therealljidol week 25: the Waffle House Index

[j0ydivided]

The announcement came in mid-June. "THE END OF THE WORLD", blared the papers -- but it wasn't news. Most of us already knew, or had guessed. They were confirming what we already suspected

Comments

[j0ydivided]

Thank you!

Regarding the ambiguity of the end -- I actually wrote another version of this story, back in...2009? for a writing workshop I was participating in at the time. When I wrote that story, it ended on the last day, with the two characters (brother and sister, in that version) sitting on the beach in Crescent City, California, waiting for sunset and knowing, down to the minute, when the world would end. When I turned it in to the workshop, the workshop leader had one comment about the ending -- specifically, "This story is written in first-person past tense, and it ends at the end of the world. That ruins the dramatic tension -- we know the world doesn't end, because otherwise, how would your main character be able to write about it?" He had other comments, too, about how the "how" didn't matter as much as how the characters reacted to it, because the original version was very long and heavy on the "the world is ending, here is the reason why!"

I kept those comments in mind, and when I started writing for this week, I knew I had to do the ending differently. Does it end? Maybe yes, maybe no. I think it does, but there's always the possibility of a dramatic rescue. :)

[rayaso]

Thanks for the interesting information. I enjoy hearing about how people arrive at their end products. Mine usually involve banging my head on the wall.