So, In Conclusion
Endings. Y’all. ENDINGS. We’ve talked about this recently, but since it comes up time and time again, I wanted to bring it up one more time. Indulge me, would ya?
It’s hard to end an essay, no doubt. If you end with a cliffhanger, you leave unanswered questions, and the reader will be unsatisfied. If you fast forward to say everyone lived happily ever after, the epilogue feels tacked on and unnecessary. If you end by telling everyone how you feel about the thing you wrote about, you’re a) telling and not showing, and b) not trusting your reader to understand. If you feel the need to reiterate the whole story in summary formation, you either a) didn’t tell it right the first time, or b) being redundant.
The problem with each of these is they feel like natural conclusions. Imagine you were telling the story out loud. At some point you’d stop talking and the other person would say, “Oh wow!” or “Oh my goodness!” But when you are writing, there’s no one having that reaction so it can cause us to keep going.
Try reading your post aloud and listen for the part where you’d stop talking. Look at everything that comes after. If there are details that should be in the story, move them. If you’re telling someone how to feel, summing up, or repeating yourself, cut it. Maybe you’ll realize your story isn’t finished and you’ll add another detail – maybe it’s the thing someone said or did in reaction. It might well be something that happens years in the future in the case of something that comes back to bite you, for example. Just make sure it needs to be there.
You may even want to read your essay to a trusted friend and ask them to tell you where your ending should be. Just be careful since not all beta readers (listeners?) understand a proper ending either. The bottom line is if you could easily throw, “So, in conclusion…” in front of your actual conclusion, you might not need that conclusion after all.
Nonfiction Know-How: Persuasive Essay
Creative nonfiction isn’t just your personal mostly-true stories. You can also use your powers to teach and persuade readers. Learn how to share your wisdom and lessons about life in a persuasive essay that’s more fun to read than that Grade 8 essay question answer in this month’s Nonfiction Know-How.
How to submit and fully participate in the challenge:
Basic YeahWrite guidelines: 1000 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; nonfiction personal essay, creative opinion piece or mostly true story based on actual events.
1. In the sidebar of this week’s post, please grab the code beneath the nonfiction badge and paste it into the HTML view of your entry;
2. Follow the Inlinkz instructions after clicking “add your link” to upload your entry to this week’s challenge grid;
3. Your entry should appear immediately on the grid if you don’t receive an error message;
4. Please make the rounds to read all the entries in this week’s challenge; and
5. Consider turning off moderated comments and CAPTCHA on your own blog.
Submissions for this week’s challenges will close on Wednesday at 10pm ET. Voting will then open immediately thereafter and close on Thursday at 10pm ET. The winners, as always, will be celebrated on Friday.
Thank you for sharing with us your hard work! Good luck in the challenge…
Loading InLinkz ...About the author:
Michelle submitted her first entry to YeahWrite in March 2012 and they haven’t been able to get rid of her since. After nearly 20 years in the insurance/employee benefits industry, she decided to give it all up to pursue writing full time. Her work has been featured on The Huffington Post and xoJane, as well as several local sites near her northern NJ home. She blogs at Michelle Longo.
