The End.

3 mistakes writers often make when wrapping up their story

Earlier this month, I reread a book I had considered a favorite, and although I still loved revisiting some of my favorite moments, I was left somewhat crestfallen when I finally—over 500 pages later—reached the end. The anticipation that carried me through most of the book was quickly dampened after reaching the third act—which, dare I say, was at least 50 pages too long.

This old favorite will always hold a special place in my heart, but I hate to say, it has likely relinquished its place on my bookshelf.

Keep reading for advice on how to steer clear the same fate by avoiding 3 mistakes writers often make in the third act.

Loose ends

Loose ends occur when some critical part of your main plot or subplots remain unresolved at the end of a book. This frustrates readers and leaves them feeling like they’ve missed something important.

Most books I read with loose ends leave the reader scratching their head, sometimes flipping back through the pages in frustration, expecting to find what they’ve missed. These endings leave the reader feeling short-changed and unfulfilled.

In order to avoid this, be intentional as you wrap up your story. Think through the major elements of your conflict and subplots and make sure that nothing has been left unresolved. Just be careful not to get too bogged down in the weeds—keep the focus on your primary characters and feel free to leave the story of minor characters unfinished. 

The ultimate loose end, of course, is a cliffhanger. When writing a series, this can be a compelling way to ensure the reader is quick to pick up the next book. If you’re not writing any type of series though, a cliffhanger tends to leave the reader with a gaping hole right smack in the middle of their resolution.

Avoid shoving the reader off the cliff. Make sure that the circumstances of your character and the momentum of your narrative lead toward the point where you suspend the reader in anticipation of something life changing. Otherwise the cliffhanger tends to feel like a cheap ploy to get the reader buy the next book.

Predictable ending

As one of my writing instructors put it, your ending should feel inevitable but not predictable.

That may seem like a contradictory statement, but because story builds upon itself, readers need to be able to piece together how one thing led to another. And frankly, a satisfying ending will allow the character to see this as well. It may not cause some radical change or cause the character to change their ways, but they should walk away with a deeper understanding of how they’ve ended up where they are and probably learn something in the process.

Depending on your genre, the events of the third act may be a bit cloaked in mystery. Shocking twists and unexpected consequences for a character’s actions aren’t discouraged by any means, but they should be well thought out rather than spontaneous. The events of the climax, as well as the resolution, should be believable and consistent with the characters, theme and development of the story. 

If you’ve spent three whole acts with a character who NEVER learns from their mistakes, don’t expect us to believe when he makes a complete 180 because of one crisis. Even if we didn’t see the ending coming, we should be able to flip back through the pages and see the signs in retrospect. 

The easiest way to avoid an ending the feels predictable is to reject the easiest resolution to the conflict. And regardless of whether you go for the unexpected, shocking, or downright outrageous, make sure that you’ve effectively built in foreshadowing to your narrative.

Going out with a…sizzle

Sometimes your story ties up loose ends without feeling overly predictable, but it still falls flat with readers. There are a few reasons this may happen—

The third act is too long: If the third act feels just as long as the first or second act, you probably aren’t ending the story where it needs to be cut off. Or you may be taking a meandering path toward the final page. Be intentional about what scenes to include in the third act, because this portion of the book should pack one punch after another. One issue which can lend itself to a third act that is too long is the temptation to overexplain your ending. If you have all that work left to do on the back end of your story, you probably need to go back to your first two acts and lay some stronger groundwork.

Too confusing: Make sure the reader understands how and why the events of the third act have happened. Sometimes it feels like authors are just throwing extra words on the page and hoping the reader finds an ending somewhere in there. This is one of the places where genre conventions are likely to come into play—if you are writing a romance, the happily ever after needs to happen because the romance is the most crucial part of the story arc. In a mystery or a thriller, you want the protagonist to track down and uncover the criminal for the same reason. 

These aren’t things that happen just because it makes your character look good, these are things that leave the character and story arc unfinished if they don’t occur. A confusing ending often leaves readers scratching their heads if it doesn’t fulfill genre expectations or if it leaves readers feeling like the protagonist is still teetering on the edge of an uncertain future. 

Too convenient: Sometimes we want to leave the reader with a few open-ended questions. Sometimes tying up every last loose end (honestly this sounds like an impossible task) not only drags out our third act, but it makes the ending seem too perfect, too unrealistic. 

Consider the difference between an ending which promises us the immediate success of the protagonist, a hopeful future and demonstrates the strength of the character to tackle any future trials. This gives the reader a sense of closure while still giving them the space to imagine the hero’s final journeys for themselves—and by the way, this is what makes a memorable character! 

In contrast, ending a story with a virtual obituary: Adam Monroe fought 10 more dragons in his life, slayed 8, let one escape and finally lost his life to the tenth. In that time, he married Lady Katherine, and they had three boys who all became dragon slayers themselves, but only one of them had any sort of relationship with their father.

I could go on, and the sad reality is that some books do go on and end like this. And in just about every case, while it answers a lot of what-ifs and questions about the character’s future, it also dashes all excitement for the reader. They finish the book feeling as if the character’s journey is well…finished…and there’s nothing left to explore. Nothing left to contemplate. And that is the last thing you want to leave your readers feeling.

Have you seen any of these issues in your writing drafts? How do you go about pinpointing and correcting third-act issues? Let us know in the comments!