Chapter endings are as important as beginnings. Read the endings of your chapters. Go ahead. Are they riveting? Are you anxious to turn the page? Will your readers be? Take a closer look at the ho hum ones and begin to focus on endings that would compel a reader to keep going.
I skimmed through some books to see how those authors ended their chapters. Here’s one from Deception Point by Dan Brown. “Rachel felt weightless for an instant, hovering over the multi-million-pound block of ice. Then they were riding the iceberg down – plummeting into the frigid sea.” The reader is not likely to put the book down at this point, at least until they find out what happened to Rachel and her friend. Brown could have ended with something like: “Rachel stood motionless on the block of ice and prayed the block wouldn’t fall into the sea.” Nah.
Here’s another. “Emergency Room. Code Blue. Susan ran for the elevator.” This is from Chelsea Cain’s The Night Season. What if Cain had stopped at Code Blue? Would it have the same impact as her running for the elevator?
I believe this idea of compelling endings is not only important for fiction but for non-fiction as well. Take Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: “Sometime that day, or perhaps the day before, he had taken off his uniform, picked up a sack of rice, slipped into the Naoetsu countryside, and vanished.” Vanishing, dying, running, falling, are all great ways to end a chapter on a high, cliffhanger note.
How about this from my mystery, Time Exposure: “As he sank to his knees, he lifted his head to gaze up at the Blackhawk. Captain Geoffrey Farrell smiled down at him. A boot to the head put him out.” Or this from Pure Lies, in the form of dialogue: “Well, you may be nuts and I wouldn’t testify to this in court, but between you, me and the microscope, honey, these signatures were all written by the same person.”
Scene endings can follow this rule to some extent, but it might get tiresome if every scene did. I think you have to let the reader rest once in a while and catch up with the action.
Not all chapter endings must end on an action note either. Many can end with inner conflict or conflict between characters. Gives the chapter tension. What happens between these two people next? Does Anna May leave her husband? Does mom throw Maynard out of the house? Does little Davey start to cry? Is Barbara in danger of being fired, of losing her health insurance, of missing a plane to an important event? If you care about the characters, you will turn the page.
I’d love to hear some chapter endings you think are great . . . or terrible. When we can recognize what works and what doesn’t, our writing benefits in the long-run.
I agree! Once I’ve finished my first draft and I’m in editing mode, one of the actions I follow is to make sure EVERY chapter has a hook that makes the reader want to turn the page. It must be working because feedback from my readers includes the fact they “can’t put the book down”. I think it’s because of my short chapters and the hook. I recommend trying it!
I can testify to that after reading Tracker! Thanks, Indy.
Totally agree. Chapter one if my latest novel, SHADOWS: An American Gothic (http://tinyurl.com/ycfg3okl), ends thus:
“Sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus.” Sherry bowed her head and I knew she was praying for the souls of those who lay beneath the blankets.
With the lump of apprehension rising in my throat, I gunned the sluggish diesel, and allowed the rush of wind to silence thoughts that might have given shape and substance to the surreal images. Instinctively, I’d sensed that the lock had been broken, the lid opened, and I would never be able to entirely close it again.
Ooooh, I like it! Definitely want to turn the page. Nice writing, E.J!
Thanks Lynne. I like what I see here. Most writer’s group discussions that I’ve looked at boil down to “please read my book.” You’re doing a nice job.
Have you thought about switching the paragraphs,thus: “…the lid opened,and I would never be able to entirely close it again.
Sherry bowed her head. “Sweet Jesus, Sweet Jesus.”
This chapter ends then in active voice, not in character’s head.
Right. Normally I would go that way but in SHADOWS I’m trying to keep the POV firmly inside the narrator’s head. He is, for example, less than reliable in some of his observations. The “lock” in this case has more to so with his PTSD (Vietnam) than the bloody accident scene they’d just driven through.
One I’ve never forgotten comes from Dick Francis –
‘And then the phone rang.’
In my WIP, (working title Stain on the Soul, sending to agent next week) the first chapter ends with “Winston’s killers had never been caught.”
Personally, as a reader, I’m asking you not to end every chapter on a cliffhanger or – worse – the twist. Reading a tale in which every chapter ends on a cliffhanger or plot twist or both – “I’ve found that I’m your long lost brother,” he said, leering and cocking the weapon – is completely artificial and clumsy. And do not break a conversation in two between two chapters with an obvious planted twist at the break point. The reader ceases to suspend disbelief and instead pulls back and looks at the writing style and machinations. Use language well to reach a point of change, anticipation or conclusion, but vary these. Treat your reader as intelligent.
Good point, Clare. Thanks.