Endings are difficult

The biggest fault with story endings is when they are predictable.

How often have you heard someone say, “It was good but I guessed the ending by page 5?” Good stories have the reader guessing right up to the end.

Not all plots come together as well as Maass would have us believe: he says inner (emotional) and outer climaxes (plot related)must come together at the same time. The writer may forget the emotional slant in the rush to the end, and that is a mistake. It can also be overdone. There are one or two Jack Reacher scenes where I think, oh for Heaven’s sake, get on with it!

Maass recommends making failure look likely, too. Everybody, except maybe Jack Reacher, has doubts.

Snyder uses the phrase A whiff of death, or All is Lost, and says this must occur in every thriller before the final moment.

Fiction genres come with predetermined expectations. Romances, for example, usually have a nice, happy, upbeat ending with Hero and Heroine in a happy-ever-after-clinch. Mysteries and thrillers depend on plot twists that keep readers turning pages to find out who done it, or why. “Expect the unexpected” is the motto here. Open or unresolved endings are not good in this genre. The reader wants to know if the murderer goes to prison, escapes, or dies trying? Was the truth uncovered?