We interrupt this NaNo...

[masqthephlsphr]

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

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

you have my sympathy here. I have one novel I love, one of the first I finished. I've never managed to fix that end and it needs it.

[masqthephlsphr]

Endings are tough

[cornerofmadness]

absolutely, outrightly brutal at times

[cactuswatcher]

Which is why a bad ending is worse than a bad middle, or a bad beginning.

Now you tell me! ;o)

Seriously, I always had trouble with endings. I'd think I had a complete story and, whoops, not so much.

[masqthephlsphr]

My new plan after I come up with an ending is fix all the current chapters by editing them in reverse order. The ending trumps all.

[a2zmom]

I think you are absolutely right in that the ending has to completely nail it.

I think it's good though that you relized the story that inteests you is not exactly what you were writing. Bacuase now you can look at what you have written with a certain mindset.

[masqthephlsphr]

I've been writing both at the same time, I think. Trying to force the one I *thought* I should be writing, while simultaneously writing the one I wanted to write. So the threads of it are in there.

[ann1962]

If you just chose to write through the ending, do you think that would help you decide the actual ending?

[masqthephlsphr]

I have actually been doing timed free-writing of some chapters or scenes as part of this NaNo, since it makes the writing less mechanical and more open to ideas "off the beaten outline." So, I am certainly going to be doing that, just to see what comes out.

It works best after some prep, though, in terms of thinking through what you want to do and letting the back of your mind mull it over.