how to write conclusion of novel

Table of Contents

What a Good Ending Should Do

What the end of the book should not do, how to end a book (and get readers talking about it), great conclusion examples, how to write a book conclusion (& end your story the right way).

Here’s the thing about ending your book the right way:

If the reader got all the way to the conclusion, that means they read the whole book , they liked it, and now they want to wrap this up.

So don’t ramble on and on. Give them what they want.

The goal of a great ending is to tie everything together, neatly summarize your book, and then provide a specific call or calls to action for your reader.

Don’t overcomplicate the conclusion—just let it do its job, and it’ll work great.

• Clearly summarize the book: That’s the best thing you can do, not only to deliver value to the reader but also to make the book memorable (and recommendable).
• Address any lingering issues and close any open loops: The reader should feel like everything is wrapped up in a bow.
• Provide a call to action: In essence, tell the reader what to do.
• Give even more: Point them to any additional resources you have that could help them.
• A conclusion should NOT introduce any new content: This should only be a summarization of what’s in the book. You can have new stories or anecdotes, of course.
• A conclusion should not be too long: The rule of thumb is that it should be the shortest chapter in your book.
• A conclusion should not break faith with the reader: Don’t tell them “operators are standing by” or try to sell them in a preposterous way that turns them off.

At Scribe, we like to outline the conclusion using this template:

• Grab the reader with a great hook
• Restate the book’s thesis
• Summarize the chapters
• Call to action: what should the reader do when they finish the book?

This is one of the most important writing tips for any Author:

Every chapter should start with a hook. Even the last one.

This can be a story that summarizes the book, or you can close a loop from earlier in the book. But the point is, the reader should feel like they do at the end of a good movie, where everything feels nicely summarized with a satisfying ending.

By this time, you’ve mentioned a lot of different topics. Usually, the easiest and most compelling way to begin the conclusion is by referring back to one (or more) of them. Or you can add another dimension to a story you already told or tie up loose ends.

2. Restate the book’s mission/thesis

This is pretty simple, but make sure you restate the book’s thesis. From the first chapter to the final chapter, your book’s primary message should be consistent.

3. Summarize chapters

This is optional, but most good nonfiction books do this. They summarize the key points so succinctly and clearly that the reader can’t help but understand your lessons the same way that you do.

You want the reader to think about and talk about your book to their friends the same way you would if you could be there yourself. The best way to make sure they do that is to tell them exactly what to say.

That’s what this section is for.

Specifically, it’s about nailing whatever you want your readers to remember about your book. What are the takeaways that really matter? How do you want them to talk about them?

If your book is a memoir, your conclusion also needs to complete your story arc, tying up any plot threads and subplots in your storyline so you don’t leave any cliffhangers.

You might not summarize the plot points of each chapter literally, but you still want to remind your readers of the journey.

4. Call to action

What’s the first thing you want your reader to do when they finish the last word and put the book down? This is usually the final word, and it’s what you should leave them with on the final page.

Note on the call to action

A call to action (CTA) is not required in a conclusion, but most nonfiction books have them. It’s usually the very last bit of the conclusion, the final word to readers, and it ensures they know what you want them to do.

Authors generally adopt a different tone with the CTA—one that’s not just more explicitly inspirational but that’s also framed as an imperative. The underlying message of the call to action is straightforward and empowering: now that you have all the tools, go out there and use them.

This is good, and readers tend to like it. Some authors feel uncomfortable including such a direct appeal to readers because they may feel it’s unprofessional, and they can be right (sometimes).

Authors often want to be too inspirational in the introduction, and not enough in the conclusion. But this is when you can really tell your reader what to do, and be very direct.

What you do not want to do is write a glorified sales brochure. The last thing you want to do here is try to pitch them something of yours to buy.

Think about it—you’ve spent the whole book earning their trust, and now you ruin it with a bad ending that tries to sell them?

Don’t do that. Most importantly because it doesn’t work very well.

