We’ve made it! This is the final installation of our Write a Better Section of Your Novel series. In case you missed it, we’ve also got coverage on tips for writing a better exposition, rising action, and climax as well.
After the challenges of pushing your reader over that mid-way hump with your rising action and finding a way to deliver a surprising yet inevitable climax, it probably feels like small potatoes to take on your exposition. And in some ways, you’re right! Your reader has already digested the most complex portions of your novel, and they’re likely going to finish it if they’ve made it this far.
The importance of a novel’s resolution is how your readers feel once they walk away. Are they going to recommend your book to their family and friends, will they be watching for what you write next, or will it disappear on a shelf long forgotten? Now is when you leave a lasting impression that helps build your author career long term.
Use Lessons Learned in the Climax
You’ve taken the time to write a fantastic climax full of change and surprise, and it was really hard. You deserve to spend some time basking in the glow of your awesome climax. Your characters have been struggling against more than one obstacle throughout their journey, and it’s likely that they still have something that hasn’t resolved fully.
During the falling action before your final scene is a great time to show how the lessons your character learned during the climax, in a moment of abnormality and great strife, can be used in smaller conflicts as well. Did they develop a new skill or learn more about themselves? Both of these shouldn’t be used in the same way they were in the climax, but one can inform the other and help show readers how they will continue to use these lessons in the future.
Strike an Emotional Chord with Readers
Your story has taken readers on a wild ride of emotions through your whole novel. Failures, triumphs, mysteries, hopes, and despair have built a story worth reading. But now it is time to leave your readers with their final experience. This emotional set up is what should carry your readers back into the world and onward while still respecting the journey they have been on with your characters. Give room for mourning and anger as necessary, and help them see what comes next. When done carefully, this final connection is what can really drive readers to write great reviews.
Show a Concrete Example of Change
In order to finish a character arc, you must show something that has fundamentally changed about your character from the beginning of the novel. This is what satisfies readers in a book’s ending.
One great way of going about this is by giving readers a mirror of your first scene when your characters were being introduced initially. Not everything will be the same anymore. If, for example, you’re starting your book with the first day of the school year, what would be different about your characters on the last day of the school year? It’s a great way of driving home what their adventure meant to them.
Give a Sense of Continuation
Characters technically live inside of a bubble, but because they are people who live alongside their readers, we want to believe their stories go on as do their worlds. This is of the upmost importance if you have any wishes to write a sequel, but readers want the sense of a future for their beloved friends in every book they grow attached to. So, hint at what your characters are seeing comes next for them, or write an epilogue with their futures more clear for well-loved stories that need it.
Giving readers a satisfying ending to your novel is the best investment you can make in your future as a career author. This portion of the book sells the next one, and building your audience is the number one way to make supporting yourself off your writing possible. And if you’re having a difficult time finding a resolution that satisfies, a book coach or developmental editor can be a great tool to help sure up the final considerations for your novel.
Either way, you deserve a celebration that you’ve written your full draft. Congratulations!
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