There's no crying. There's no crying in writing!
Except when there is.
I have honestly never cried while writing. Before this week, that is.
Throughout the entire process of writing this novel, I daily have felt really bad about the hell I put my main character through. But, in my own defense, she took the novel into her own hands and started to run further into the flames, so it's really more her fault than mine. Right?
But then I got this idea for a new ending, and my god, it is literally breaking my heart to write it. I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it right now. Part of me wanted to say "Forget it!" and leave the original ending, but I came to a realization: This ending is affecting me because it's right.
I had felt pretty ambivalent to my ending before. It was okay. My villain is fun to write and I got to do a lot of that, so that was good, at least. This new ending, though, is throwing me because it's surprising me.
It's my hope that this ending will be a satisfying and cohesive finish, so I'm waiting for some feedback right now before I spend more time mulling it over and sniffling over my keyboard. If I'm moving in a direction that makes no good sense to the readers, then I need to know.
I'm usually a very emotional person. I cry at pretty much everything: movies, commercials (the Google one during the Superbowl made me all Sniffy McSobberson), looking at babies (human or animal, really doesn't matter), you know the usual. Is it strange, then, that I haven't cried while writing before?
I've written plenty of emotional scenes, but I think the issue might be that I'd planned those and was therefore prepared for the weep-inducing moment. This ending came about suddenly, so maybe I just wasn't prepared? Or maybe it is just because it's the right thing for the novel, as I mentioned earlier.
So, what do you think? Does crying while writing mean you've just struck a surprising emotional chord in yourself, or does it mean you've found a truth in your writing? Or both?
I have honestly never cried while writing. Before this week, that is.
Throughout the entire process of writing this novel, I daily have felt really bad about the hell I put my main character through. But, in my own defense, she took the novel into her own hands and started to run further into the flames, so it's really more her fault than mine. Right?
But then I got this idea for a new ending, and my god, it is literally breaking my heart to write it. I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it right now. Part of me wanted to say "Forget it!" and leave the original ending, but I came to a realization: This ending is affecting me because it's right.
I had felt pretty ambivalent to my ending before. It was okay. My villain is fun to write and I got to do a lot of that, so that was good, at least. This new ending, though, is throwing me because it's surprising me.
It's my hope that this ending will be a satisfying and cohesive finish, so I'm waiting for some feedback right now before I spend more time mulling it over and sniffling over my keyboard. If I'm moving in a direction that makes no good sense to the readers, then I need to know.
I'm usually a very emotional person. I cry at pretty much everything: movies, commercials (the Google one during the Superbowl made me all Sniffy McSobberson), looking at babies (human or animal, really doesn't matter), you know the usual. Is it strange, then, that I haven't cried while writing before?
I've written plenty of emotional scenes, but I think the issue might be that I'd planned those and was therefore prepared for the weep-inducing moment. This ending came about suddenly, so maybe I just wasn't prepared? Or maybe it is just because it's the right thing for the novel, as I mentioned earlier.
So, what do you think? Does crying while writing mean you've just struck a surprising emotional chord in yourself, or does it mean you've found a truth in your writing? Or both?
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