Readers are smart. They’re interested in your topic because they’ve picked up your book. If they’ve made it this far, then they’ve already read an entire book’s worth of your knowledge and expertise.

They can form their own conclusions when it comes to contacting you.

That said, if you do want to suggest they contact you, do so authentically—from a place of trying to help them , not yourself. Tell them you want to hear from them, or that you want to help them move forward.

If your website or the name of your firm is in your bio or About the Author page , that’s sufficient. Give them your email in the conclusion if you like—but only if you’re sincere about responding to them.

Ultimately, your goal is to provide so much value to them that they respect and admire you and your work, and choose to contact you because they have sold themselves on wanting to, not because you sold them.

Some authors want a more explicit CTA, such as directing readers of the book to a specific landing page. This can work, as long as the page you’re directing them to gives the reader something.

But it has to be something they’ll see as extra, not something they’ll feel should have been in the book. For example, a map or chart that is additive, but not crucial, to the content is great.

What you don’t want to do is give them something on a landing page that makes them think, “Why isn’t this in the book?” That just breaks faith with the reader.

1. Syndicating is a B*tch, by Bruce Petersen

“The most tangible stress of managing a syndication deal happens prior to close. You’re taking care of a lot of moving pieces and are responsible for a lot of money for a lot of people, and that’s a lot. Once the deal closes, that’s it. There’s not a lot happening at that point.

That doesn’t mean the stress has ended. The more experience you gain doing deals, the more prepared you’re going to be for the weird things that come up—and something will always come up. Remember when I lost $5.2 million to OFAC? I was completely blindsided that first time, and as I’m writing this book, it happened again. Yep.”

This is a fantastic example of how to start a well-structured conclusion. The author leads by talking about closing a deal, just as he’s closing his book. There’s a parallel structure there that orients the reader to the end of the book.

He also refers back to something that happened earlier in the book, then leads into a story about the same thing happening again. The new story hooks the reader while reminding them of an important point he made earlier.

2. Breakthrough Leadership Team, by Mike Goldman

“You’ve just finished reading this book, and your head is swimming with ideas. You’re probably wondering, Where do I begin?

I suggest you start by measuring where you are in your journey toward becoming a Breakthrough Leadership Team …”

Here, again, the opening lines of the conclusion orient the reader, signaling to them that they have reached the final chapter. In this case, the Author jumps immediately into helping the reader figure out what to do next.

The title of this final chapter, by the way, is “Call to Action.” It’s the theme of the whole chapter, reminding the reader of their journey throughout the book and suggesting what to do next.

3. Beyond Wins, by Mala Subramaniam

“Did the book address questions posed in the OpeningThoughts?

Why do I feel like I am on a seesaw of wins and losses in my business negotiations? Even when I win, I sometimes feel like I lost something. Tools and techniques I picked up in books and training are not foreign, so what am I missing? What will put me on the path to success? What Is the yardstick for success?

It did for Paula of the Adrift Website Case, which is a real success story.”

This Author begins her conclusion by returning to and listing the questions she asked at the beginning. As the book ends, she reminds the reader of where the journey started, then immediately leads into a new story.

While you shouldn’t introduce new concepts in a conclusion, new stories that drive key concepts home are a great way to leave the reader with a memorable application of what they’ve learned.

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Imagine taking a long, leisurely trip through the scenic Rocky Mountains, swirling around the cumulus clouds in a jet-powered helicopter, high above the peaks -- only to return to ground level with a resounding thud, followed by a hurried brush-off by your tour guide.

Rather than reflecting on how wonderful the journey had been, the final thought you would be left with is: What just happened?

As a writer, your task is to not leave your readers stuck out on a limb, literally or figuratively, waiting for a sense of closure or final resolution. Instead, the task of a writer is to provide answers -- or, at minimum, final outcomes -- to all of the questions and situations laid out within the earlier parts of the story.

Ideally, the conclusion should provide closure to the question first posed in the beginning of the novel, along with corroborating facts and details from throughout the novel.

