How to Write a Compelling Ending, According to R.L. Stine

When developing your novel, it helps to come up with your twists and turns first.

R.L. Stine keeps readers engaged by skillfully directing away from an ending they might be anticipating. Planning your misdirection before you start writing makes it easier to fool people from the very beginning of the book.

Every Fear Street and Goosebumps book has a happy ending—except for one. But R.L. Stine received so much negative feedback from his readers that he never did it again. That’s because children’s horror books are supposed to be like roller coasters—frightening, but with an understanding that everything will be okay in the end. “They’ve been through all these monsters and horrible things, and they’ve been chased, and they’ve had all these creepy, terrible adventures. They want relief from it,” R.L. Stine says.

But while it’s important to write a happy ending to your novel, it’s also fun to add a small twist at the last moment to leave readers with a playfully spooky feeling—something that says, “Wait a minute, kids, you’re not out of it yet.”

Read on for common ways to conclude children’s stories and how these methods apply across the literary spectrum.

R.L. Stine first learned the value of a cliffhanger by tormenting his younger brother with ghost stories, refusing to finish them in a single sitting. A “cliffhanger” is a device that compels readers to find out what happens next in a story. Writing great cliffhangers is key to making your book a page-turner, and it’s one of the easiest ways to make your writing more suspenseful.

R.L. Stine spends a lot of time working on original cliffhangers. In fact, it’s how he ends most chapters. In The Haunted Mask, for example, he ends one chapter with a frightening moment in which the main character is grabbed from behind; but at the top of the next chapter, readers discover that this was just the character’s friend. He says he’s used this trick in hundreds of different chapters, but it’s worth repeating because cliffhangers keep kids reading.

To write a good cliffhanger, end your story or scene slightly before its natural conclusion (usually at the end of a chapter). An abrupt ending rattles the reader and gets them to ask: What’s next? This is particularly effective when applied to situations in which the characters are in a physically or emotionally heightened state. Are they being chased? Are they in the middle of an argument? Does their success hinge on one element of the story? What happens if that element is taken away or lost?

Cliffhangers put characters in precarious circumstances and create interest while deepening the plot. Cliffhangers can be as grand as life-or-death situations, but the method, once honed, can be applied just as effectively to the minutiae of ordinary life.

Middle grade and YA novels are often linear and predictable. Among other things, R.L. Stine thinks Goosebumps and Fear Street remain popular because the stories have enough twists to keep kids feeling surprised again and again.

Include at least two or three twists in your story. These help keep readers engaged, especially in the middle of your book when your plot might otherwise start to drag. Carrying readers through the middle of a story is challenging, and there needs to be enough excitement to keep them reading to the end.

Try tricking your readers by planting “false leads.” Also known as “red herrings,” these are details added to purposefully mislead people and prevent them from predicting an outcome. A great twist will surprise the reader and turn their whole understanding of the story on its head.

There are several ways to accomplish a clever and believable twist. One of the more important things to keep in mind when writing any twist, however, is that twists that stem from characters feel more believable than twists that come from thin air. Misdirection and foreshadowing are also great tools to implement when leading up to a plot twist.

Think about your ending, and then work backward: Can you swerve the story in a deliberately misleading direction, then bring it back for a satisfying conclusion? You can hide plot twists in the main plot, subplots, other plot points, or even other plot twists. Twists can come as early as the prologue but should be kept to a minimum nearing the end—unless your novel will have a sequel, and you’re ending your book with a cliffhanger.

American author O. Henry was a master of the plot twist. In fact, a surprise ending in a story is also called an “O. Henry ending.” Read a bit about him and browse some of his short stories here for inspiration on surprise endings.

Children’s books, books for young adults, and certain genres like romance or science fiction benefit from conclusions that present a complete resolution. Other genres, like literary fiction or historical fiction, however, leave room for ambiguity at the end.

When writing your way to the ending, try to write like a reader. Anticipate what your story needs to come to a close on the page and which loose ends you can leave up to the reader’s imagination. Leaving some story points up for debate is perfectly fine and acceptable, but it’s worth exploring all the different endings you can possibly write before settling on the mechanics of the final chapter.

Knowing what ending you’re heading toward is helpful to constructing a tight plot. When peppering in cliffhangers, twists, or other writing mechanics, always make sure to keep in mind that these elements work within the broader framework of your narrative. Work in your twists according to the final outcome you desire for your novel’s ending. Once you add an element to your book, such as a surprising new character or some sort of plot twist, you’ll need to go back and establish that character or story element early on in order to prepare your readers for what is coming down the line.

Write out a rough summary of the last scene of your novel. Once you know how the story ends, you can write a plot—complete with twists and turns—that gets readers there. Practice writing cliffhangers for your novel. Remember, cliffhangers serve to pique readers’ interest about events to come.

Take a look at the first scene in your rough outline and write five potential cliffhangers that would make it impossible for a kid to not go on to chapter two. If you look at most of the popular shows on TV today (think: Game of Thrones), you’ll notice each episode ends before viewers have enough information to be satisfied. In the same way, you want to write chapter endings that make young readers obsessed with moving on to the next scene, over and over again.

Review how you plan to end your novel, and develop five surprise endings, each one increasingly more outlandish. Push yourself to make them as strange and original as you can—this may be what a reader remembers most about your book. Most of all, remember to have fun with your story. You are your first reader, after all, so it’s important to keep yourself entertained and engaged, through to the final page.

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