writerly ways

[cornerofmadness]

Endings. I decided to talk about endings. After my whining about not wanting to see FMA end, I had an idea and a comment to that post by salomesensei got me thinking further. A lot of readers don't want the story to end. That's a good thing.

It's less good when you're the author. I have a terrible time with endings. It's not that I don't know how my story will end. I usually do. It's that I don't want my story to end. I've actually put off ending a novel for years in a self-defeating attempt to hold onto these characters i've come to like far too much.

I said last year was going to be about ending things but it wasn't. I failed utterly. Maybe this year can be the year of the ending.

ETA - Given the responses, I'm not sure I was clear. I HAVE the endings in mind. I always have some kind of ending in mind. That's not really what I'm asking here. I'm wondering more do you have trouble bringing yourself to write the ending, to put the finish to the story

So how do you all handle endings? I have a tendency to rush them. I do hear that criticism often and I don't complain when I do.I know it's right. I do rush the endings. It's like OMG get it done before I lose my nerve to end it at all. There has to be better ways than this. So does anyone else have troubles with endings?


I did eek out another 1800 words this week so it wasn't so bad.

32242 / 175000 words. 18% done!

(watch COM forget how much word count she wanted on her novels...)

Machiavelli Moon - FAILED to edit

Riding with Strangers -

33204 / 61000 words. 54% done!

Beneath the Torn Sky -

55502 / 80000 words. 69% done!

SPlinters of Silver and Cold Iron -

74516 / 80000 words. 93% done!


see what I mean. I'm so close and the closer i get the harder it is to work on these and finish them. UGH.

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

You're writing a novel of 175000 words??

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

look below, that's the mostly broken up between these novels and short stories

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

I thought it might be the total, except the number of words written so far didn't total the number of words written so far below it.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that's because the 175K is my goal for this year and I've b een working on these novels for more than that. each one of them has it's own seperate goal and the rest of the word count will b e whatever else i write

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

I don't know how many writers this holds true for, but I can't seriously work on a story--short or long--without knowing from the start how it's going to end. I think the bigger challenge with the end-first method, at least with writing a series, is not making the end of each story too _final_. As for the stories I start with no ending in mind, they usually lose focus several chapters in and end up as fragments on my hard drive.

Maybe the reluctance to say goodbye to characters is the main reason series get started? Or maybe it's just that we have so much invested in the characters, in their creation and development, that it's easier to keep telling their story in multiple books than to jettison them and start all over with new people. I think, when the time comes to part company, we'll know it because both we and our characters will become thoroughly sick of each other. Or one day the characters just stop talking to you, and you know the relationship's over. As long as there's life in the characters, however, it's probably best to stick with them and go as far as they'll take you.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I was obviously very unclear in this.I should go back and fix that. I don't mean that i don't KNOW where the story ends. I know that much. It's writing it that's the issue.

I'm sure that a mutual love of the characters for both the writer and the audience are the reason series gets started and yes, eventually you'll tire of them (points to Castle, that's half the premise). There are some who probably should stop writing them before they do.

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

No, I got that you write with the endings already in mind, or at least an idea of an ending. I was just pointing out that I absolutely cannot end a story unless it already has an ending when I start it. As in, the final paragraph is already written. (Reading that back, I'm not sure it makes sense, but I wasn't too clear the first time, either. Sigh.)

There are series lead characters who not only are written too long, they shouldn't have been written more than once, period. I don't know what possesses some writers to fall in love with the characters they do. Well, Mary Sues I sort of understand, but the generic-cardboard fantasy men characters just defy me.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ah okay. well yes I do get what you're saying and somewhere in here it was pointed out some authors literally write the ending first.

not only do they fall in love with their cardboard characters, other people do too because these series get bought

[rahirah]

I've pretty much got to know how a story will end from the beginning - it can be the roughest, sketchiest idea possible, but if I don't know the ending then the story has no shape, no form, and generally ends up abandoned. If I don't know where I'm going, how can I possibly figure out the best way to get there?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i know the endings. it's a matter of writing them. I generally don't want to

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

The ending of a particular story is never that tough to me; of course, I tend to write about the same characters once I get involved in a world, so for me, they never really "end" -- it's like I said with the end of Ring of Fire, that story has a happy ending because of where I stopped it -- but I certainly haven't "ended" their lives because that particular story stopped.

Maybe it's because I, too, don't like it when favorite stories end and there's no more. The first time I finished The Chronicles of Narnia was like that for me, and many others over the years. That's why I like so much authors who write the same characters in new stories....

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I think that's one of the appeals of mystery series for me.I get to come back to the same characters again and again.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

DEFINITELY the same here. Probably part of my affection for serialized television shows, as well.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i agree

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Generally my problem is similar, but my response is different -- I go on to long, adding too much after the climax, not only because I hate loose strings but because I hate to leave the characters I've come to know. My biggest complaint I got from my former agent was about my ending going on too long.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i'm beginning to think that endings do give us all problems

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

They're almost as bad as the beginnings!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

or the dreaded middles

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

So .... pretty much all of it, then. :-)

I'd really hate being a writer, except I don't have a choice but to love it.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahaha i get that

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

Swedish detective writer Holt (IIRC) writes the endings first and writes towards that goal.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that might not be a bad idea

[hierath.livejournal.com]

I always know the endings, but I have real trouble getting to them, and as I approach the end I write slower and slower and slo-w-er... :) Because I don't want to let go either!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

see, this is exactly what i'm talking about. This is what always happens with me. I haven't found a way to break that habit. And now, after nanowrimo is over i take my half done novel and put it on the shelf and never finish it. That's a worse habit