on Fiction University:

Your ending is the whole point of your book.

This is the last post in my mini-series on common problems in beginnings, middles, and endings. Today, we’ll take a look at common problems with endings.When a reader picks up your novel, they do so because something about the blurb made them think “This sounds like a great book.” It might be the premise, the voice, the setting, or even a character, but something intrigued them enough to give it a try. How you end the novel and resolve the story will determine whether or not that reader raves about the novel the next day, or forgets about it before the week is over.

Oh yeah, endings have that kind of power.

Because the ending is the moment readers have been waiting for the entire book (no pressure). It resolves the core conflict of the novel and puts the protagonist up against the antagonist, which is why the most common problem with endings is that they don’t live up to that promise.

The only thing tougher than an ending is the middle. Except for the beginning.

If an ending isn’t working, it’s often because we’ve forgotten what the point of the novel was. We end the story, but it’s not the ending we promised, or it doesn’t resolve the things we set out to resolve.

Let’s look at five common problems with endings: