Bet that bear packs a punch.

There are few things more disappointing than an unsatisfactory ending. We get these all the time in real life, so in fiction, we like all the loose ends tied up and for everybody to get their just desserts.

Here are three must-haves for your awesome novel ending.

 

Go big or go home

The final scene should be BIG. You can achieve this in a number of ways.

 

Involving more people than you’ve had in any previous scene:

• Maybe all the characters with intertwining stories finally come together in one big hullaballoo

• Or maybe it’s a crowd of extras to intensify the action and chaos (this could be a slavering audience, a group of protesters, a party)

 

Going to a new dramatic location

• Somewhere high up, perhaps, with big views and lashing weather

• Somewhere with lots of people (see above), such as a gladiatorial arena

Ideally you’ll involve all of the factors that give a sense of scale, by crashing all the major characters together, along with a big crowd of onlookers, in a gladiatorial arena at the peak of a mountain in the middle of a storm.

Obviously that’s only going to work in certain types of stories, but a lot of these elements can be used in all genres. Having an onlooking crowd as the boy finally admits his love to the girl (or the other way round) in a romcom is pretty common, and having a faceoff between the detective and serial killer on the top of a tall building is also hallowed ground.

 

Give your main character an impossible choice

You can read about this in more depth here (http://thenovelfactory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/secret-to-thrilling-climax-to-your.html) but in essence, this is about giving your protagonist a character defining choice.

Ideally this choice will be between attaining the goal she’s been chasing the whole story – but at a terrible price – and doing the right moral thing, but losing all she’s been personally longing for.

You can make your protagonist make the ‘right’ choice or the ‘wrong’ choice – it really depends on what sort of feeling you want to leave your readers with, the important thing is that the outcome reflects justice.

So if they sacrifice their wants for the greater good, something happens to give them an even better reward.

But if they choose to be selfish, their prize should turn out to be poison.

 

Make the triumph follow a tragedy

This isn’t about what you do in the final scene, but what you do just before it. In the scenes preceding the climax, your lead character should have reached rock bottom, and had a moment so low they could not possibly get any lower. They felt that life was not worth living. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

By having this low, it makes the climax, and probably triumph (assuming you’re writing that sort of thing) feel all the more exuberant.

Note – this article is based on what Lajos Egri calls ‘the premise’ in his book, The Art of Dramatic Writing. If you want to read about it in more depth, buy his book.

The first thing to be clear about is that having a moral guideline or assertion does not necessarily have to be about being ‘good’. After all one, person’s good is another person’s evil, and even bad guys think they’re the good guys. The fact that we all have different views about what is good and right how the world should be run is what makes life interesting (that and Netflix).

What’s important is that it’s a moral assertion that you, as the writer, feel strongly about, even if not everyone agrees with you.

So, what makes a good moral assertion? It should be short, and it should be active.

Here is a few good ones:

• Pride leads to loneliness
• Generosity leads to poverty
• Logic conquers mysticism

As you can see they are short, in that they contain only one brief, straightforward assertion and they contain an active verb.

Here some example of not so useful moral assertions:

•  Life is wonderful
•  Slavery is wrong

These are short, yes, but they are not active, they are only static statements, rather than having a sense of forward movement. 

• Frugality can lead to wealth but only in monetary terms, while generosity leads to a loving family, which is the greater reward

The above guideline is way too complicated. That’s not to say that you can’t cover all that stuff in your novel, but the moral assertion should be a hook that can snag you in an instant. Not something that needs you to hold several ideas in your head at the same time.

You need never state your moral guideline of course, and readers may never consciously know it’s there, but having it in your mind will give your novel a sense of consistency and wholeness that it may lack if you just meander around ideas and plots.

Here’s an interesting task for you to never get round to:

Have a look at some of your favourite novels and see if you can work out what the moral assertion is.

Everybody loves people watching. 

And for authors, it’s a central part of research. If you want to create realistic characters that leap off the page and live for themselves, then real life is where you’ll find a rich variety of details, ripe for the picking.

So, find yourself a café with an outdoor table, get yourself a coffee / hot chocolate / orange juice and start taking notes about the following aspects of your every-day passer-by, such as:

How do they walk? Speed, bobbing, weaving, with what demeanour?

What fidgets can you see? How do people fidget with different parts of their body?

Speech styles, patterns and tics – listen to people on the phone or chatting to each other. What do their voices sound like, what tics or habits do they have? Do they continually say ‘man’ ‘right’ or something else? Do they use a lot of questions, or say everything as if it’s unarguable fact?

Clothing – there’s lots of aspects here. Obviously, what clothing do people where, and what impressions does it give about their personality, job, wealth level, attitude to being in public, comfort level? But you can dig deeper and look for accessories that tell a little more detail, a little more depth. Badges, jewellery, shoes, bags – what do these things say about this person’s life experiences?

Relationships – what kinds of gatherings are people in, do any look like unusual partnerships of families?

Try making up stories about where each person has come from and where they’re going. Give yourself a limit of 60 seconds for each person.

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to check out our novel writing software. Designed by writers for writers. 

