How to Finish the Story in a Way People Love!

Two rock outcroppings overlooking an orange grassy field with a river meandering through it. A red mountain range towers over the grassy field in the background. Above them is a blue sky with oval clouds. A world at peace is common when you finish the story. When ending the story, show why your characters fought against evil.
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Sunfire

CONTENTS

Introduction

The story in a novel needs to captivate you not just from the beginning but all the way to the very end. While the beginning is important in getting people to read your book, the end might be more essential than the start. Thus, it’s vital that you finish the story in a way that is true to the spirit of the book and to the satisfaction of your readers.

Why should you care about ending the story that does both? The obvious answer is is that it’s the payoff for all the time your audience spent with your characters as they struggled to overcome the obstacles laid in their path. They want the time they spent to be worth it and ending the story on a beautiful — or bittersweet note depending on your perspective — makes them content and more likely to want to re-read it or pick up another one of your books.

While it’s imperative that you finish the story the right way, the lead-up to it is equally important. The climax of the plot is generally thought to be the beginning of the end which signifies that the intensity will gradually taper off as you approach the last few pages. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t dissuade you from creating a meaningful foundation that does its job.

In regard to ending the story, you only have one chance to stick the landing. That means you want to execute it the right way. Things like the pace of the story, the atmosphere and so on are considerations you want to take into account as you finish the story.

While you want to get the execution right, don’t forget to finish the story on a high note. You want to show your readers that all the turmoil your characters suffered was worth it. Show them why they made the choices they did.

This is article number thirty-nine in the series about writing a fantasy book. We have plenty more articles for you to peruse at your leisure which you can check out on our blog page!

Laying the Groundwork to Finish the Story

Before ending the story, you want to start setting it up. This is an essential step, for how you set it up will dictate how you finish the story. You want to glide right into the ending in a way that feels natural to both your readers and your characters.

Laying the groundwork begins with the climax. It’s where all the major plot-lines converge into one moment that fundamentally changes everything which is usually accompanied by a high degree of intensity. The climax occurs towards the end, several chapters beforehand.

This fantasy ocean shows the rising sun against an orange sky. The sun is shining upon the ocean as seen with the orange spots on it. Several white clouds and birds are scattered throughout the sky. The dark blue marks on the ocean represent its shadows.

So how do you go about ending the story when you start with the climax? One thing to keep in mind is that afterwards, the intensity decreases the further you go from the climax as your characters deal with the fallout. You want to gradually deescalate things as they come to grips with whether they won or lost. Think of it like a slope where the climax is the highest point and the actual ending is the lowest.

This part of the book is also where lingering major plot-lines are resolved. Whatever plot-lines that weren’t resolved during the climax, it’s time to wrap them up so that your characters can enter the ending with everything all settled. Don’t forget to close them out in a way that is natural for the characters involved in them.

One thing you need to do in this area is think about where you want your characters to be when you finish the story. Use this time to move them towards where they’ll be in their final scene in the novel. Have them do what they need to do as they head towards their last appearance.

Finish the Story: Executing it the Right Way

Now that you’ve laid a solid foundation for ending the story, it’s time to focus on the actual execution. There’s a number of considerations you need to think about when writing the ending. They will help enhance the plot and make it easier for you to bring the story to a satisfying close.

The first thing to take into account when ending the story is its pace. Having the right pace can make the difference between a riveting ending and one that feels disjointed. In the ending, the pace is slow since the intensity from the climax is all but evaporated by then, giving you more time to write poignant farewells for your characters with little to no tension lurking behind them.

A sun rising above the sea seen in between large hills. The sea is fed by the river that runs from the bottom. The river separates the grassy plain of which many blades of grass are spread all over. Above the hills is the pink sky which has birds and white clouds. This is used for the Getting Started page.

Another cornerstone of a great ending is the atmosphere. Throughout the story, the ambience sets the mood and it still holds true for the ending. In the ending, the atmosphere should have a sense of finality that matches the heart of the characters as they look forward to the next phase of their lives.

