To Epilogue or Not, That is the Question

I don't think anyone can answer this but yourself.

jmichaelfavreau said:

By the end of book 2, the arc of the story will be complete and will have come to a natural conclusion. That being said, should I include a "Harry Potter" style epilogue where I show my surviving characters years or decades down the line? It would give me an opportunity to explore how the world has come along in the elapsed time while also providing even more closure.

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It wouldn't add to the story per se, the story arc has been completed but it would provide that insight for the reader.

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If it really does feel like a natural conclusion, then I think that's where you should stop. Doing something for the sake of "even more closure" (closure is closure, you can't have more of it) is probably why readers can come to see many epilogues as being unnecessary. Readers don't need insight into something that's finally been drawn to a close.

jmichaelfavreau said:

Aww, come on! In regard to my story sure, I will make the final call. But in general, how do people feel about epilogues? I know with some plot devices, people are immediately turned off and some people just skip pro and epilogues altogether.

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Doesn't matter how they feel. Just don't give them a reason to feel that way. What do you intend to accomplish with it? If it's just trying to drag out those last few seconds of a completed story, consider leaving it out.

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I always read them. That said, it depends on the genre and the tone. If you've got several subplots and some need closure, then an epilogue is helpful. If you (like me) tend to need to add words rather than subtract them during edits, then an epilogue is helpful. But literary works often need to remain ambiguous, so if that's your genre, you need to think how important it is to you to do it.

But basically, if you have to ask the question and you've got closure on all important points, then skip it.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

jmichaelfavreau said:

Aww, come on! In regard to my story sure, I will make the final call. But in general, how do people feel about epilogues? I know with some plot devices, people are immediately turned off and some people just skip pro and epilogues altogether.

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Who cares how anyone feels about it? If they skip[ it, they skip it. No harm done. I think skipping either is truly stupid, but they're the readers, so don't let it bother you. It will help those who read it, and those who don't won't know what they missed, so, again, no harm done.

I love epilogues. I like knowing that just when I thought the book was over, nope, there's more!

Having said that, it sounds like you don't need one.

I think they work well in certain stories (or perhaps better in some genres even) where you have more than one big arc to a story

Frex, you've written an action romance, the action comes to a big conclusion, the H&H have decided they actually kinda do like each other after all...but the closure to the action is not always closure to the romance arc, so you might show them six months down the line, happily slaying zombies (or whatever) and happily together as well, therefore closing off both arcs.

Those who skip prologues and epilogues are in the minority. You can either write the story as you want to write it, or let a very vocal teeny tiny minority reign over your creative process.

I think most people would say to ignore the outliers. It's one of those "you can't please everyone" situations. Or in this case, you can't please those 2 out of 10,000. So, yeah. Math is on your side.

I'm one of those readers who hate epilogues. I don't skip them, but I don't ever remember reading an epilogue that gave me more than my own imagination after the final chapter ended. I don't want to be told what happens in the future. That's the part I want to imagine as a reader. Still, if the story feels like it needs an epilogue, add one. It's your story.

I think epilogues are a take it or leave it kind of thing. I am certainly not sensing the same growls of hatred that some folks have for prologues.

One the one hand, some readers like closure. They want to know what happens to the characters next. Do they live happily ever after or does the marriage break down sooner than the warranty on the wedding gifts?

But on the other hand some readers like to do this sort of thinking for themselves. They don't want to know what the author thinks the characters are going to do next. They want to imagine that bit for themselves. And a reader's imagination will usually be much more vivid than anything we can do in text.

Some stories seem to need an epilogue more than others. I have seen them work well in Lord of the Rings style fantasies. I suppose if we were writing a story about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae we might want an epilogue to show how their actions helped the Greeks to defeat the Persians in later conflicts.

But unless there is a specific reason for an epilogue it may be best to leave it the reader's imagination. Let them have some fun playing with the world we have created.

Include the darn thing. If I read your book, I'll read everything you write. I'll even skim over a glossary, look over your family trees, and refer to any maps or pertinent diagrams you include in the book. I love this stuff.

I don't have an issue with epilogues, but I do with "bloat"

given you yourself say it is unneeded, I might well view that one as author indulgence, which might color my opinion of that writer.

I can't say that with certainty, not seeing the work, but again, when you said it wasn't needed in your first post, that was the biggest thing that struck me from the post: your own admission

One thing to consider -- Are you sure that you will never want to use these particular characters again?

An epilogue pretty much closes these characters off from participating in any of your future stories (unless the new story occurs AFTER the epilogue).

If you were to re-introduce these characters at some point, everything they do or say would have to logically lead to the events of the previously written epilogue.

(That made total sense in my head, but reads like poo on the screen. )

paddismac said:

One thing to consider -- Are you sure that you will never want to use these particular characters again?

An epilogue pretty much closes these characters off from participating in any of your future stories (unless the new story occurs AFTER the epilogue).

If you were to re-introduce these characters at some point, everything they do or say would have to logically lead to the events of the previously written epilogue.

(That made total sense in my head, but reads like poo on the screen. )

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Makes sense to me; don't go on to contradict yourself.
I've been toying a little with the possibility of using a scene from a potential sequel as an epilogue. It makes sense to me, despite the fact that it runs the risk of the scene changing when the sequel is actually written.

It really depends on if your ending is satisfying enough, or has a loose end that you want to tie off. Sometimes epilogue's are useful for delivering that final knot (or unraveling it...) to give you the effect you want.

So, I'd write it, and get beta' reader's opinions. This is not something that there will be a general hard-and-fast rule for, and it will depend on taste. But (as always), it's really about the impact and message.

