The Last Chapter

[Clair Dickson]

I'm one of those flip-to the end readers. I admit it. Gleefully. (And since it drives Hubby nuts, I tease him about it... anyway)

Ironically, I've found that I prefer if the author doesn't reveal too much at the end. If the wrap-up doesn't answer (all) the questions of the novel in the last pages. Though, I do believe the journey is just as important as the destination.

But I also have trouble wrapping up the story without feeling like I'm just dragging on. Maybe it comes from writing too much flash fiction. ;-)

What do you put in the last chapter? Does it give away your story? Does it matter?

Any tips on writing good final chapters is useful too.

[Use Her Name]

It's really interesting how when you are looking at 100,000 words and you are at the beginning of the novel, you say, "I'll never get through this." Then, when you come to the end, you feel that you don't have enough pages to finish the thing. I have followed the idea that each "opened" thread needs to be closed in some way before the last chapter. You really need to consider carefully how you will shut some plot direction down before starting it. Every thing had to be completed before the last chapter. In the last chapter the winner guy kisses the girl (or whatever) and they walk into the distance, hand in hand. By then, all the fisticuffs, gnashing and wailing, and dythirambics should have had their day.

[Wolvel]

I guess it would depend on the story, but if you were to do that to my finished wip you would probably walk away confused.

[tehuti88]

Well, in truth I think the final chapter shouldn't HAVE to reveal too much information, as that should have been covered in the rest of the story, especially the climax, itself. I can see this technique working in perhaps a mystery novel where they finally clear everything up, but otherwise, I don't see much point in it. It would make it seem like the writer did a shoddy job with the rest of the story if they had to summarize it all in the end.

I use the final chapter to just tie up loose ends and slow the story to its finish. The bad guy has already been defeated or the crisis averted (or not?), and now the characters have to say their goodbyes or reveal where they're going next, if anywhere. In short, the last chapter just kind of seals things off so there's actually an ending and it doesn't just stop in the middle of everything. I hope I don't do some sort of info-dump in the last chapter, but I couldn't say for sure whether I do or not. (I do notice that the last chapters of my serials are generally longer than the typical chapters.)

Then again, since I write ongoing stories, the last chapter doesn't usually answer every loose end because that's for the next story to do. :D

I don't think my last chapters give away the story; they'll definitely reveal whether the good guys won or not, of course, but that's only because it's obvious based on which characters are interacting at the end. (I mean, seriously, if a novel's main idea focuses on whether the planet will be destroyed or not, and the main characters are in the last chapter, on Planet Earth, it's kind of obvious what happened.) They'll reveal some of which characters survived, maybe a few who didn't, and what they plan to do next, but all the big specifics of the conflicts and such that happened earlier in the story, those shouldn't come up unless they have a bearing on who's present and what they're saying or planning. I usually won't have in a final chapter, for example, something like the protagonist saying, "Wow! We just defeated the bad guy by doing such-and-such and whatever! Hooray!"

But again, I can't know for sure what others might take away from my last chapters; maybe they're too revealing to them. *shrug*

[maestrowork]

The ending is just the ending. It's a resolution and conclusion. Obviously it may reveal certain elements (e.g. if the protagonist dies or if the world is saved). But it depends on the story. I think if it's a "journey" type of story (and the ending is just a "wrap-up") then it doesn't matter that much.

[CaroGirl]

My last chapter is just that: the end. Mine is more of a character-driven, journey story and there's some wrap-up but mostly it's the character returning to her own beginning and coming to terms with the changes. I also have a present-day epilogue.

What would you, as a flip-to-the-end reader (which I hate, btw), read, the final chapter or the epilogue or both?

[Cinzia8]

I agree with the Maestro. The end is the resolution and the conclusion. The reader is given the "pay off".

Does the hero live or change and realize that he is reborn or new? Does he resolve to move forward or just move on? Does he get the girl and the ranch or maybe through his death is liberated? These are questions that I think readers want explained in the end. Of course, one's genre might shape or color the outcome, but there still needs to be an ending that brings things full circle or catapults us toward the sequel, IMHO.

Cinzia

[Clair Dickson]

What would you, as a flip-to-the-end reader (which I hate, btw), read, the final chapter or the epilogue or both?


I'd read the last chapter. I actually start with the last page. If that reveals nothing useful, I'll read a page or two more. I don't read more than a chatper at the end. That seems wrong. =D

I think my biggest issue in writing my own last chapter is that I had mushy stuff. And anything I write that is even slightly soft always seems stilted. The tearful goodbyes, the 'we'll always have Paris' and all that just seem so wrong when it comes from my own fingers. :Hammer:

It's kind of when the main conflict is resolved but you can't just leave the characters standing there all blood covered next to the body of the bad guy. Something HAS to come next... but I always have trouble with the next part. Something short, sweet (or maybe bittersweet since I write noir) and provides a nice place to stop the story. Until the next book. :e2writer:

[maestrowork]

I kind of don't understand why anyone would want to read the ending first. It's like eating dessert before anything else. I can understand a certain suspense (oh, that's how it ends, but how did it get there? I want to know). Still, it depends. If it's a mystery, I would hate to find out whodunit first. If it's a love story, I'd hate to see the hero or heroine die and how they die before the rest of the story. My mom is a notorious flip-to-the-end reader. I asked her why and she said, "I'm too impatient to find out what happens at the end."

