How to End A Story
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- You know your opening should hook readers and your middle must keep them turning the pages. Now you need to write an ending that will turn a reader into a fan!
Write a Novel 12 Step Guide: leveragecreative.lpages.co/ho...
Writing Assessment: jerryjenkins.com/quiz/
Blog: jerryjenkins.com/blog/
This video Discusses:
[00:55] Why Writing a Good Ending Matters
[01:27] How to End a Novel
[01:37] 1. Keep the End in Sight the Whole Way
[03:47] 2. The End Means The End
[05:56] 3. Keep Your Hero On Stage
[06:58] 6 Types of Novel Endings
[07:00] 1. The Closed or Resolved Ending
[07:28] 2. The Open or Unresolved Ending
[08:54] 3. The Ambiguous Ending
[09:33] 4. The Surprise or Twist Ending
[10:06] 5. The Closed Circle
[10:32] 6. The Expanded Ending, a.k.a., the Epilogue
[11:23] Final Considerations When Ending A Novel
Jerry Jenkins is the author of over 200 books, including 21 New York Times bestsellers. He’s passionate about helping writers grow to their full potential and have the best chance to see their writing published. Browse his archive of advice pulled from his 50 years as a writer, editor, and publisher at www.jerryjenkins.com.
"When do you know it's been rewritten enough? When you've gone from making it better to merely making it different."
Great advice.
i wrote this one down too! great quote!
@kellywilliams1332 I'm going through revision drafts of my WIP at the moment, and sometimes it's hard to know when to stop! This was a great reminder that, at some point, it will be time to hand over to alpha/beta readers and an editor.
Chicken Soup for the Left Behind Amish Vampire; now there’s a book I would love to read/guilty pleasure. 😂
😂
Thank you Jerry! I enrolled in your Dreamer to Author program and finished my first book. Thank you for sharing your God given talents.
Wooooooo! Congrats!
In another video, Jerry says, "When you have more than one ending, chose the more emotional one." Good advice. As I was typing the final scene on the first draft of my current novel, both my Lead and I were crying. I won't be changing that ending.
There's so many gems in this that it's almost blinding
Thank you. This applies to movies and series as well. So many I've seen with bad endings, that it ruined the whole experience of watching and being invested 😑
I can't tell you the number of stories (not sure I'd call them novels) I've written that have gone nowhere. I admire your writing and so am super excited to have found your blog. My big issues are developing bad guys and then reconciling the middle. I plan on watching all your writing videos and then get writing. Thank you!
0:08 oh interesting! 😀 first time seeing a video wholly dedicated to ENDING a story. I’m really looking forward to this content and also highly amused because…
Recently, in my 50s I was called to write the one book I’ve always wanted to read but have never seen. It poured out of me like an avalanche from nowhere. The idea, setting, plot, themes and characters arrived fully formed all at once - it’s to the point my old hand cannot keep up with my excited brain and get it down in an organized manner - let alone think how to make it stop!
My feed is full of bright young authors with a shockingly sophisticated understanding of - 3act structures, character design, world building, genre, plot, tension, and a 1000 free planning templates and sheets to go with the 100 pieces they just sliced and expanded my passion project into … and buried me in the process 😩
- none of them go into detail about when to end the story, how to end, or ways to critique it though.
“have a strong ending in mind at the start so you know where you’re heading” 🤷🏻
Then along comes the old guy with “if you wanna do that I can tell ya how?” - so for a minute I was like SHEESH… does it take so long to write a book only older folk know how to finish 😂😂😂🎉
Lets hope I can get there before my 80’s.
*settles in* 👀 🍿
Thank you, sir. I am a musician, with a few completed albums, but I find your advice to be great wisdom for the general creative process. I am a storyteller deep down; so much so, my wife is nudging me to do something with words. Tonight, while I was looking for advice on word count, writing by hand like (Bibi) vs a manual typewriter, etc., I found your youtube channel! The Left Behind writer! Dallas Jenkins' dad! The Chosen! So great! Blessings!
I haven't watched all of your videos, but I can tell that you are very knowledgeable. More than picking the right word, you know so much that you have many examples to show for and you only conveniently pick the best among many. Thank you. I hope I can write as you do. Best regards.
