At this year’s Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity conference, I attended several great sessions. One I was eager to attend since it was announced was by Kathleen Barber on earning your ending, and I wasn’t disappointed. Whether we see ourselves as pantsers, planners, or planstsers, all of us need endings that are worth the reader’s time and attention.
Why it Matters
Kathleen Barber is the author of Are You Sleeping, which is the basis for the television series Truth be Told, starring Octavia Spencer. Her session was entitled: Earning Your Ending: How to Use Clues, Reveals and Red Herrings, and it was excellent. Barber began her remarks by reminding us how important endings are to our novels, and in how we treat the reader. Essentially, if we don’t give the reader an ending worth waiting for, we’ll lose them immediately. Barber also sees it as a show of disrespect. But how can we do that?
Challenges
Barber highlighted several challenges in writing successful endings. First, the ending can’t be too easy to discover. Obvious? Probably. When readers figure out the ending when they’re only twenty percent into the novel, why read more? We have to challenge our readers and keep them on their toes. Easy endings don’t cut it.
On the other hand, if the reader needs a dictionary and has to make several spreadsheets to get anywhere near the answer, we’ve lost them for another reason. Barber advocates for something in the middle.
Planting clues is one way we can lead our readers to connect the dots within our plots. Barber cautions that we must make sure our clues are planted throughout our novels so our readers have to work a little. Mystery fans enjoy doing this, and taking away that opportunity doesn’t work for them. Barber also discussed red herrings, those little teasers many authors spread throughout their novels hoping to distract the reader and lead them toward a false ending. Barber insists they can add a lot to a novel, when used correctly. She cautions, however, that they should support the story overall, and should be plausible.
Another priority for a satisfying ending is for the story to be resolved by the end. This is true even when the book is part of a series. Parts of the story can be wrapped up even as other elements go forward into the next work. But without some level of resolution, readers may feel cheated.
Barber further agrees with MasterClass, that the ending has to make sense. She suggests that if the only way for the ending to take place as written is for something miraculous to happen—we didn’t do our job as writers.
The Bottom Line
Barber didn’t offer any quick fixes. She insists that crafting a satisfying, challenging and accessible ending is one of the keys to success as a writer, as difficult as it may be. And she should know.
