How to Write Chapter Endings | Novel Writing Advice

hey guys it's Ellen Rock novel editor today we're going to talk about chapter endings so I'm going to go over several different types of chapter endings with examples from published novels so we can take a look at why these different endings are used and how they influence the readers perception of the story the first method for ending chapters that I want to talk about is ending with foreshadowing and foreshadowing can be a great way to end the chapter because it can get the reader excited about what's going to come up in the story and learning what that foreshadowing means for example in Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk in chapter 46 the protagonist is talking about his fish and the chapter ends with this passage my parents bought me the first one to teach me about loving and caring for another living breathing creature of God six hundred and forty fish later the only thing I know is everything you love will die the first time you meet that someone special you can count on them one day being dead and in the ground the conclusion that everybody you love is going to die feels bigger than just referring to the fish so it gives the impression that there's more meaning here and something deeper going on and the reader will want to stay engaged with the story to find out what it is let's look at another example of foreshadowing this one is from the girl next door by Jack Ketchum in Chapter five the chapter ends with this bit of dialogue I'll tell you one thing I don't like she said she said it almost in a whisper like maybe she expected somebody to hear and then report to someone else and as though we were confidants equals co-conspirators I like that a lot I leaned in close what I said that basement she said I don't like that at all that shelter by ending on this bit of dialogue Ketchum is letting us know that this basement shelter is significant to the story by chopping the chapter at that point it puts a lot of emphasis on that bit of dialogue and it sort of echoes in the in the readers mind and lets them know that this is important and something to pay attention to foreshadowing promises the reader that something interesting is going to come up in this story but this can be done in a much more overt way by ending the chapter on a pending interaction for example in because of winn-dixie see by Kate DiCamillo in the first chapter the protagonist opal meets a dog and at the end she wants to bring it home to her father so this is the very end of the chapter come on I told him let's see what the preacher has to say about you and the two of us me and winn-dixie started walking home by ending on this pending interaction where we know she's going to go home and probably try to persuade her father the preacher to let her keep the dog the reader is much more engaged and wants to turn the page and read the next chapter to see what will happen next another way to get the reader excited about what's going to happen next is to end the chapter on a shock or a new discovery for example in Survivor in chapter 35 tender the protagonist answers the phone and asks who is this and the voice on the other line says may you die with all your work complete and he hangs up this gets the reader really excited about what's going to happen next who is this person why did they call and what does this cryptic message mean this same technique can be seen in misery by Stephen King when the protagonist and writer Paul Sheldon gets in a fight with his captor Annie the chapter ends with and sacrifices what she had in mind of course when she came back she was carrying the manuscript of fast cars the only existing result of his two years work in one hand in the other she had a box of diamond blue tip wooden matches the reader realizes that annie is going to be have Paul burn his manuscript and that realization in that shock of what's going to happen next will compel the reader to keep reading and encourage them to move on to the next chapter one method for ending chapters that writers often don't think about is dangling information so you promised information to the readers but the reader knows that it's not going to happen in this chapter it's probably going to happen in the next chapter a good example of this is chapter 3 of because of winn-dixie in this chapter she tells her father about a conversation she had with her dog winn-dixie I've been talking to him and he agreed with me that since I'm 10 years old you should tell me 10 things about my mama just 10 things that's all and then the chapter ends with her father agree with her come on opal he said sit down and I will tell you ten things about your mama so the reader is promised as information and wants to keep reading to find out what that information is to learn these ten things along with opal another good example of this technique is at night film by Marisha pestle in Chapter five the protagonist who is a journalist is researching a story and the chapter ends on this excerpt i down the rest of the scotch grabbed another stack of pages and within minutes I found what I've been looking for it was a thin manila envelope Ashley was scribbled across the front I unclasped it pulling out the contents a sheet of paper and a CD by ending on this section the reader really wants to know what is contained in the CD and on this piece of paper another simple way to create a sense of momentum is to end the chapter with a statement of the characters objective or goal a good example of this is in chasing red bird by Sharon Creech the protagonist explains at the end of chapter 10 why it's so important to her that she clears his trail on the property and how it represents for her a way to absolve herself of the guilt she feels for her aunt's death I only knew I had to undertake this mission I had to and I had to hurry to complete it before the end of the summer for in my morbid mind I believed that if I didn't complete it by then something horrible would happen whatever this horrible thing was would be a punishment for killing aunt Jessie I decided that God had given me a chance one chance to redeem myself when an idea like that takes rid of my brain it grows like weeds on the riverbank and I needn't have worried about my brothers or sisters taking over my trail they lost interest after a few days of clearing the debris and it was mine once again so by ending the chapter with this explanation of what her goal or motive is the reader really wants to keep reading to find out how things turn out what obstacles she faces and whether or not she achieves this goal the last example of chapter endings that I want to go over today is one that probably comes most naturally to most writers and that is to end the chapter at the end of an interaction a good example of this is chapter two of because of wind see the protagonist opal has convinced her father to let the dog stay and the end of the chapter is are you looking for a home the preacher asked real soft to winn-dixie winn-dixie wagged his tail well the preacher said I guess you found one this is a logical place to end the chapter and though it's not as exciting as some of the other options it does still promise some exciting and interesting interactions between this dog and the preacher based on our prior knowledge of their personalities and how we can expect them to potentially clash so it's not that ending at the end of an interaction doesn't promise anything of any interest it just doesn't necessarily use as much of a hope to keep the reader invested and relies on our understanding of how these characters might interact or potential conflicts that could come up in this story so those are just a few techniques you can use to end the chapters in your novel the simplest advice that I can give to you for how to end the chapters in your novel is to simply leave something unresolved you never want to give this sense that everything has been wrapped up where the character has achieved everything they wanted to achieve or there aren't really any more conflicts on the horizon there should always be a sense that things are left undone at least to some degree and that there's still some mystery and that the plot still has some room to grow and develop and this will keep the reader engaged and excited to keep reading so I really hope you found this video helpful I will be back on Wednesday with a video about chapter openings and I will continue to upload new videos Monday Wednesday Friday throughout August so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any future videos happy writing guys

Channel: Ellen Brock

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Keywords: novel, writing, chapter, endings, how to, advice, write, writer, editor, ellen brock, fiction, book, creative, break, section, examples, story

Id: 77duTePgZS4

Length: 8min 7sec (487 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 20 2018