright bad, if he hadn’t completed the tying.)
At this point, the novel drifts off rather than ending solidly. It’s as if Enger realized either: 1) his deadline was upon him, and he had better just rush through and tie up the loose ends; 2) he already had exceeded his word count and needed to just end the thing; 3) he was impatient for the creative process to be over so he ran pell-mell to the last sentence.
Why do I say the ending was unsatisfactory? Because it’s a summary. We’re told what happens rather than being shown. It’s almost a synopsis of the conclusion rather than the real deal.
Another Book That Didn’t Conclude Well
The Help also has a rushed feel to the ending. Skeeter’s mother miraculously recovers from her cancer so Skeeter can move to New York, and Celia Foote, a character the reader has come to care about, is dropped about 3/4 of the way through the novel with no resolution to her concerns. Most of the story’s threads are sewn into the conclusion and lead to a satisfying ending. It was so close to being perfection, but didn’t quite make the mark.
Concluding Well
In nonfiction, leaving the reader with a sense of satisfaction is also important. Here’s the effective conclusion to Jon Meacham’s American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House: “The eyes of Jackson’s statue look south, across the Potomac River and toward the pockets of rebellion he put down–keeping watch, never blinking, never tiring. ‘He still lives in the bright pages of history,’ Stephen Douglas said in dedicating the statute. He still lives–and we live in the country he made, children of a distant and commanding father, a faher long dead yet ever with us.” Sounds solid, doesn’t it? Nicely wrapped up, bringing the book full circle and reminding the reader of Meacham’s perspective on why Jackson was so important to our country.
What books satisfied your reading sensibilities, and which ones left you wishing it had ended better? Can you analyze why a book failed at concluding well?
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I love the ending of Bethany Turner’s Plot Twist! So satisfying. But I don’t want to ruin it for the rest of who who haven’t read it yet, ha! Also, Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke (not a Christian title, but clean) has a very satisfying ending … although it is admittedly goofy. The heroine is supposed to fit into a special dress and is striving for the whole book to get into shape to do so. She is dragged to the gym by her sister early in the morning and it is all very terrible, especially when they find a dead body in the jacuzzi. Well, not only does she solve the crime, but the villain locks her into the sauna, almost killing her. But when she is rescued, she has lost 2 dress sizes and is able to wear that dress! Although, now that I think about it, the dress might have been a bit loose at this point, ha! Anyway, concluding that that goofy bit about the dress was so satisfying because we watched her strive to achieve her goal and even as the villain tried to do her in, their evil was turned to good-ish as she achieved fitting into that gown, ha!
One thing that works for me when I’m trying to craft a satisfying ending is writing the final scene well before I’ve written the entire novel. I know early in the writing process where I want the story to end. Writing that final scene, striving for emotional impact and resonance with the title, even including a play on the title in the last paragraph, helps me stay on track with the plot and character arcs while I’m writing.
Janet, yes … a rushed ending ruins a story for me. I find myself even reading fast because there are no words to savor and I just want to be finished. And I’m a slow reader. The wrap up of Peace Like a River sounds more like an epilogue. The ending of Redeeming Love held me in savoring tears. And the ending to Laura Frantz’s Love’s Reckoning slowly pieced my heart back together again. It’ll always be a favorite.
Pub-night’s coming to an end,
barman’s rung the warning bell;
could you a mate a fiver lend
so I might finish well?
Father Phil’s beneath the table;
he cannot sit nor stand,
but Sister Shirley sure was able
to out-drink any man.
The scrum was lovely while it lasted,
till Constable came by;
sorry your wrist must be casted
from blackening my eye.
And out the door, now learn my fate,
the fire, or the Pearly Gates?
Oh, my! Ha!
Kristen, God’s gonna have to lock up the breakables…
And Sister Shirley is a real person, and the description is absolutely accurate.
Very interesting. I guess that is why I am reserved about having a publisher. Time is never on my side.
Janet. You make a good point. We should write as we live. Don’t we all who started well
Want to end as well too. I don’t know how many biographies I’ve read that don’t end well. Not because of the author but of the way that life led. This is my goal. Let the end of the book sing it is well with my soul.