Within the concluding material, it is important to provide a summation of the overriding message of the story, as experienced through the eyes of the protagonist.

B. Steps to producing a compelling conclusion:

In order to successfully satisfy readers, the conclusion needs to contain the following three elements:

1. Restatement of the thesis statement to bring the story full-circle, and to remind the reader of the main point of the story

2. Recap of main points in a concise, but thorough, manner

3. Reflective assessment of the events that transpired within the story, and the outcomes derived

The conclusion should offer a sensible resolution that is foreseen as being inevitable. Because readers have been made privy to the lead character's journey, they should already have a strong sense of the arc on which he/she traveled.

More specifically, the conclusion is merely intended to restate the bulk of the story's ongoing events and activities, which carried the protagonist from beginning to end.

Regardless of the specific correlative technique used, the purpose in making the connection is to make the reader's job easier, by not requiring him/her to constantly go back and forth in the novel, trying to find pieces of information to unify the theme of the story.

C. The Conclusion: What not to include

New characters, evidence, ideas or arguments -- All of these are highly unusual within the final segment in a story, for there will not be sufficient time/space to complete their storylines.

Dragging ending -- Writers need to learn how to quickly conclude a story without doing a disservice to the reader. Once the major conflict has been resolved -- then, only a brief wrap-up is needed. It is important that the writer not linger, for this tends to take away from the intensity of the story, and the relationship between the protagonist and readers.

D. Conclusion: Sequencing statements

The recommended order in which to include concluding statements, is to first start by addressing the needs of the lower-level conflicts based upon their appearance in the story, moving on to the more major conflicts, and then, finally, to the central conflict.

While you have, indeed, achieved a milestone accomplishment worthy of celebration -- you still have a bit more work to do.

A. Putting Things In Order

When writers are in the throes of composing text, they are encouraged to keep going -- to let the words and ideas flow out of them without the intrusion of mental censorship or second-guessing.

Yet, as helpful as it is for writers to freely compose a rough draft, they will then need to take the time to go back and re-read the text, checking for proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, inconsistencies, and, as a whole, how the words and ideas flow together.

The proofreading -- or, as we like to say, polishing of the prose -- phase is incredibly important, for it can make or break your review by a potential publisher.

B. Style Guidelines

AP and Chicago Manual of Style, that may dictate the presentation of your manuscript.

Such style guidelines stress the importance of producing text that is cohesive. For instance, if you include numbers with the text, you will want to stick to a set rule as to how you show these, e.g., numerical or written out.

Often times, style guidelines are very helpful, for they simplify the entire process of whether to use numbers or words, abbreviate or spell out, include a hyphen, or close-up the word, etc.

In the case of submitting a manuscript to a potential publisher, it is critically important for a writer to match the required style formatting guidelines.

Beyond the rules of formatting, many say that writing is all about re-writing. This is perhaps due to the fact that the writer often acts out of inspiration, whereby they write quickly and, in doing so, have a tendency to produce haphazard text.

D. Proofreading Tips

The following are several tips to ensure your work is publisher-friendly:

1. Re-read manuscript several times

Re-reading a manuscript four or five times is not unusual. Due to the fact that the human eye gets accustomed to seeing things a certain way, the repetitive reading is necessary.

2. Read Backwards

When proofreading, it has been recommended that you read backwards; that is, you begin on the last page and work your way back to page one.

Q. How does this help to pick out typos and grammatical errors?

A. It allows the writer to become a reader, for it takes him/her out of his/her storyline, so that he/she can simply read the lines as a hardcore grammarian would.

3. Employ other readers

After several times of re-reading your own novel, you will inevitably become so used to the word flow and sentence structure, that you will no longer have the distance needed to spot mistakes. As a result, it is a good idea to ask others to read your work.

4. Spelling & Grammar Check: limited capabilities

Do not rely solely upon spell check or grammar check. While each of these technological marvels has its very essential purpose, they fail to discern between specific words and/or sentence structures, should they fall outside the realm of what is considered to be proper punctuation and spelling.

