McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Curious

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meg_evonne:
Aren't endings fun? I also outline so I have a pretty good idea where I am going, although characters have a way of re-routing the outcome sometimes. 

Once in awhile I find endings difficult because the story line or the character isn't ready to say goodbye or maybe I'm not ready to say goodbye to them.  Life is a journey and so are your writings. 

What I do know is that if you get stuck in an ending, it's a lot harder to get through.  By that point in the book it is really hard to just force yourself to write through a writers block with a bunch of gobblygoop that you know you'll cut later--mainly because you are supposed to be tying up the story archs of the novel.  God, the number of times I've forced myself to write ten pages and then suddenly the most wonderful single paragraph shows up.  90% of the time I cut the forced part and find the paragraph covers that whole section!

Maybe if you try to make a list of everything you want to cover in the last pages it will focus you towards the goal, but if the character or story are telling you that you aren't done--you might still have a way to go to get there!  Your gut will tell you!

If it's you not wanting to let it go, better pop a beer and face it head on and cry your way through it.  It's like a mother eagle pushing the baby out of the nest.  It's hard to do and they may crash--but it's gotta be done.  Luckily with writing, unlike baby eagles, you can pick it up later and have a mulligan or a do-over.

Best wishes as you finish your pages. 

PS.  One really wierd time I realized a few years later on re-reading, that the story had ended about two chapters before I did. Now that was a waste of time but while in the moment I stubbornly kept going and just couldn't see it!  That's where having a friend read it with an outside perspective helps...

Grogtard:
With my very limited experience, it's the opposite.  I have the hardest time with the first 20% of the story then I hit my stride.  Of course when I finally finish a draft I usually end up cutting the 20% and rewriting the entire beginning.

ballplayer72:
where to start and where to end are always the hardest for me

RMatthewWare:
Start at the beginning.  End at the end.  Anything else is just silly.

Matt

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: RMatthewWare on June 01, 2007, 12:50:28 PM ---Start at the beginning.  End at the end.  Anything else is just silly.

--- End quote ---

May I recommend Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons ?

It has two narrative threads. One starts at the beginning. The other starts at the end. They converge towards the key event in the middle.  There is no way it should work a tenth as well as it actually does.

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