I don't even remember HOW I found you (ca 2 years ago), but I'm always thankful and inspired after hearing your thoughts on writing.... This one just snapped me right back once again, I'm not near the endgame yet of any of my latest ideas, but I'm movivated to get there soon for the gripping feel of actually closing it
I am 13 years old and I made an adult novel and had trouble coming up with an ending. This was very helpful!
Perfect timing! Thank you :)
Excellent, Jerry! Thank you!
Thanks for the advice Jerry
Good, solid advice. Thank you
Great advice, as usual. Thank you.
Great video. Thankyou.
Impossibly helpful! Thank you!
Your videos helped me write my first novel last year! Thank you!
Thank you Mr. Jenkins. Am bookmarking this one forever.
Thanks for the advice. Wishing you well.
Thank you so much for the wisdom you share so freely.
Thank you! Very helpful.
Good stuff, as always.
That was helpful. Thanks for the insights!
Thank you, Jerry! I like the full-circle ending. I'm going to use that one.
Love this video Jerry. Practical yet inspiring content per usual! TY!
This man is a gem. Nice Narration sir.
Thank you for this video.
Nice, that's actually even helps on how to write events/plots endings.
Thank you for your advice.
Thank you for the advice. I really like your way of teaching. It really helps me with my stories.
I love your videos. I’m learning so much! Thank you!
Wonderful video! I really enjoyed watching it.
Thank you so much sir for making these videos which helps people in making young writers.
Thanks Jerry! Helpful as usual. Blessings.
Many thanks, Jerry. I listened to this twice and will listen to your other video on writing. Thanks again.
I enjoy your clarity and natural teaching style. I feel treated as an equal, even though I am unpublished... yet. I will continue to watch and learn from your videos. Heartfelt Thanks.
Thank you for this. I think most of us would like to write a book with an ending that is transformational. Being patient isn't always easy, but critical. Thanks again.
Thank you!!!!
Amazing, Jerry. Thanks for sharing ths and a lot more. It's more valuble than gold, and life changing in the right hands.
What a philanthropic writer. Thank you for sharing the wisdom you've gained
Great video.
Thanks Jerry. These tips have been so appreciated. They are easy to digest and implement.
Thank you Sir
Perfect❤❤❤
Awesome advice, very clear and straightforward. I’d love to hear more about what you said around 3:11 about how to know when rewriting becomes ineffective and how to gauge when a story is complete. I always edit my scenes to high heaven and feel I could go on forever with it to make it perfect, but of course that’s not productive. Thanks again for the great video!
Thanks!
I can’t believe all this advice is free
Thank you so much for your helpful guidelines. Particularly the 6 different endings. As well as being a very successful novelist, you have a great speaking voice. Your vocabulary and delivery, in which listeners understand exactly what you're saying, is exceptional. There's calm confidence in the way you speak. I'm reminded of President Biden 😊.
Thank you! I, personally, find some kind of endings more satisfactory depending pf the genre I am reading. It all come, as you say, to preferences and expectations. I really love twisted endings in mysteries 😀 I truly dislike extremes, be it a hang up or when they say too mucho of what is to come. I love a little room for my imagination to fill in the gaps and create my own interpretation. Greetings from Uruguay.
I adore Brandon Sanderson's epilogues in the Stormlight Archive. They are all from the POV of Wit, my favorite character by far, and I'm sure that's part of why I love them. But they also all contain these huge surprises, little gifts, that he leaves for the very end of each. These are all part of the same massive series, so that may be part of why they work. I'm not as good at analysis as JBJ, obviously, so I don't really understand the why of why they work, but I know they do. Sanderson just knows how to stick a landing.
Thank you. I'm over half-way through a novel. As I've been writing I have slowly figured out the scope of the story, I know roughly what will happen, but I'm here because I was stuck. Part of my problem is that I haven't figured out the adversary's character arc, as I watched this I realised that their arc has to culminate with an emotional interaction with my protagonist's arc and that's the ending I need to aim for. Many of the plot points can get resolved on the way, but the actual ending has to be a personal and emotional face-off between the protagonist and antagonist. Got it!
what do you do if you plan a series and don't want the face to face interaction to happen until one of the future books? How do you think it'd be best to keep that emotional high between the two characters while still keeping them apart?