Quite often, writers select an incorrect version of a word, e.g., dessert versus desert -- but the spell check will not detect this type of mistake. The same holds true of the grammar checker, for it will pick up anything that does not comply with the generally accepted rule.

In order to conduct a basic grammar and punctuation check on your manuscript, you should adhere the following rules:

Try and stay away from an excessive use of symbols and unnecessary punctuation; inclusion of these tends to distract the reader, rather than engage.

Colons, for example, should be used sparingly. Within titles, they are fine, and as a set-up for a list of some sort, they are also acceptable.

The problem is that many writers tend to abuse the use of colons to the point where series become lists, and thus, necessitate, (in the writer's opinion), the use of a colon.

Semi-Colons

One of the trickiest punctuation marks, the semi-colon is intended to separate a clause from a complete sentence. More specifically, semi-colons should be reserved for use in instances when the symbol could be replaced with the words, "This is what I mean." For example: "She was throwing things and kicking the boxes on the ground; she was very, very angry."

Use of Numbers

Again, as we stated above, the use of numbers versus words is often dictated by the particular style guidelines being employed. Within Chicago Manual of Style, the accepted practice is to spell out numbers between one and nine, and use digits for anything over 10. The exception to this rule is with addresses, and other indicators of location that employ numerals, e.g., "She lives at 2 East Rockwell Street, apartment 8."

The proper use of the comma is the subject of much debate. Because the inclusion of commas is very subjective, it makes it all the more difficult to discern the appropriate usage. This is due to the fact that, of all the punctuation marks, the comma has the greatest number of purposes. For instance, commas can be used to break up a sentence into two main parts, making it easier to understand.

Commas are also used to separate items within a list. The big debate, however, is whether to include a comma between the second to last entry in a list and the word "and," or to omit it. For example, "She went to the store and bought eggs, ham, and bread," or "She went to the store and bought eggs, ham and bread." While either form is considered acceptable, the question to bear in mind is: "Does the sentence read well, and is the central idea not being compromised?

F. Wrapping Up

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it), there are so many grammar and punctuation rules to consider when proofreading, we will not be able to explore them all within the confines of this article.

Yet, that does not excuse you from taking time, yourself, to brush up on the established rules and newly revised publishing guidelines. Refresh yourself with the basic rules, and do your best to impart them into your writing; that is your duty as a writer.

Because we all have a tendency to gloss over text we have read countless times before, it is a good idea to enlist the aid of someone you know, or someone whose services you may contract, to review your work prior to shipping it off to a potential agent or publisher.

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Conclusions

What this handout is about.

This handout will explain the functions of conclusions, offer strategies for writing effective ones, help you evaluate conclusions you’ve drafted, and suggest approaches to avoid.

About conclusions

Introductions and conclusions can be difficult to write, but they’re worth investing time in. They can have a significant influence on a reader’s experience of your paper.

Just as your introduction acts as a bridge that transports your readers from their own lives into the “place” of your analysis, your conclusion can provide a bridge to help your readers make the transition back to their daily lives. Such a conclusion will help them see why all your analysis and information should matter to them after they put the paper down.

Your conclusion is your chance to have the last word on the subject. The conclusion allows you to have the final say on the issues you have raised in your paper, to synthesize your thoughts, to demonstrate the importance of your ideas, and to propel your reader to a new view of the subject. It is also your opportunity to make a good final impression and to end on a positive note.

Your conclusion can go beyond the confines of the assignment. The conclusion pushes beyond the boundaries of the prompt and allows you to consider broader issues, make new connections, and elaborate on the significance of your findings.

Your conclusion should make your readers glad they read your paper. Your conclusion gives your reader something to take away that will help them see things differently or appreciate your topic in personally relevant ways. It can suggest broader implications that will not only interest your reader, but also enrich your reader’s life in some way. It is your gift to the reader.

