Ah ha! So, brave storyteller, you have made it this far in your writing journey, eh? Well, congratulations! You're almost done with your novel! But first, you have to venture over the hump of the final conflict. You must bring all of those subplots, those awesome characters, and those evil villains and place them in a confrontation against your hero. And I am here to walk you through this daunting and exciting task.
THE END
is such a scary word that most writers try to avoid it. Often, the end means the death of one of your favorite characters, or the ultimate failure of your hero. Personally, I think the end is the best part of the book. I love reading the end of a book, so rightly, I love writing the end of a book. It's just THE most exciting part of the novel! It's the final moment! It's the BESTEST PART OF THE BOOK, WHERE YOUR CHARACTER'S TRUE MORALS AND PERSONALITIES SHINE THROUGH AND ALL OF THEIR UGLY TRUTHS BURN HOLES INTO THE FLOOR AND CAUSE PAIN AND HORROR!!!! HAAAAA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!!!!
Ahem.
So, here are the main points of the end of a book.
1. The Black Moment
So, you built up momentum and your hero busted into the bad guy base. This is the last straw. Your hero is so fired up and ready to rumble, you're getting scared of him. But then—oh no!—his partner and best friend is hit by a stray bullet and is killed. The hero falls by his comrade's side, just to see the ugly boots of the bad guy with a gun trained on his head. No escape. No running. This is the end.
This is an example of a black moment (in short and...well, breezed over). The black moment is the time before the climax, the point of defeat in your hero's life. This is his darkest, most revealing moment in time. Everything is going wrong. All seems lost. His friends are dead and he is chained to the wall of his worst enemy's bathroom with a slow-acting poison entering his nervous system. There is no way out.
The black moment is a hard thing to write and to read about. You've been training and bringing up this hero for months now, and now you have to come close to killing him, to stab his soul and see what happens. The most important thing to remember at this time is to not just bring the hero down physically, but emotionally. Don't just stab him in the leg and leave him bleeding and dying, kill an ally or let the villain monologue about how useless the hero is. Let the hero's negative characteristics, his weaknesses and greatest fears, be realized in this moment. And don't, by all means, make it a simple, easy thing. Make it as hopeless as possible. This should be where the readers go, "Oh, well, he's dead. There's no way he's getting out of this."
2. Facing the Villain
The black moment is your hero's most hopeless moment. He must triumph, of course, and struggle to the next battle—which is a face-off between him and his worst nightmare. The villain should represent all things the hero fears. The villain must present a horror-filled and terrifying image to your hero—to him, there's nothing worse than who he's facing.
This is where the villain strikes fear into your hero. This is where the hero must overcome the last fear and battle the villain for goodness's sake. It probably shouldn't be too drawn out, this facing of the villain—just a short scene, a small glimmer of doubt as the hero prepares to face his fears. It should happen just before the defeat of the villain—the hero seems like he's going to be defeated, then pulls his last card.
3. The Smackdown
Finally! The hero overcomes his fears and throws all he has into the last battle. The villain realizes he is done for and the hero defeats him with one deft stroke. All of the terror, the hopelessness, the loss, and the pain pay off in this moment—the hero totally whips up on the villain.
Perhaps more could be said. Perhaps I am leaving too much to the imagination. But the smackdown is a personal hero-thing, and I cannot choose your distinct smackdown. It could be a battle of swords, wits, blasters, or just mental power. But make it really, really cool.
4. Happily Ever After (or not)
The battle is won. There has been loss and victory, pain and healing, sorrow and joy. This is where your hero recognizes these, and either chooses to live happily or sadly. I can't tell you how to end your book—I only suggest that you make the very end as short as possibly without seeming too...rushed. Example, Inheritance, an installment in the Eragon series, has possibly the worst ending EVER. It lasts literally like, fifty pages. I mean, SERIOUSLY. I got SO BORED that I nearly gave up reading it. And I was almost done with it! So don't drag out the happy ending. Just make it happy and end the book. Better to leave your reader on an adrenaline rush than to leave them bored out of their minds, I always say.
Well. You did it. You have finished an entire novel. You have taken all of those loose ideas and stray characters and made something totally awesome out of it. How proud are you?
A.C.
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