We interrupt this NaNo...
Sunday, I hit a wall with my novel. I have been working on the action parts of the story for most of this month, and had 7-8 scene/chapters left to go and just could not figure out how to write them. Ends are tricky. In some ways, they ARE the novel, because they are what everything is building up to. Whatever your novel is ABOUT is encapsulated in the ending. Which is why a bad ending is worse than a bad middle, or a bad beginning.
The ending is also very important if one of the goals of this novel is to make it the first novel in a series. The ending sets up whatever comes next, and my interest in what comes next determines my interest in writing a series instead of a stand-alone novel.
I had an ending of my novel all figured out, but just could not get it written. And I think I realized Sunday that I don't like the ending. The planned ending was not a place I felt inclined to build future stories on. It was all politics of the story world and I think I really want to tell a story about one individual and her personal struggle with all that world-building as backdrop. Right now, the beginning and middle contain arcs supporting both of those endings/emphases--politics of the story-world and her personal struggle. It's a little chaotic, representing two competing visions for the novel simultaneously.
Next step: nail down how I want the ending to play out, then decide what stays and what goes in everything I've written.
This may or may not mean that NaNo 2013 is officially over. Not that I was keeping a word count or anything.
The ending is also very important if one of the goals of this novel is to make it the first novel in a series. The ending sets up whatever comes next, and my interest in what comes next determines my interest in writing a series instead of a stand-alone novel.
I had an ending of my novel all figured out, but just could not get it written. And I think I realized Sunday that I don't like the ending. The planned ending was not a place I felt inclined to build future stories on. It was all politics of the story world and I think I really want to tell a story about one individual and her personal struggle with all that world-building as backdrop. Right now, the beginning and middle contain arcs supporting both of those endings/emphases--politics of the story-world and her personal struggle. It's a little chaotic, representing two competing visions for the novel simultaneously.
Next step: nail down how I want the ending to play out, then decide what stays and what goes in everything I've written.
This may or may not mean that NaNo 2013 is officially over. Not that I was keeping a word count or anything.