Strategies for writing an effective conclusion

One or more of the following strategies may help you write an effective conclusion:

• Play the “So What” Game. If you’re stuck and feel like your conclusion isn’t saying anything new or interesting, ask a friend to read it with you. Whenever you make a statement from your conclusion, ask the friend to say, “So what?” or “Why should anybody care?” Then ponder that question and answer it. Here’s how it might go: You: Basically, I’m just saying that education was important to Douglass. Friend: So what? You: Well, it was important because it was a key to him feeling like a free and equal citizen. Friend: Why should anybody care? You: That’s important because plantation owners tried to keep slaves from being educated so that they could maintain control. When Douglass obtained an education, he undermined that control personally. You can also use this strategy on your own, asking yourself “So What?” as you develop your ideas or your draft.
• Return to the theme or themes in the introduction. This strategy brings the reader full circle. For example, if you begin by describing a scenario, you can end with the same scenario as proof that your essay is helpful in creating a new understanding. You may also refer to the introductory paragraph by using key words or parallel concepts and images that you also used in the introduction.
• Synthesize, don’t summarize. Include a brief summary of the paper’s main points, but don’t simply repeat things that were in your paper. Instead, show your reader how the points you made and the support and examples you used fit together. Pull it all together.
• Include a provocative insight or quotation from the research or reading you did for your paper.
• Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help her to apply your info and ideas to her own life or to see the broader implications.
• Point to broader implications. For example, if your paper examines the Greensboro sit-ins or another event in the Civil Rights Movement, you could point out its impact on the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. A paper about the style of writer Virginia Woolf could point to her influence on other writers or on later feminists.

Strategies to avoid

• Beginning with an unnecessary, overused phrase such as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “in closing.” Although these phrases can work in speeches, they come across as wooden and trite in writing.
• Stating the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion.
• Introducing a new idea or subtopic in your conclusion.
• Ending with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes.
• Making sentimental, emotional appeals that are out of character with the rest of an analytical paper.
• Including evidence (quotations, statistics, etc.) that should be in the body of the paper.

Four kinds of ineffective conclusions

• The “That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It” Conclusion. This conclusion just restates the thesis and is usually painfully short. It does not push the ideas forward. People write this kind of conclusion when they can’t think of anything else to say. Example: In conclusion, Frederick Douglass was, as we have seen, a pioneer in American education, proving that education was a major force for social change with regard to slavery.
• The “Sherlock Holmes” Conclusion. Sometimes writers will state the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion. You might be tempted to use this strategy if you don’t want to give everything away too early in your paper. You may think it would be more dramatic to keep the reader in the dark until the end and then “wow” him with your main idea, as in a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The reader, however, does not expect a mystery, but an analytical discussion of your topic in an academic style, with the main argument (thesis) stated up front. Example: (After a paper that lists numerous incidents from the book but never says what these incidents reveal about Douglass and his views on education): So, as the evidence above demonstrates, Douglass saw education as a way to undermine the slaveholders’ power and also an important step toward freedom.
• The “America the Beautiful”/”I Am Woman”/”We Shall Overcome” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion usually draws on emotion to make its appeal, but while this emotion and even sentimentality may be very heartfelt, it is usually out of character with the rest of an analytical paper. A more sophisticated commentary, rather than emotional praise, would be a more fitting tribute to the topic. Example: Because of the efforts of fine Americans like Frederick Douglass, countless others have seen the shining beacon of light that is education. His example was a torch that lit the way for others. Frederick Douglass was truly an American hero.
• The “Grab Bag” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion includes extra information that the writer found or thought of but couldn’t integrate into the main paper. You may find it hard to leave out details that you discovered after hours of research and thought, but adding random facts and bits of evidence at the end of an otherwise-well-organized essay can just create confusion. Example: In addition to being an educational pioneer, Frederick Douglass provides an interesting case study for masculinity in the American South. He also offers historians an interesting glimpse into slave resistance when he confronts Covey, the overseer. His relationships with female relatives reveal the importance of family in the slave community.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Douglass, Frederick. 1995. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. New York: Dover.

