[Editor’s note: the essay below is taken from an e-mail newsletter sent out by the writer Bruce Hale. you can find his web site at: http://www.brucehalewritingtips.com/. You can also sign up for his e-newsletter at that site. Each electronic newsletter comes with other information, including a writing joke.]
IS YOUR ENDING REALLY SATISFYING READERS?
How many times have you heard that the first page of your story is the most important? Too many, I’d say.
Not that a compelling opening isn’t vital — it is. But with all that focus on crafting a killer beginning, it’s easy to forget about making an awesome ending. Endings may not get as much attention in how-to books as openings, but they are just as hard to do right.
One thing to bear in mind: An effective ending needn’t necessarily be happy, but it must be SATISFYING. In other words, whether or not your hero gets what he wants, the reader must get what *she* wants.
While you’re working on your ending’s SQ (Satisfaction Quotient), here are some key points to keep in mind.
SQ CHECKLIST:
– Has the asked question been answered?
No matter how unstated or simple it may be, every book has a theme. As part of that, the story poses an implicit (sometimes explicit) question that must be answered by the end of the book.
Whether it’s “Can a girl and a vampire find happiness and true love?” or “Will Samantha ever get her big red wagon?” that question has been brewing in the reader’s mind throughout your story. Be sure your ending has conclusively answered it.
– Have all subplots been resolved?
Before you respond with the inevitable, “Duh, of course!” be sure all elements of your story have a true sense of closure. If any
subplots or characters are left hanging, your readers won’t be fully satisfied.
Readers need to know not only that the hero’s main problem has been resolved, but that the supporting characters and villain are taken care of, too. Maybe that’s why so many concluding chapters are stuffed full of, “Dr. Evil was caught at the border, and Hannah? Why she married that cute jockey.” No need to be that blatant, but do be that comprehensive.
– Have you given the reader something expected?
A satisfying ending must fulfill the reader’s expectation. If you’re writing a mystery, the expectation is that the murderer will be brought to justice. If a romance, that the protagonist will find true love. Mess with these expectations at your peril, but also consider…
– Have you given the reader something surprising?
The best endings leave you with an “I knew that would happen, but not like THAT” feeling. A pat, expected ending feels boring, a letdown, even if it delivers on a reader’s expectations. So it’s essential to unearth some kind of surprise in the WAY the story resolves.
I just read an adult mystery where the detective was haunted by an almost supernaturally evil man he’d first met as a child. You expect that man to be defeated by the detective, but instead he was struck by lightning and died in a Biblical wrath-of-God way that was surprising and satisfying — and right for the book. I got the ending I wanted, but not in the way I’d expected it.
– Have you echoed the opening?
This isn’t necessary, but it is a nice-to-have. If you can echo some image or scene from the beginning, but have it take on a different meaning, that’s the icing on the cake. You’ll notice many movies use this technique.
In SAVE THE CAT, his excellent book on story and screenwriting, Blake Snyder says: “The final image of a movie is the opposite of the opening image. It is your proof that chance has occurred and that it’s real.” For example, in the movie Miss Congeniality, the opening image is tomboy Sandra Bullock, surrounded by boys, but not fully fitting in. The final image is of her surrounded by women and fitting in as herself.
And if you can come up with that kind of ending… your SQ will go through the roof, and readers will thank you!
Booker's Blog 
Wanted to pick your brains on the following.
How do publishers view the Satire genre? I’m wondering if there is a market for Swiftian style of satire.
Thanks.
Interesting question, and I would be far from truthful if I represented myself as an expert in answering the question. Therefore, take anything I saw with the appropriately large grain of salt.
1) I think humor novels (and short stories), in general, are a harder sell. There are certain exceptions. I think in children’s books humor can actually make a book easier to sell, particularly if you can couple it with rhyming poetry. I also think there is a sub-branch of mystery, the humorous (even satirical) mystery works. After all, many mysteries have at their center a sarcastic, even satirical private eye. See the novels of Carl Hiaasen or a novel like Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. And from what I have read, science fiction magazines, or at least one of them, is interested in humorous (if not specifically satirical) science fiction. But there is in science fiction a tradition as well of the satire novel. There is also the political novel, such as the one published about an Obama-like character. And then there is this available from Amazon for the Kindle: Dick Cheney Saves Paris: a personal and political madcap sci-fi meta- anti- novel. I know nothing of the book. The title is certainly interesting.
2) Part of the reason it may be harder to sell satire is that writing a novel-length satire is hard work, in many ways harder than writing a “regular” novel, and writing a “regular” novel is no easy task. But if you are very good at it, I’d say you may stand a better chance than many other novelists of getting it published, simply because it will be a little different than most of what is vying for attention to be published. The trick, unfortunately, is not to be TOO different. Publishers, from what I have read and heard, are leery of taking on something that is too different from what is out there or what they have dealt with. In essence, you might have to market it by saying: It is just like Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
In short, I don’t know there is a “Satire genre” per se. There are branches of mystery, science fiction, and political thriller novels that are satire. There are probably other genres that have satire sub-genres to them as well. The trick may be finding out which genre your work fits in and marketing it to agents and editors as “This is just like XXXXX only different.”
Thank you for your insights. Part of the reason I posed the question was the general lack of good satire work that I’ve come across in recent times.
It comes as a surprise to me that humour would be a hard sell! I agree that putting out a lengthy work of satire is tough work. From what I gather, publishers tend to look askance at something like a Swift’s Battle of the Books, infusing live into inanimate objects and the like.
You are welcome. But as I said, take what I say with a grain of salt. I am by no means an expert. Nor do I play one on TV.
Good luck with your writing. An if satire is your interest, go at it with all the passion and perseverance you can put forth.