The opening and closing scenes of a novel create a framework that shapes the reader’s journey. Your first chapter sets expectations for tone, theme, and character growth. It makes all sorts of promises to your readers. Then, the final chapter pays off on those promises. When a story’s beginning and ending resonate with one another — even if the journey from A to Z is full of unexpected twists and turns — readers will feel a satisfying sense of symmetry and completeness.
So, how can you create a meaningful connection between your story’s beginning and ending? Let’s go.
NOTE: This is a blog post about the endings of novels. Expect light spoilers.
1. Set Up Themes in the Beginning That You Can Echo in the End
Your story’s key themes and questions will emerge through the characters — how they interact with one another, how they drive the plot, and how they move through the setting. Introducing these themes in the first chapter helps readers understand what kind of story they’re stepping into, and returning to them in the end (likely from a different or deepened perspective) encourages readers to reflect on the journey.
For an example, look at The Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway’s first descriptions of Gatsby and the world of East Egg set up themes of wealth, aspiration, and the elusiveness of the American Dream. Then, the final pages return to those themes from a darker perspective, reflecting on the hollowness of the dream he chased — and the life he lived while chasing it.
Exercise: List the themes you hint at in your opening scene or chapter, then write out several ways you might bring them back in a fresh, evolved way in your ending.
2. Establish a Tone in the Beginning That Will Carry Through
The tone you set in the first chapter is often the one readers will expect throughout the book. Maintaining that tone in your ending (even if it’s evolved do a deeper or slightly different version) can help readers feel both the continuity and the full weight of the journey they’ve experienced.
Rebecca Ross’s Divine Rivals opens with a tone of gloom and anxiety laced with whimsy. As the novel progresses, the gloom and anxiety grow into full-blown war, and yet her unique brand of whimsy remains, differentiating the novel from other fantasy war stories while maintaining a cohesive emotional experience for readers.
Exercise: Consider the tone you set in your first chapter. Does your ending reinforce or evolve that tone? A tonal echo can give readers a feeling of satisfaction and bring the journey full circle.
3. Introduce Character Traits That Will Be Tested and Transformed
Your protagonist in the first chapter may feel like a different person by the end of the book — and yet, more than likely, they will have retained core elements of themselves. In the beginning, show readers who your character is before they embark on their journey — through their hopes, fears, or beliefs. By the end, show how they’ve been changed by what they’ve experienced (and what parts of their original selves have been preserved or even amplified).
For a classic example, look at Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. She starts the book with a pure, childlike innocence. She’s curious and hopeful, and she has very little understanding of anything bad happening around her. **However, as the book progresses, her perspective matures. She loses some of that innocence, but she retains her hope and compassion. The growth feels natural because it stays rooted in who she was in the beginning.
Exercise: Review your opening scene for hints of your protagonist’s core values or fears. Think about how you want those traits to change, and use the ending to highlight that growth.
4. Use Symbols or Motifs to Create a Sense of Continuity
Symbols and motifs can create a thread that runs through the entire novel, giving your beginning and ending a natural connection. Whether it’s a setting, object, or recurring phrase, introducing a symbol in the opening and revisiting it at the end can give readers a sense of thematic completion.
The tiny bottles — and the scents inside them — that Emmeline inherits from her father in The Scent Keeper, by Erica Bauermeister, are a great example of this tactic. The book opens with Emmeline begging her father to tell her about the bottles, and it closes with her opening the last one. The bottles represent her memories of her father and her connection to her own identity, and seeing them (in very different lights) in both the first moments and the last is a powerful way to reflect the beginning right at the end.
Note: A similar strategy, which may or may not be appropriate for your novel, is to repeat or mirror the first line in the last, as S.E. Hinton does in The Outsiders.
Exercise: What symbols or motifs are you already using throughout your novel? (Or, if you haven’t explored these yet, what might you incorporate?) Brainstorm how your novel’s most important symbols or motifs could create thematic bookends, shaping both the first and the last scenes.
5. Make Sure You’ve Fulfilled the Promises You Made in Chapter 1
Your first chapter sets readers expectations for the rest of your story — its tone, its central questions, and more. From the resolution of a mystery to a dramatic character transformation, the first chapter tells them what they’re investing in and what’s coming down the road. Use your ending to fulfill that promise in a way that’s both satisfying and, ideally, unexpected.
Take the Hunger Games series, for example. We learn in the beginning that Katniss’s sole focus is protecting her sister from the oppressive government and the difficulties it has wrought. By the end, she has changed Panem and survived tremendous hardship, fulfilling the story’s initial promise of survival and rebellion against injustice.
Exercise: Review your first chapter for implicit promises about plot, character, or theme. How will you follow through on those promises by the end?
Final Note: You Can Always Go Home, But It Will Never Be the Same
Just because your ending reflects the beginning, that doesn’t mean your story has to return to the exact same place or mood (though it can, albeit your character’s new perspective will make it feel different). Connecting the end to the beginning is about creating a sense of cohesion and harmony between where the reader started and where they ended up. This strategy creates a narrative that feels intentional and complete, giving readers a profound sense of closure.
How do you plan to connect your WIP’s ending to its beginning? Share in the comments below, or drop me a note. I’d love to hear what you’re working on!
