'The End'?

[Matnov]

Yes, the two most glorious words a writer can hope to write but I have a slight quandry. Finally finished the last chapter in my current first draft WIP. But I want to add an epilogue as there is one particular story arc that has a conclusion several months later.

Issue is do I write 'The End' now, or after the epilogue?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

After the epilogue.

 

[Barbara]

Congrats for finishing! Feels good, doesn't it? Every time we type these two words, it's an achievement to be proud of.

Re epilogue: you could always do it as a chapter with the heading 'x' month later.

 

[Amber]

Congratulations. I don't know myself about the epilogue. I'd google it.

 

[Tim James]

One of the stories I have written comes to its end at a moment when the possibilities for the protagonists have just opened up (they've achieved their dream and now look forward to the future.) I finished that one with The Beginning instead of The End.
I'm sure it's been done before, but I couldn't resist.

 

[Matnov]

After the epilogue.

Thanks. Confirms what I had been thinking.

 

[Marc Joan]

How about 'The End . . . or is it?'

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Congratulations on reaching The End—but, it's hard to stop moving when you've got white line fever isn't it?—you've been on a long journey, that, in a way, you don't want to finish. It's hard to be stopped and stationary!

Epilogues are tempting sprites. When I finished writing my already too long first novel, which weighed in at 139,000 words, I fretted for several weeks before pitching back in with a 40,000 word Afterword! I could have called it an Epilogue or a Postscript, but I felt compelled to explain what became of all of the victims of the serial killer of my detective tale, as there were so many mystifying loose ends. My reader appreciated the Afterword, but I still felt a bit like a failed comedian who had to explain how the joke worked.

Some epilogues occupy several pages, but I've read others that were a terse couple of paragraphs, with the author behaving like a dispassionate god as they summarised their protagonist's fate after the story ended.

If you're writing a story that's part of a series, rather than a standalone novel, then the epilogue can be a springboard into the next adventure.