14. How to End Book One in a Series

How to End Book One in a Sci-Fi or Fantasy Series

In this episode, Beth Barany explains how to end book one in a sci-fi or fantasy series when more books may follow, emphasizing that multiple arcs are in play—relationships, external plot, secondary plots, and character transformations.

The key is deciding what will be resolved to satisfy readers’ subgenre expectations, while still leaving open questions for later books.

Using the young adult adventure fantasy Henrietta the Dragon Slayer as an example, the host describes completing the main quest by the end of book one while postponing the protagonist’s deeper motivation for book two, alongside a strong character transformation arc that makes the ending feel complete.

Beth advises choosing in revisions what gets answered and using beta readers to test satisfaction, noting that many series resolve a major event while signaling bigger conflicts ahead.

00:00 Series Ending Question
 00:34 What Must Resolve
 01:15 Quest Ending Example
 02:41 Character Arc Payoff
 03:01 Emotional Satisfaction
 03:43 Revisions And Betas
 04:13 Space Opera Model
 04:47 Wrap Up And Farewell

c. 2026 Beth Barany

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Transcript

0:00

Hi, everyone. In this episode, I'm gonna talk about how do you end book one in your sci-fi or fantasy series when you know there's gonna be more books. Maybe those books are planned or just a seedling or just a wish. How do you end book one? I faced this multiple times in, in at least two series and also in an episodic, serial that I'm currently working on as I record this. So this is a legit question, I wanna thank Amanda, in our edit lab for suggesting this and for asking this question. There are a few different ways I think about ending book one in a series There's multiple things going on in your book. There might be relationship arcs, whether or not it's romance, but people becoming friends, becoming enemies. There's gonna be your external plot arc that's driving the action of the story. There might be some secondary plots as well, and maybe some of your secondary characters also have their own story arcs and transformation arcs. So you've got a lot to juggle. So the question to ask is, what gets resolved at the end of book one that's gonna really satisfy your readers? You're writing a certain subgenre inside of science fiction and fantasy, so there's some expectations there. for example, in my young adult adventure fantasy, Henrietta the Dragon Slayer, it was a quest story, so the quest had to be completed, otherwise it doesn't feel complete. And so I did complete the quest, but it was complete enough. the quest was find this healing stone that belongs to this dragon, retrieve it, bring it back to her old sword master, who is dying. So the first book, spoilers, I'm sorry, spoilers, she does retrieve, I'm not gonna tell you how, but she does retrieve this healing stone But at the end of book one, she still has to go back home and bring it to her former master. as I was working on this book, I actually didn't know there would be a book two at this point. It was just enough of a hurdle. It was my very first novel I published, third novel I wrote. I really wanted to master the feeling of a quest being completed, and I think I did. I think I did a great job. In fact, the book won an award, a grand prize in a, for independent authors in California back in, uh, 2012. So I realized I could complete some of the threads, and I completed the main thread. The book starts with, hey, come, come do this quest. The book ends with that quest being finished. But, her main motivation for the quest hadn't yet been finished, and I do finish, I do bring that, into c- to completion in book two, which opens up new cans of worms that get dealt with in book three. It's a three-book series I also in that story did a pretty strong character completion arc, meaning she starts off one way and she goes through a big transformation and ends up a new way by the end of book one, and it feels really satisfying. That's what we wanna give the readers. What will satisfy the readers? Each each genre and subgenre brings a certain emotion, to the reader, a certain emotional experience, or I like to say a certain emotional food. When we eat different meals, we have different experiences. So what is the emotional experience you would like your reader to have by the end of book one, and how do you satisfy them in the main meal, the main dish, so to speak? And maybe there are some smaller dishes that you're gonna bring to to conclusion. Maybe a main character arc and maybe a secondary character arc. But you are still gonna have threads, not tied up, or another way to say that is you're gonna have open questions that still need answers. in revisions, this is a great time to decide what gets answered, what doesn't, what gets resolved, what doesn't. And then if you are not 100% sure, this is where beta readers come in, and I will have an episode up on beta readers as well, So in answer to the question, how do you end book one in your sci-fi or fantasy series, tie up the main arc to a satisfactory conclusion that most readers in your subgenre would be happy with? I've read a lot of space opera that spans five books, seven books, and what I notice works really well as a reader is there will be a big battle, for example, in a book, and that will resolve. But you know there's more coming and there's bigger problems coming that doesn't resolve. Some of the character arcs resolve, and the main character especially gets, like, a step up in their skills, responsibility, uh, sense of accomplishment. But of course, we know that more is coming, and that's one of the reasons why we love series so much. All right. So I hope that this was helpful. If you have any questions, bring them to Edit Lab, post them in our Fellowship of the Pen group, write me. I'm here for you, and I'd love to hear how it's going. All right, that's it for this week, everyone. Happy writing. Right, Rocket? Happy writing!