Using the right setting can set the right mood for ending the story. This will be the last time your audience sees your characters — unless you intend to do a sequel — so having a setting that highlights how far they’ve come or what they fought for is a superb way to send them off. You can use settings like sailing the high seas with the sun setting or a castle balcony with the rising dawn to illustrate that your characters have either found peace or are chasing their dreams.

Don’t understate the importance of the mood of your characters as you finish the story. They’ve successfully accomplished what they had to do during the plot and the ending is where they begin to embark on the next stage of their lives. They should be happy and eager to look forward to a new chapter but at the same time, there’s a bittersweetness to it since they have to leave the people they’ve gotten to know throughout the story.

Finish the Story on a High Note

Many endings in the fantasy genre are either happy or tinged with bittersweetness. Regardless of how it ends, they have a common denominator: they end in a way that satisfies the plot. Leaving the story on a high note makes your audience feel like everything they read was worth it.

The last several scenes of the plot should depict everything your characters worked for. They could be to make the world a better place, a brighter future for their children, or something else. These scenes ought to show your readers why your characters fought with everything they had.

Fantasy cities are important in the genre. This image depicts a city with a castle on a hilltop above it. The city has both rectangular- and square-shaped buildings with a wavy roof on each one. The buildings come in four colors: light yellow, brown, light blue, and white. The roofs come in the following colors: dark blue, red, light black, and dark brown. Many of these buildings have windows and some have a visible door. The road itself runs down the middle of the image, swaying to the right and then the left, ending at the doorstep of the castle. The road also meets two others, one that runs to the left, and the other to the right. Behind the city is a grassy field with blades of grass scattered throughout. A river cuts through the field, meandering from the left edge to the right edge of the image. The castle itself is white with gray shadows. It has four red turrets and diamond-shaped windows. The sky above is a bright blue with two white clouds. Some birds are flying on the left side, above the castle, and the right side.

Give the characters a sense of finality as they close out a chapter in their lives. They suffered much as they experienced both triumphs and setbacks in the story and by the end, they were better than they were at the beginning which is one of several character arcs. The ending show reflect how much they’ve grown as they look back at the chapter they’re about to close before moving onto the next phase.

Another way to finish the story here is to indicate that the tension the characters and the world felt is gone now that the villain has been defeated. You can use bright, clear weather or show that the effects the villain had on the land like poison is gone, giving the world a new lease on life. The tension gave way to a sense of renewed hope.

Have the final few scenes — or the entirety of the last chapter if it’s set after the climax — feature the currents of change. In fantasy, the ending is also known as a time of monumental change as one era draws to a close while the dawn of a new one rises. “The Lord of the Rings” encapsulates this perfectly as the Third Age comes to an end shortly after Sauron’s defeat and Aragorn being crowned King of Gondor. The world begins to rebuild and look to the horizon with a changing of the guard as a new generation of leaders rise to take charge.

Tying it all Together

How you finish the story will affect how your readers feel about the overall plot. If you end it on a bad note, they’ll be disgruntled and less willing to want to re-read it again or pick up another one of your books. Ending it on a high note, they’ll love it and feel like it was a great story, one they’ll come back to sometime again!

Before you start working on ending the story, it’s crucial you devote time to setting it up. After doing the climax, you have to bring the intensity down as you move towards the final scenes. Wrap up all remaining unresolved plot-lines as you pivot towards the ending.

When working on the ending itself, you have only one chance to make it count. That means take as much time as you need to make an ending that satisfies both the plot and your readers. The execution matters just as much as the actual ending itself!

It’s essential that the ending is done in a way that does the story justice. You want to show the audience that it was all worth it to see the characters they’ve grown to love (or hate!) get the ending that they deserve. Leaving it on a high note gives them a sense of contentment as they get to see them begin a new chapter in their lives.

Will you finish the story in a way that is both poignant and moving while remaining true to the spirit of the plot?

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Thanks for reading this and until the next time,

Sunfire

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