Stick the Landing

How to Create a Cathartic and Satisfying Conclusion [to Your Novel]

Last month, I was a camp counselor for ProWritingAid’s Novel Camp. It was fun. Since it was free (and it’s now on YouTube), I figured I’d share it with you. It’s a teensy bit over an hour long. [Yes, I’ve applied to participate in PWA’s Novel November, but they haven’t announced who’ll be part of the program yet.]

Presentation Outline

If you’re looking to figure out whether this is worth your time to watch, here’s what I ramped on about.

• Who Is This Crazy Person?

  • Shameless self-promotion. 😈

• What Are the Qualities of a Working Conclusion?

  • You Typed THE END. So what?

• Are You Really Done? Is It Good?

  • Cliffhangers!

  • The qualities of a working conclusion.

• Giving & Receiving Feedback

  • The taxonomy of feedback providers

  • How to receive feedback

  • How to give [good] feedback

  • How to give yourself feedback

• What Do You Do If It’s Not Good

  • Fifty Shades of Resolution

  • Options and decisions about what to do next

• What Happens After THE END?

  • Bonus discussion of what goes in at the back of your book.

• Questions. Answers?

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Would you like help with your catastrophe, conclusion, resolution, or aftermath?

Wherever you are in your process, I’d love to chat about how I can help you. Book a free campfire chat and let’s talk about your story.

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Scene Stormers Is Open for Business

Beginning in September 2026, several of my favorite peers and I will begin teaching a six-week scene writing bootcamp that we are affectionately branding as Scene Stormers. We will be discussing the well-known fundamentals of fiction writing that all the cool kids since Aristotle first wrote down that stories need a beginning, a muddle (my term), and an end in The Poetics and we will be giving you human-generated feedback on your scenes.

We (Scene Stormers) are currently assembling our curriculum and we will be publishing it all in advance, because (Spoiler Alert! ⚠️) there are no secrets in storytelling. The primary value that we provide to you (our customers) is the weekly discussions during the six-week bootcamp and the one-on-one human feedback on your writing every week.

📚 For the inaugural workshop, we’re using Hunger Games as our masterwork.

📅 If you’d like to be considered for our inaugural bootcamp in September, apply now. The inaugural cohort will only accept 20 writers … if you want to be in the one and only Mockingjay Cohort. We’ll review your application within two business days.

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Paid Subscriber Benefits

🍪 Paid subscribers get a free cookie invitation to a thirty-minute consultation with me about whatever they like every month. We can talk about whatever you like.

📅 Paid subscribers also get an hour-long unrecorded group deep dive conversation every month via zoom. In August 2026, we’ll be talking about implementing John Truby’s Four Corner Opposition in your novel. In September, we’ll talk about the combustion phase of your scenes and novels and how to escalate them by design. In October, we’ll be singing the backstory blues and how to interview your imaginary friends and enemies.

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Fine Print: 🤑 Teh FTC and other busybodies on the internet want me to warn you that I may earn a commission from affiliate links on this website. This means, if I’m a good boy, some company I link to may give me a penny or two. You have been warned.