[CaroGirl]

I have a friend who does this and it boggles my mind. She not a "reader" so she just reads the end of some books. She did it with the last Harry Potter book and it drove me bonkers. She kept asking ME what happened through the book to get them to that point. Who specifically died and so on. She eventually read the thing, but sheesh.

I'd way rather have dessert before my meal than read the last chapter of a novel before I read the novel. Especially if the dessert involves chocolate.

[MrWrite]

I have a friend who does this and it boggles my mind. She not a "reader" so she just reads the end of some books. She did it with the last Harry Potter book and it drove me bonkers. She kept asking ME what happened through the book to get them to that point. Who specifically died and so on. She eventually read the thing, but sheesh.

I'd way rather have dessert before my meal than read the last chapter of a novel before I read the novel. Especially if the dessert involves chocolate.


Yeah if you eat your meal first you might not have room for dessert! :roll:

[Quossum]

I'm a "ten years later" epilogue sort of person myself. I like showing that my HEA's actually were happy, just that extra reassurance. I always hated movies that had little, "what happened to them after this movie was over" bits, and of course one of them would be, "So-and-so died in a car accident two months after getting home from the war." Arrggghhh! Okay, true life and all, but in my fictional world, I don't want that hanging over my head. Yes, yes, I know they're not real people, but still...

That is, *if* I'm writing "that kind" of novel. Some stories just need the wrap-up of the plot being done, the major problem solved, though I do like some sense of how the characters are going to move on after this.

My mom is another flip-to-the-end-er. It gives me the willies, but I will confess to every once in a while flipping ahead a chapter or two just to reassure myself that So-and-so is still *alive,* at least.

--Q

[maestrowork]

I'd way rather have dessert before my meal than read the last chapter of a novel before I read the novel. Especially if the dessert involves chocolate.

Especially for some books. It's not just about the plot (who died, what happened) but the emotional pay-off would be lost if you read the ending first without knowing the characters first and the rest of the story.

I have a cruder analogy but... ;)

[Clair Dickson]

My mom is a notorious flip-to-the-end reader. I asked her why and she said, "I'm too impatient to find out what happens at the end."

:ROFL:
That's my problem, too! When the suspense gets built up, I get impatient.

My other problem is if the book gets boring, I skip ahead to see if there's any glimmer of redemption.

I'll also admit that I've gone on Wikipedia to look up the ends of movies, too. =)

The journey is as important as the destination. Sometimes, I think it's more fun to see how the characters get there. (Remember the Columbo movies, where you KNOW who the killer is because Columbo won't leave them alone. But it's fun to see how Columbo goes about it. At least for me. I'm quirky.)

[jennifer75]

Especially for some books. It's not just about the plot (who died, what happened) but the emotional pay-off would be lost if you read the ending first without knowing the characters first and the rest of the story.

I have a cruder analogy but... ;)

Hey Maestro, smashin pic!!! Totally hotttttttdoggggggin it!!!!!

[Takvah]

When I was a kid I would skip to the end. When the books were good, it was a real letdown to know what was going to happen and it would kill the story for me. There was no payoff because I'd already read it. The emotional investment was ruined. When I write a final chapter I want to leave just enough loose ends to keep the reader thinking, I don't think everything should be explained. There is nothing better from my perspective than getting to the end and wishing there was more. If things are not cut and dry, that allows my imagination to contemplate what happened beyond the last page and I get even MORE enjoyment from the piece.

I could not imagine skipping to the end of a book now. As for wondering if the work redeems itself in the end, if the first 50 pages stink, I'm going to guess that the last 50 pages also stink. I have a shelf full of books that have gone to the land of "neverread" because the first 50 pages sucked. If I didn't care about the people and the situation within the first few chapters, I could care less what happened to them in the last. I don't know, there is something rude about rushing to the end... it isn't how the story was meant to be told and a trust has been betrayed. Color me nuts, but it's how I feel.

As for the last chapter, as I said... LEAVE EM WANTING MORE! :D

[Danger Jane]

I kind of don't understand why anyone would want to read the ending first. It's like eating dessert before anything else. I can understand a certain suspense (oh, that's how it ends, but how did it get there? I want to know). Still, it depends. If it's a mystery, I would hate to find out whodunit first. If it's a love story, I'd hate to see the hero or heroine die and how they die before the rest of the story. My mom is a notorious flip-to-the-end reader. I asked her why and she said, "I'm too impatient to find out what happens at the end."

I think it has to do with why you're reading in the first place. When I was younger, all I wanted was an exciting story with some robots or maybe some animals or at the very least some mystery, and I almost always read the last page or paragraph--even when I knew there was a 70% likelihood that the solution to the mystery, whatever, would be there.

I guess now I don't read for the excitement so much, because frankly I'm pretty apathetic toward spoilers. Even when someone ruins a movie for me that's purely plot-driven excitement, I'll enjoy it just as much as I would have without knowing what happens. There's still plenty to take in. If it's a good exciting movie, I might watch it nine more times. That same week.

