Engaging your Audience – Part Four – The Closing

Engaging your Audience – Part Four – The Closing

Conflict #3: How do I close strong?

The ending is the most important part of any story. The audience will forgive a sagging middle and a less-than-amazing start as long as the end leaves them breathless.

Strong endings don’t NEED surprise plot twists.
Strong endings don’t NEED huge explosions.
Strong endings don’t NEED an amazing reveal.
Strong endings don’t NEED to claim the life of your favorite character.

In fact, if any of these things happen without good reason, then they’d be meaningless by definition and possibly confusing to your audience.

Strong endings need to be strong. Loose ends need to be tied up neatly. Characters need to reach the end of their change. Activities need to be apparently relevant to the objective. The story needs to end logically and completely. Series episodes need to be resolved.

This theory works similarly to the way human memory functions. When remembering a series of happenings, people will generally remember the last event most clearly, the first event not as clearly, and the middle event(s) least clearly. This is called Serial Position Effect.

If your audience read or sat through your entire work, it is only right that they leave with the satisfaction that it was for something meaningful. If not, you’ll find it harder to hook them the next time.

Writers and teachers should plan solely with their end objective in mind and target every ounce of effort to that end without distraction.

Continued in Engaging Your Audience – Part Five – Keeping and Growing Your Audience

For writers: Nancy Kress wrote “How to Write Successful Endings” for the Writers’ Digest website.

For teachers: Claudia Pesce wrote a post, titled “7 Best Ways to End a Lesson,” in which she reviews a few short methods. “Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning” on the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching site is another great resource. Brenda Power wrote “Make Kids' Writing Shine: Using Beginnings and Endings to Teach Craft,” a great way to help students write stronger endings.