I've given myself some strict rules for when it's okay to write a prologue or an epilogue. One of them for the epilogue is that I don't write one unless I have something new to say.

If the epilogue is going to show something that could naturally be derived from the official end of the story, then I find the epilogue to be indulgent, just an excuse to spend more time with the characters. I only use an epilogue if I really need the readers to know that something totally different happened, if "not knowing" what happens would make them feel cheated (like, I never showed who the heroine picked in a love triangle), or if I need to show the effect of the story on the MC's life way in the future.

An epilogue doesn't close off those characters. There are epilogues all over the place in books that are part of a series. And those characters are used again. The epilogue can be the final nail in a story. Or it can be the nail in that particular story arc (and open the door to another story).

jmichaelfavreau said:

That being said, should I include a "Harry Potter" style epilogue where I show my surviving characters years or decades down the line?

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See, I really didn't like the Harry Potter epilogue. It felt like author fan-fiction, or as somebody up-thread said, just an excuse to spend more time with the characters.

But I don't think an epilogue is a make-or-break thing like a prologue. Once I've read an entire book, I'll read the epilogue every time, whereas a book with a prologue may get a pass from me. Include it if you want, but I agree with heza that an epilogue should strictly be used to tie up still-loose ends or introduce new information that the reader would want to know. The Harry Potter epilogue didn't do either of these things for me. I was already reasonably sure that they would grow up to productive, happy members of wizarding society, and I would have even bet money that at least a few of the teen couples would end up together with kids. I had no real desire to know what said kids names would be. It all felt very phony and self-indulgent to me.

I say do it. It couldn't!

If a specific story arc is done in the series it can be a good transition to set things up for the next portion. Plus, who doesn't like finding out that there is a little more to read when they get to the end of a fantastic book?

StephanieZie said:

See, I really didn't like the Harry Potter epilogue. It felt like author fan-fiction, or as somebody up-thread said, just an excuse to spend more time with the characters.

But I don't think an epilogue is a make-or-break thing like a prologue. Once I've read an entire book, I'll read the epilogue every time, whereas a book with a prologue may get a pass from me. Include it if you want, but I agree with heza that an epilogue should strictly be used to tie up still-loose ends or introduce new information that the reader would want to know. The Harry Potter epilogue didn't do either of these things for me. I was already reasonably sure that they would grow up to productive, happy members of wizarding society, and I would have even bet money that at least a few of the teen couples would end up together with kids. I had no real desire to know what said kids names would be. It all felt very phony and self-indulgent to me.

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I suspect that the Harry Potter epilogue was, at least partly, an effort to, if not quash, then control fan fiction. The epilogue was what JKR envisioned for her characters. By enshrining that in a published epilogue, it becomes canon, and even if someone writes fan-fic about Harry and the gang's future, it's limited: it either has to fit into the canon future, or is obviously non-canon and won't gain traction as an 'unofficial but accepted' future.

And, epilogues can be cool. I read a lot of mysteries. I've seen them used, after the mystery is solved, to explain what happened to the other suspects, etc. Things the reader may not need to know to solve the central problem, but if the story has explored these people and their motivations, it can be interesting. Did the missing heir ever turn up? Did the star-crossed lovers ever marry? Did the grasping property developer buy the estate?

StephanieZie said:

... I don't think an epilogue is a make-or-break thing like a prologue...

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Neither prologues nor epilogues are bad. Only BADLY DONE ones are.

They're just another tool in our literary toolbox. They can be used creatively or not. Written skillfully, poorly, or in-between. Automatically rejecting them is denying ourselves a possibly useful tool.

StephanieZie said:

See, I really didn't like the Harry Potter epilogue. It felt like author fan-fiction, or as somebody up-thread said, just an excuse to spend more time with the characters.

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frimble3 said:

I suspect that the Harry Potter epilogue was, at least partly, an effort to, if not quash, then control fan fiction. The epilogue was what JKR envisioned for her characters. By enshrining that in a published epilogue, it becomes canon, and even if someone writes fan-fic about Harry and the gang's future, it's limited: it either has to fit into the canon future, or is obviously non-canon and won't gain traction as an 'unofficial but accepted' future.

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I also disliked they HP epilogue but I wondered if it came back to what was always said about how she'd envisioned the book ending all along. It felt like a little bit of a reprise of Book 1, in both the good (much happier story) and the bad (not as amazing writing).

To the OP: do whatever works. But what works can be a lot more than what people "like". It doesn't sound like you need more closure but maybe the epilogue adds a certain moral point, a bit like a fable? It's a tool, it can have effects. Judge the effects not the tool.

Case study time: The Lions of Al-Rassan has a really interesting epilogue. I won't explain it because massive spoilers but it really does feel like a second ending, almost a Dickensian one. I hated it (love the book, though), but I see why it was there. It provided closure but I also disagree that closure was necessary given the underlying comparative structure that story had.

Choose what's necessary based on what your book is really about and really needs.

I nearly always use an epilogue. My primary logic behind this is the belief that most stories are never truly finished. There's always another page in the epic, even as the story being told may change focus.

I tend to think of epilogues as the teasers at the end of most Marvel movies. What's going on may have nothing directly to do with what just happened or the conclusion that just took place... but in the bigger picture it matters and it keeps the reader's thoughts churning to pick up the next book without the cruel and unusual punishment of a cliffhanger ending. (They have their place, but Grrr...)

It's like the last scene of a running TV series or the last page of a comic book: The heroes have won the day, the latest cosmic-powered villain is defeated... but who is this ominous figure in the shadows watching every move unseen. The good guys won, but still he seems...pleased...and for some reason that is not a good thing for our heroes.

That's an epilogue to me.