I wonder what the correlation between reading the ending first and tending not to read books over again?

[Angelinity]

i skip to the end only if the writing really grates me yet i'm interested enough in the MC.

but when it's a good book, i savour every line and every page -- skipping to the end would be sacrilege.

as for endings, i like to leave the reader squirming a little -- the resolution should be partial, the reader should flip to the back cover and ask out loud "...and, then?" i'm a tad sadistic that way.

[dwellerofthedeep]

I don't like to skip to the end, though I tend to check how many pages the book has when I start.

[jennifer75]

I like to hop to the end to see the page count - and it takes all I have NOT to look at that last sentence.

[kuwisdelu]

I actually stay away from the whole rising action, climax, denouement treatment of fiction.

I prefer to treat a novel like a magic trick.

There's the pledge. Introduce the characters. Show some tension, the beginnings of conflict. It doesn't look like there's anything too strange happening, like these characters are anything special. Of course it's probably nothing like that. All hell is about to break loose.

Then comes the turn, in which these ordinary characters, this ordinary conflict, become something extraordinary. The tension explodes into a runaway train. But it seems like there's something more. Something you're not being told. Some secret the character's are keeping from you. You're looking for what this might be, but it won't occur to you, until...

The prestige. This is the hardest part. Everything clicks together. The last puzzle pieces fall into place like a beautiful collage of flawless imagery and perfect plot. This is the only way it could have possibly ended, everything has led you here, but it still takes your breath away, because you can't believe it. You just go "wow."

And a good magician of words knows not to linger too long. Not to overstay his welcome lest his secrets be revealed. Lest the illusion be lost, and every perfect plot point come crashing down. Not everything needs to be revealed. You make a graceful exit, stage left, in an eruption of smoke.

And the audience and the reader will wonder if you were ever really there, if your story existed in some interstice of time-space, or it was all just some amazing dream.

[maestrowork]

Interesting. I use the pledge/turn/prestige for short fiction. For longer works, I think it goes up and down and twists and turns. Like valleys and peaks. Smaller resolutions, then more conflicts and then repeat, building up to a climax.

Your idea seems more like the 3 Act structure.

[t0neg0d]

I enjoy stories for the story... the journey. I hate the end of books, because the story is over and I can no longer revisit the place I have come to love (even reading a book over again at a later date does not give you the same initial thrill that your first time through does).

I, for one, enjoy cliff-hangers. I love books that make me want more and then, promise to deliver. A book with a solid conclusion at the end states, in no uncertain terms, that you are done, there is no more, buh bye, see ya, thanks for playing, etc, etc. This, to me, is more disappointing than the other.

Sooooooooo, in conclusion. Draw out your ending as long as you see fit. If the reader is enjoying your book, the longer the better. ;)

[jillbrenna]

Here's a book I read for which I actually cried when I got to the end, since it's so beautifully written and I didn't want it to be over... it has an amazing ending too...
Peace Like a River.
The quality of the writing, the characters in the story you just come to love, and the emotional ending - all of it combined to make me really sad it was over. I felt like I was going to miss the characters (!) and I definitely miss reading a really fine quality of writing with each modern work I pick up, and this one truly had it.

[TPCSWR]

One time as a kid I flicked to the last page of the last book in a series, read it and told a few people. Then I finished the book and realised that what I'd read was a preview for the next series by that author. It kept the real ending secret from me though.

[Makai_Lightning]

I've flipped to the end before, if the author so tempts me. Sometimes things just drag so long I want reassurance it picks up again. Usually I pick an arbitrary page and read to see if something interests me instead of going straight to the end though. I hate feeling spoiled.

As to what to do with the ending... Well, I agonize over mine, re-writing and deleting them constantly. My goal is usually to make sure I solved the biggest problems and provided some answer to the theme. More than anything else I want the ending to satisfy the character. I usually try not to explain too much, but I'll try to make the character feel like they came to an endpoint and something's resolved within themselves. Going over every detail in the book would be tedious. I hate writing endings though, I never feel like I know what I'm doing. I love them, because they excite me, and I like watching the threads come together, but pulling them together in a way that's not to contrived or flimsy is work.

My endings (when I do enough to really get to them) would probably give some things away, though I like some ambiguity. I try to make it so there's more than one way my MC can arrive at their destined ending, but there are some things that, if you knew them before you got there, would wipe away some of the tension and anxiety, which I would of course prefer remain.

It's like, if I know the character I'm reading about and invested in dies before I get to the end, I'll be reading the rest distracted by that knowlege, and annoyed at every corner, just waiting for the moment I want to slap the author for killing my beloved character. If I know they don't die, then it still sort of ruins it a bit, because I won't feel like there's really anything to worry about, so while the character's off scurrying around in the dungen trying not to get murdered or die of some disease, I won't be worried at all or feel like I need to care--I might start skimming, because I already know they get out. Depending on how much you (I?) know, you (I?) can sometimes figure out how the scene's going to play out. That sort of spoils the fun.