Edit like an Editor: A Wattpad Featured Guide ✔

Part vi. Epilogues

What is an epilogue?

An epilogue is similar to a conclusion. Epilogues can be useful, but only if they enrich your story or add some value that exists beyond the main storyline.

Should you write an epilogue?

The short and simple answer is no, but that's only because no book really needs an epilogue. If it's crucial to the story, it shouldn't be an epilogue. It should be the final chapter.

You need a clear reason for writing an epilogue, and it cannot be used to simply tie up loose ends, which you should do during your falling action.

Without a proper purpose for including one, an epilogue might come across as anti-climatic deadweight, inadvertently signaling to your reader that you're afraid your ending is so weak that they won't be able to understand an implied meaning from it without help. To avoid such potential problems, make sure your epilogue is enhancing your story in one or more ways.

Reasons for having an epilogue

• Wrapping up story events after a traumatic or violent climax. This is an especially important technique when the ending is abrupt or surprising, as when a major character dies, or when the fate of the characters is not clearly depicted. If your ending raises more questions than it answers, you will need to rewrite it or create an epilogue to resolve this problem.

• Highlighting consequences and results of story events. Perhaps you've written a comeuppance story, or the ending features a major revelation. The epilogue will serve to assure the reader that justice has been dispensed.

• Providing important information that wasn't covered in the climax or denouement. If a character was ailing in the story, you might want to explain his fate. Or, if a character becomes pregnant, the epilogue can explain the birth of the child. This can work especially well if the father dies or the child has special significance to the story.

• Suggesting the future for the protagonist and other characters. This is an important consideration in series fiction or if you're planning a sequel. An epilogue might also be appropriate if a character undergoes severe physical, emotional, or psychological trauma, to assure the readers of his full or partial recovery.

• Making the story seem realistic. For example, if you've killed off a character, the epilogue can be written by another character to explain how things went down. Or, if you're writing a story and the ending was literally explosive, the epilogue assures readers that the protagonist has survived.

• Providing data on your large cast of characters, especially if you've written a sweeping historical or epic. Often, with a large cast, it's difficult to suggest the fate of every character.

If none of these reasons work for you and you just need to write an epilogue for your book to feel complete, then yes, go ahead and write an epilogue.

Again: If you do decide to have an epilogue, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a prologue, and if your book has a prologue, you don't necessarily have to have an epilogue.

Please give this part a vote if you've learned something you didn't know beforehand!