Whatever direction your dramatic storytelling takes and whichever experiences you invest time in exploring, at the end of the day the audiences must appreciate reading your work and consider the time taken well spent. One crucial aspect is crafting a finale and concluding arc that measures up to the potential of the piece and remains memorable long after. The ending may eventually become what audiences remember most about your book.
Whether the protagonist succeeds in their endeavour and overcomes the adversity they were dealing with, or the detective figures out the mystery and solves the murder, or a relationship between two people rekindles and reaches another level, the audiences appreciate the resolution to the dilemma that was established. If this trajectory is handled well the experience will be satisfying for the audiences. When creating your narrative and characters you should engage the readers so that they embrace the journey and personally resonate with the ultimate conclusion.
A Satisfying Ending
A well crafted ending requires certain rules to be followed. The central narrative arcs and story themes should be resolved, and these elements need to be well balanced without unnecessary exposition. Don’t forget to resolve where you left a crucial piece of evidence during the murder investigation, even in the context of a mguffin, when you did not want it to fall into the wrong hands. The protagonist and other characters must be developed enough so that audiences will believe their character journey, this will result in the readers engaging with the emotional beats of the story and feeling a connection with where they end up at the conclusion.
Your mysteries must not have been so simple they could be solved too early. Your leads must face conflict and emerge victorious, even if they’re beat up by the time they reach the end. Even if your story doesn’t include a happily-ever-after, is the end still inevitable? Did you plan each step so the reader feels that sense of certainty when he reads the final pages?
Novels or stories do not necessarily need a happy ending. But they do owe their readers satisfaction, a completion of the contract entered into when the reader laid out money and/or time to live in the writer’s world for a couple of hours. It is justice, of a kind. Fair dealing between writer and reader. And if it’s done well, this completion of the author/reader contract, the writer has reason to hope the reader will both recommend the novel and look for more from the same author.
Authors owe their readers a good read. A satisfying ending is one way to ensure that good read. A reader will forgive, maybe forget, a saggy middle if the end sings. But there’s no remedy for a bad ending. The bad taste remains in the reader’s mouth with nothing good to wash it away, except maybe a different novel with a more satisfying ending. But what writer wants to send his readers from his worlds to those of another writer?
Reward the audiences for their investment in your book. And invite them into your next story by giving them the expectation that each novel will not only take them on an adventure, but return them to their world fulfilled and rewarded for having lost themselves in yours.