Writing Book 8 · Lesson 35

Explanatory — Draft the ending

The final conclusion of the strand: claim established, consequence named.

What it is

An ending is not a summary. Repeating what you just said insults a reader who has only just read it. A real ending answers the question so what? — it tells your reader what to do with the thing they now understand, or shows them the bigger thing it is part of.

Watch it built

Here is the summary ending, which adds nothing.

So that is how a seed becomes a plant.

Ask so what? — what does knowing this let a reader see?

That the plant was already whole inside the seed.

Write that instead.

Nothing was added to the seed but water, warmth, and light. Everything else was already inside it.

Remember
Not a summary. Answer so what?

Ask yourself: “What should my reader think differently now?”

Remember

Establish the claim, then say what it changes.