Hamilton College. n.d. “Conclusions.” Writing Center. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://www.hamilton.edu//academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/conclusions .

Holewa, Randa. 2004. “Strategies for Writing a Conclusion.” LEO: Literacy Education Online. Last updated February 19, 2004. https://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html.

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Ending the Essay: Conclusions

So much is at stake in writing a conclusion. This is, after all, your last chance to persuade your readers to your point of view, to impress yourself upon them as a writer and thinker. And the impression you create in your conclusion will shape the impression that stays with your readers after they've finished the essay.

The end of an essay should therefore convey a sense of completeness and closure as well as a sense of the lingering possibilities of the topic, its larger meaning, its implications: the final paragraph should close the discussion without closing it off.

To establish a sense of closure, you might do one or more of the following:

• Conclude by linking the last paragraph to the first, perhaps by reiterating a word or phrase you used at the beginning.
• Conclude with a sentence composed mainly of one-syllable words. Simple language can help create an effect of understated drama.
• Conclude with a sentence that's compound or parallel in structure; such sentences can establish a sense of balance or order that may feel just right at the end of a complex discussion.

To close the discussion without closing it off, you might do one or more of the following:

• Conclude with a quotation from or reference to a primary or secondary source, one that amplifies your main point or puts it in a different perspective. A quotation from, say, the novel or poem you're writing about can add texture and specificity to your discussion; a critic or scholar can help confirm or complicate your final point. For example, you might conclude an essay on the idea of home in James Joyce's short story collection,  Dubliners , with information about Joyce's own complex feelings towards Dublin, his home. Or you might end with a biographer's statement about Joyce's attitude toward Dublin, which could illuminate his characters' responses to the city. Just be cautious, especially about using secondary material: make sure that you get the last word.
• Conclude by setting your discussion into a different, perhaps larger, context. For example, you might end an essay on nineteenth-century muckraking journalism by linking it to a current news magazine program like  60 Minutes .
• Conclude by redefining one of the key terms of your argument. For example, an essay on Marx's treatment of the conflict between wage labor and capital might begin with Marx's claim that the "capitalist economy is . . . a gigantic enterprise of dehumanization "; the essay might end by suggesting that Marxist analysis is itself dehumanizing because it construes everything in economic -- rather than moral or ethical-- terms.
• Conclude by considering the implications of your argument (or analysis or discussion). What does your argument imply, or involve, or suggest? For example, an essay on the novel  Ambiguous Adventure , by the Senegalese writer Cheikh Hamidou Kane, might open with the idea that the protagonist's development suggests Kane's belief in the need to integrate Western materialism and Sufi spirituality in modern Senegal. The conclusion might make the new but related point that the novel on the whole suggests that such an integration is (or isn't) possible.

Finally, some advice on how not to end an essay:

• Don't simply summarize your essay. A brief summary of your argument may be useful, especially if your essay is long--more than ten pages or so. But shorter essays tend not to require a restatement of your main ideas.
• Avoid phrases like "in conclusion," "to conclude," "in summary," and "to sum up." These phrases can be useful--even welcome--in oral presentations. But readers can see, by the tell-tale compression of the pages, when an essay is about to end. You'll irritate your audience if you belabor the obvious.
• Resist the urge to apologize. If you've immersed yourself in your subject, you now know a good deal more about it than you can possibly include in a five- or ten- or 20-page essay. As a result, by the time you've finished writing, you may be having some doubts about what you've produced. (And if you haven't immersed yourself in your subject, you may be feeling even more doubtful about your essay as you approach the conclusion.) Repress those doubts. Don't undercut your authority by saying things like, "this is just one approach to the subject; there may be other, better approaches. . ."

Copyright 1998, Pat Bellanca, for the Writing Center at Harvard University

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