One thing I always feel that works well is have your bad guy show up early. The protagonist and antagonist should meet and do something near the midpoint. The best antagonists actually do something. They should get some wins before their eventual defeat. That might be the Joker poisoning a few people, the Terminator running around town and chasing Sarah Connor, the T-Rex rampaging through the park in Jurassic Park, or the murderer showing up to monologue before just barely getting away on an episode of Criminal Minds.
Successful antagonists make themselves known to the protagonist and the audience and effect some kind of real change on the story before their eventual defeat.
When will your next live Q and A be?
Can you do a video about writing a series?
Cheers
Jerry just talked me out of a cliffhanger between the second and third books in my trilogy. Seems right!
I'm planning a trilogy but I am also a pantser. I think I just figured out my ending for book one but leave a lot of loose ends. how do you plan to wrap up the stories while still leaving the door open for more?
@@kellywilliams1332 I went back to the method I used in the first novel of my trilogy: tying up the major plot points of the first book, but also relying on a lot of foreshadowing and bread crumbs to keep the door open. I think this only works if you have characters that readers really like and feel invested in, though.
Though my first novel ends with unresolved romantic tension between the two main characters and a *potentially* threatening political situation, it still reaches a satisfactory conclusion. I'm going to try to emulate that with the second book. Since the second book is part of a trilogy, however, it won't really be a stand-alone like the first book.
Anyone else here for Jerry’s ASMR? 🫠
Stephen King's Gray Matter, The Ledge, Graveyard Shift and The Mangler have quasi-unresolved endings thar are quite powerful. I like to use this technique.
He ended his own video well. He changed the orientation and his posture when I viewed this video.
Jerry do you have a novel on writing like Stephen King? Most authors struggle to put these concepts into words but I feel that you have what it takes to really put together something comprehensive.
On the topic of open ending I don't feel Brandon Sanderson mistborn is one of those. I think it is closer to what you would have preferred. I was wondering your opinion on the first book. ( No spoilers if you ask I'd like to private message you about it since it's such a good series.)
Hello sir, can you please tell me what kind of end does The Great Gatsby have ?
Great video, just a tip the audio is a bit quiet.
Dusk til dawn I will make this to the best of my ability
Send this video to Stephen King. He needs to know.
The ending to The Stand was a huge disappointment. After reading hundreds of pages, instead of getting the promised big battle, it had a dues ex machina ending.
Do you recommend writing a story in a trilogy? Beginning, middle and end?
How to end a story. I'm going to guess with a period.
Thank you! PS Audio is low....too low
I am not a huge fan of epilogues or prologues. However, do you think they are expected as part of some genres, such as Fantasy and Science Fiction?
Okay I got 2 Questions, since I am a New Writer supposedly...
1) Can "The Ending" be like Dragon Ball?
Next Time, on Dragon Ball Z...
and
2) Can The Book, be about "Power Struggle"?
Like Now about Power Ups or Power Boost type stuff.
But, Power Struggle like trying to find your place in life. Like where does your character stand in the book.
Should I write the end first?
I hear it all the time, decide the ending and write your characters to match the end.
@@bruceryba5740 Thanks for responding.
What if I'm so tied up to a book that I'm not ready to let it go ? To actually end it someday ? What if the characters, the world I'm writting means too much for me ?
Turn it into a series
*GRRM wants to know your location*
Can someone please send this to Cody Rhodes? 😂
I read this and I thought he wrote a book or something Im dumb as hell lol
Only thing he missed was take a shower. Them shower thoughts be powerful.
How to end a story?
Write the words: 'The End'.
Would you translate your video in Arabic, more followers, it would be amazing for Arab writing please do it. Thank you
I'm honestly surprised the wheel of time Jordan Peterson didn't pop up
İF HER SKELET İN BİBLİA DİEDS AND BURNS FOR US
Your voice reminds me of Winnie the Pooh and maybe Joe Biden combined.
Attack on Titan ending ruined the series for me
Great advice for writers. I’m really sorry that you wrote the left behind series. There are millions of evangelical conservatives who believe that you’re biblical fanfiction is prophecy.
Only thing he missed was take a shower. Them shower thoughts be powerful.