Stuck for inspiration? Here are some of my favourite inspirational ideas for writing a short story:

1.  Find a poem and rewrite it as a story. (If you’re having trouble finding a poem, search for ‘The Nation’s Favourite Poems’ and browse through) 
2. Choose a limerick and turn that into a full blown story. (Search for Edward Lear for the master of limericks and delightful nonsense)
3.  Ask five random people to give you a noun, an adjective, a verb, colour and a random object, and write a story that incorporates them all. (or search for an online random word generator) 
4. Write a single scene story which describes one of your most painful of embarrassing memories. (the more painful it is for you to write, the better)
5.  Read synopses of poorly rated movies and base your story on one. (You can browse Netflix – even if you’re not a member – or browse the DVDs in the library or rental store – assuming those places still exist…) 
6.  Open a book at a random page, find the first new sentence and use that as the first line of your story. (Or just use it somewhere if you’re feeling wishy washy)
7. Write a story about change from the point of view of a fruit. (Or a plant or an item that is sitting on your desk) 
8. Write a story about loss from the point of view of your youngest child (regardless of whether you have any children).
9. Write a story about a terrible crime from the point of view of the criminal, so the reader sympathises with them. The greater the level of sympathy and empathy, the better. 
10. Find an idiom, such as ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ and write a fable to explain the ‘origin’ of the phrase.

If you enjoyed this post, then you should probably check out the Novel Factory. 

Feedback is useful. It can help you highlight areas for improvement and can be encouraging, identifying your strengths.

So, it’s a good idea to get your friends and family to read your work, right?

Well, actually no.

It’s fine to get your friends and family to read your manuscript if all you want is to be told how wonderful and amazing it is (depending on how kind your friends and family are…). If that’s your goal then go on ahead and show them.

But as a writer, what you should really be craving is useful critique of your work. Incisive comments regarding character, pace, plot and drive that will help you improve, sentence by sentence, word by word.

Your loved ones are extremely unlikely to be able to supply you with this sort of input.

This is not their fault, it’s simply that in the vast majority of cases, your friends and family will not be professional or experienced writers (if they are, then you are probably the exception to this rule), and in most cases won’t have an interest in words any further than reading magazines and novels.

This means that the insights they can give about your work will be limited to ‘I liked it’ and ‘I didn’t like it’.

And not only are these comments  not particularly constructive, but they may not even be honest. I mean, is your mum really going to tell you she doesn’t like your writing? Probably not. And if your best mate says they don’t like it, it could just be because they like beach romance and you’re writing hardcore sci-fi.

So, if you really want someone to read your work, make it other writers, and make sure you read their work in return.

One of the biggest problems I have when it comes to novel writing is the beginning (though to be fair, that’s probably just the first problem, before I come up against the other two major issues – the middle and the end).

I work hard to try to make the story really start with a bang, with action, immediate goals, and conflict – the lot. But time and time again, my writing group tell me that it just seems to ‘take a while to get going’. There’s a problem. They’re not hooked.

So how can you make sure you’re story really grabs people by the eyeballs?

Apply the 400 word rule

Imagine you’re entering a writing competition, but you’re only allowed to enter the first 400 words of your novel. Those first 400 words have to grab the judges immediately and leave them wanting to know more.

I find if you go back to your first scene (after you’ve finished your first draft of course – no editing is allowed before the first draft has been dragged out of you) and strictly follow this rule - not 500 words, not 450 words – then you can really make sure your story has power and punch from the first page.

You’re forced to cut out any unnecessary scene setting (readers don’t need to know the backstory, they’ll pick it up as they go along), any waffle descriptions (no words to waste!) and forces you to establish a protagonist, a goal and conflict.

All within the first 400 words.

 

Check out our writing theory resources:

Finding inspiration to get started writing a novel

Many writers constantly have ideas bubbling around, each waiting for Novel Software Articles their turn to be put down on paper (or screen).

How to create characters

There are many, many, books on creating decent characters, and we're going to try to summarise character creation in a few brief study notes.

 

 

We achieve great things by standing on the shoulders of giants, so here is a collection of some of the best writing quote by great authors throughout history.

Some of them are moving, some are inspiring and some are just darn funny.

Especially the one about beating Jane Austen over the head with her own shin bone. 

Quotes about being successful as an author

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
- Winston S. Churchill


“Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.”
- A. A. Milne


“There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money either.”
- Robert Graves


“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
- Ernest Hemingway

Quotes about how authors find inspiration

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”
- Orson Scott Card


“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
- Madeleine L'Engle


“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
- Maya Angelou


“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.”
- Lloyd Alexander

Quotes about the rules of writing

 

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.“

- W. Somerset Maugham

“You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money’s in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.”- Larry Niven 

“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.”- Edgar Rice Burroughs 

Quotes about the nuts and bolts of writing

“The first draft of anything is shit.”- Ernest Hemingway

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.”- C. J. Cherryh

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”- Douglas Adams

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”- Mark Twain

“Always be a poet, even in prose.”- Charles Baudelaire

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
- E. L. Doctorow

“My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.”- Anton Chekhov        

“Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.”- Henry David Thoreau

“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”- Flannery O'Connor

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”- Jack Kerouac

Quotes about the perils of being an author

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.”- Erica Jong

“The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.”- William Faulkner

“I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.”- Gustave Flaubert

“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”- Oscar Wilde

Random quotes about writing

 

“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.- Stephen Kingthat.”- Stephen King

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.”- Isaac Asimov

“People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy.”- Joss Whedon

“I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”- Mark Twain

 

Have you tried The Novel Factory? Novel writing software written for writers, by writers.