Your novel’s bookends do the heavy lifting. In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we pair Step 16 (Writing the Opening Scene) and Step 17 (Writing the Closing Scene) to help you start with momentum and finish with meaning. You’ll learn what a scene is (and why something must change every time), how to centre your protagonist’s thoughts and feelings, and a simple timer method to draft three different openings and three different endings - fast. Then we “mirror test” your bookends so the final scene proves the belief shift you promise on page one.
You’ll learn:
The four-beat scene engine: Want → Friction → Choice → Change
How to draft rough, 5–10 page scene sketches using TK placeholders
Three alternative ways to start (and end) the same story—by design
The “rhyme, don’t repeat” rule for opening/closing scenes that land
Leave with a clear opening, a true ending, and a direction for everything in between.
