Description:
Feel like your book’s climax is missing something? Let’s troubleshoot with these three questions to ask to take your story’s ending from wimpy to WOW.
Link:
Five-Star Power Endings Masterclass: https://www.ffs.media/fivestar-endings
Script:
Ever been reading a book and the ONLY indication you have that you’re nearing the end is that you’re running out of pages?
Ever looked back over your story and felt like the climax was just missing something?
Nobody hates a weak ending more than... my husband. Because then he has to hear about it from me for the next 24 hours.
Today, we’re going to learn how to troubleshoot the ending of our book for those times when it just feels like it’s missing that oomph.
Before we get started, be sure to hit subscribe and that little bell if you want updates when new videos from me go live.
To start off, there are three levels of conflict that need to come to a head for your protagonist in your climax and be resolved in your resolution.
The first level is the physical or external conflict. This consists of actions and physical objects involved. Your protagonist has some sort of physical goal, that is they need to do something, to take some action, to achieve that goal.
The second level down in the emotional conflict. Emotions drive action. Your protagonist should feel emotionally conflicted going into the climax. Maybe their emotions are telling them to take two different actions, and they need to decide which emotion to listen to and which to ignore.
The third level, and the deepest one, is the philosophical conflict. This is all about your protagonist’s values and beliefs about the world. The things we value and our beliefs about what is and is not true and how the world should and shouldn’t work are what inform our emotions. We see this in how people with vastly different beliefs can experience different emotions about the exact same event. But our beliefs can change over time—they can be challenged and strengthened or replaced as a result. Heading into your climax, your protagonist will feel conflicted about one of their beliefs or values.
And then, in the most powerful stories, we have a domino effect of these three levels of conflict. First, your protagonist makes a decision about their beliefs and values, that philosophical conflict. Essentially, they’re passing a verdict on it.
That verdict on the philosophical conflict is going to make them feel one way or another. That’s the emotional conflict. Those feelings don't have to be positive. But your protagonist does have to acknowledge that they are feeling that way and decide whether or not to take the action that aligns with that philosophical verdict or not. If they can acknowledge their emotional conflict and choose wise action, then that resolves the physical conflict. Boom, boom, boom, one domino after the other. The closer you can squeeze the protagonist’s decisions for each of those three levels of conflict, the more satisfying and epic your ending will be.
So, if your action is falling flat, look at the physical conflict first. Ask: Do I have enough physical barriers to my protagonist getting what they want and need?
If no, then add that in there.
But don’t stop with that question. Ask: Is the action required by my protagonist causing them enough emotional turmoil? An easy way to up the stakes here is to make the “right” decision be the “hard” one to make for whatever reason. Maybe your protagonist has to swallow their pride or risk making a fool of themself or possibly be remembered in an unflattering fashion. Depending on your protagonist, any of these possibilities would leave them feeling conflicted about the action they have to take.
Then, don’t forget to ask: does the action my protagonist take embody a clear verdict on the belief or value that has been hardest challenged by the events of the story? The decision in the climax needs to be one your protagonist could not have made any earlier in the story because their beliefs or values wouldn’t have fully supported it.
And that’s it. Those are the three questions to ask yourself if your ending feels flat:
Do I have enough physical barriers keeping my protagonist from getting what they want and need?
Is the action required to overcome those physical barriers causing my protagonist enough emotional turmoil?
Does the action my protagonist must take to get what they want and need embody a clear verdict on their belief or value that has been the hardest hit by the events of the story?
If you can’t answer yes to all of those, then keep working on that ending. You may need to go back and develop some of those conflicts earlier in the story, but it’s time well spent. A book with a weak ending will likely be the last book of yours a reader buys. A book with a five-star ending is the very best marketing for your next book that you can do.
If you want to go way deeper on how to construct a five-star power ending for your book or series, I do offer a masterclass on it once a quarter. I'll drop a link to it in the description for you.
That’s it for today. I hope your belief about endings has changed so that you feel more confident and will take the necessary action of tweaking your work in progress to give it a glow-up.
Happy writing.