Tips For Book Endings

On By K.M. Allan

I recently read a book I was willing to say was the best book I’d read all year.

It had everything I enjoyed in a story: great dialogue, good characters, tension, mystery, and a plot that built. It was such a page-turner that I couldn’t put it down, racing through it in two days.

Then I got to the ending. I’m sure you’ve been there before, reading a book or watching a movie and suddenly all those little clues you were loving, the twists that were getting twistier by the page, and the buildup to the reveal just went… nowhere. Or worse, the book didn’t end properly, leaving you with more questions than answers (which was the case with my recent read).

There’s nothing more disappointing than reaching the final chapters of a book and having it finish terribly.

While opinions on what makes an ending good or bad differ (there’s plenty of people on Goodreads who loved the ending of the book I read, and others who felt the same as me), there’s also just as many ways to end a book.

While endings can be as predictable or as rule-breaking as you want, and I believe the author should always write the book ending they want, there are some tried-and-true tips you can follow to ensure you get the best from your book ending.

Tips For Book Endings

Show The Meaning

No matter what type of book it is and what happens, the end needs to show everything that happened in the book had meaning. Was the problem solved? Did the characters change? Was there justice, even if it wasn’t fair? Prove there was a meaning for the events in the story, no matter whether it’s good, bad, indifferent, happy, sad, resolved or open-ended. There needs to be a point to the events and what happened in the story, and your ending needs to show that.

Show The Ending

Some books end with an epilogue that lets you know what happened after the action is said and done. If it suits the story and you couldn’t show the loose ends tied up any other way, there’s nothing wrong with a good epilogue, but please move away from ending your book with two pages of “telling”.

You’ve given the reader the chance to live as the character throughout the whole book, don’t ditch that at the end by telling them what happened in the aftermath. Show it to your readers.

Shy Away From Anything New

Unless your book is part of a series and new info needs to be introduced at the end to drum up interest for the next book, shy away from anything new.

You can’t spend the final few chapters tying up all the plot strands only to kick off another one, or reveal something not known before (unless it’s a plot twist that makes sense).

By the time you’ve reached the end of a standalone story, your final chapter/s should be about bringing everything together and to a close, not to start anything new.

This goes for new characters, new plots, and new problems that kick the action off again instead of slowing it down to a natural conclusion.

Resolve Everything

While cliffhangers have their time and place in a story, and one in the final chapter of an ongoing saga is perfectly fine, if your book is ending—for the sake of readers everywhere—resolve your plot strands!

It doesn’t have to be a happy resolve; it doesn’t have to be an over-explained resolve, but things should be resolved on some level.

Whether it’s the one big mystery or every little problem since chapter one, give the readers either straight answers or enough hints they can work out what happened. Books without a clear resolution are some of the most frustrating—and the last thing you want to do as a writer is annoy your readers.

Drop The Dumb Luck

A coincidence can be used to great effect in a book to kick off the plot, but using a coincidence to end your book… not so much.

Unless you have set up dumb luck being the way your book ends really, really well from the get-go, do not go down that path.

Readers want to see your characters earn their ending. They want the murderer caught because the MC outsmarted them, not because they tripped running away and accidentally triggered an alarm.

Ditch The Way-Too-Happy Ending

As much as readers want to see every character survive, the bad guys get their comeuppance, and the good guys win, that’s not life, and that doesn’t make a good story.

Yes, things can go the MC’s way and they can end up better at the end than they were at the beginning of the story, but there’s always a cost for those things. The love they found but had to walk from, or the treasure rescued from the pirates at the expense of half the crew. Have a happy ending if it serves the story, but keep it realistic. Not everyone gets the girl, friendships don’t always last, and not every wish turns out perfect.

I hope these book endings have inspired you. What’s your favorite way to end a story? Share your tips in the comments.

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

46 thoughts on “Tips For Book Endings”

    2. I like contented disapointment in my novels. Not what the character wanted but something they can live with. I feel that is real life learning to live with the current situation and always moving forward.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Ruth Miranda

    My favourite are open endings that really drive the readers mad. Yes, I am that elusive author who thrives on annoying the reader. The end to my Blood Trilogy has had people wanting to throw the book across a room, but only one reader said it was a stupid ending because it had no ending – this person clearly knows nothing about open endings, I think. All others, no matter how frustrated they were by that ending, agreed that it made so much sense. I believe I’ve given off enough clues for the reader to figure out what really happened, but from the feedback I got, I failed. Anyway, it was the ending I’d settled for when I decided to turn what was to be a stand alone into a trilogy, I always put down the ending first thing. It may lose me readers, it may afford me one star reviews, but yes, I always go for the ending that makes sense to me, in the way it makes sense to me. And I hate happy endings in books eheehehhh

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  7. What an interesting post! The ending I like most is one that gives me a reason to re-think or re-consider some issue or notion. The ending can be “happy” (which I prefer) as long as the protagonist and her friends and loved ones are still alive and relatively happy, but they have “learned” something about themselves that makes them stronger and/or better people. Of course, the ending may not be as happy as one may want, but it leaves one with some bit of hope or that life isn’t totally meaningless.

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  8. Two movies and one book came to mind when I read this.

    When Harry met Sally had one of the best endings of any movie I saw. I liked it because it was honest. It felt real.

    The Sopranos finale was the worst. I thought it was a complete disrespect to the viewer.

    On the book end of things IT was pleasantly surprising. I say surprising because endings aren’t Kings strength.

    I always have the reader in mind when I think of the ending. I owe it to them. They chose my book to read and I feel it’s my job to give them the best ending I can. I avoid endings that disappoint me as a reader and try to create one that has closure.

    Fun topic. I’m jealous. Why didn’t I think of this? 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never seen When Harry Met Sally, which is odd for someone who watches as many movies as I do. It’s one of those movies that is so ingrained in pop culture I feel like I have seen it though.

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  9. Endings can make or break your experience of a novel or movie. Last night I watched Death of a Salesman and the ending not only gave definition to the whole story, it made me stop and think about what really matters in life.

    Thanks for a great checklist, you make some great points about crafting the perfect ending.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Another great post, Kate. I love a happy ending and occasionally one that lets the reader decided what happens. I don’t mind a cliffhanger provided it’s not at the expense of finishing off all the plot points; I hate books that do that.

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  18. I read this post last week as I agonised over writing the final chapter of a book I’ve been tinkering away at for seven years. It was perfect timing and exactly what I needed. My book is now finished – yay! – just in time for submission to a competition I wanted to enter it into. Thank you, K!

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