I figured out an ending. I'm not happy with it, but it'll do for the nonce. I went ahead and tried something rather rare for me: I outlined the end of the story. It's just a single page with a chapter number (starting at 73, which I wrote today, and ending at 85) and a brief description on it.
I have some problems with it.
1) There are only three Saldrae chapters left, which isn't cool. I really like her as a character, and though she's been fluctuating between passive and active, on the whole I think that she's a really important, solid addition to the story. Unfortunately, her role is pretty much done, now. She has emotional closure to the story that will be really fun to write, but there isn't a lot in terms of the action that she'll be able to do. Part of it is because she's not the kind of person who kicks butt literally--she has other ways in which she is strong and resourceful. If I can, I'd really like to let her come through with that strength one more time, but, currently, it isn't in the outline.
2) There are WAY more chapters than I thought. I assumed that I was within 7 chapters of finishing this thing off. But looking at it, I'm more like 12 or 13 chapters away. The problem with that is two fold: One, I have a lot more work ahead of me, with a projected total of 311,000+ words in the whole book. That's longer than anything else I've ever written, and it'll take me another year to edit that many words. I was really hoping to have a submission ready by the end of this year, but I'm really not so sure about that now. Two, I won't be meeting my goal of finishing the book by the end of the school year. It's a self-imposed goal, obviously, but I've done so well about hitting those goals before that I really wanted to get this one, too. But it would require more writing than I can plausibly do in a single sitting (somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,700 words per writing session, or nearly 1,000 words per day if I wrote daily). I've had days where I've hit nearly 10,000 words, yes, but those were exceptionally rare. I doubt there'd be a way to plan on that for the next seven writing sessions. Now, in my favor, there is only my final in my World War I class that needs to be finished next Saturday. So my sessions will be able to start sooner--a whole three hours or so. If I can find it in me to get up, get out, and get writing by 10:30 after my class is over, then do lunch, then go back and write again, then maybe there's a chance. In fact, it's my only chance to reach my goal.
3) It's a little discouraging to work so hard, see the end slide a little further away, and then realize that I haven't even resolved everything that I needed to. I'm thinking of postponing some of my coolest monsters, since getting them involved in the story in any greater way isn't going to happen. I just ran out of room and time. The focus never went that way, and so I'll either need to give them a lame ending or just omit them entirely. I want to do neither, but since I haven't made them a real issue in the last, oh, 100,000 words, there's no real way of taking care of it. Unless... (see #4)
4) The story is headed toward a middle ground of the world burning and the characters not being left in ashes. This is predictable, but I have a hard time justifying anything else--the story is pointing me toward a happier ending. Unfortunately, I can't just have them be wrapped up perfectly at the end and be satisfied with the ending. That means that there are too many problems to sort through for one book. I might have to write a sequel. Now, I'm not at all opposed to writing a sequel to this story. I never am--even with the hideous Tales of the Flame I had some ideas for what a second novel in the world would look like (ideas which, I'm happy to say, I've entirely repressed and cannot recall at all now). So writing a sequel--after a spell away from Coratha, of course, as I have some small ideas that are germinating that would need some time--isn't the issue. What bothers me about that is that I couldn't finish my story. I expected the tale to end in and of itself. I don't want a story to end and have the reader feel compelled to read the next book "just because" the ending wasn't really an ending. That's manipulation, if you ask me. Now, there are always things that are unresolved. I mean, even Harry Potter ends with questions that aren't fully resolved by the Epilogue, and that book ends quite well, if you ask me. So it isn't that there wouldn't be questions. It's that the questions that remain are crucial to understanding the first book, but the answers are deferred. I hate that. I don't want that. And I'm grumpy that I'm writing that way.
5) The action ends, the catharsis and explanations kick in...that's how I have it outlined. This is--again picking on Harry Potter--how EVERY SINGLE BOOK ENDS with Rowling's stuff. That always bothered me, because the context for the action is always misunderstood or too vague. I wanted to be able to put it together better than that. Unfortunately, when there's a lot of mystery in the story, you have to hold on to the information before letting it go. I can't say that every time a book ends that way is a bad thing. (If I did a quarter as well as the Harry Potter books did--crucial issue in the endings notwithstanding--I'd be a pretty happy camper.) Again, I'm just disappointed in myself for not figuring out a way to have the loose ends explained, the action culminated, and the catharsis served in a hat trick of writing brilliance. I'm just not that good. So... >:(
Despite the abovegrousing, I'm happy that I hit over 3,900 words today, almost all from the outline. There are some good things coming and, while I'm not thrilled by the ending, I'm glad to have one and I look forward to seeing where it takes me from here.
And who knows? Maybe there'll be some lighting strike in my brain that shuffles things right and the revision fixes up all the problems. It's (kinda) happened before. Why not again?
Anyway, I'mma go kill zombies.
I have some problems with it.
1) There are only three Saldrae chapters left, which isn't cool. I really like her as a character, and though she's been fluctuating between passive and active, on the whole I think that she's a really important, solid addition to the story. Unfortunately, her role is pretty much done, now. She has emotional closure to the story that will be really fun to write, but there isn't a lot in terms of the action that she'll be able to do. Part of it is because she's not the kind of person who kicks butt literally--she has other ways in which she is strong and resourceful. If I can, I'd really like to let her come through with that strength one more time, but, currently, it isn't in the outline.
2) There are WAY more chapters than I thought. I assumed that I was within 7 chapters of finishing this thing off. But looking at it, I'm more like 12 or 13 chapters away. The problem with that is two fold: One, I have a lot more work ahead of me, with a projected total of 311,000+ words in the whole book. That's longer than anything else I've ever written, and it'll take me another year to edit that many words. I was really hoping to have a submission ready by the end of this year, but I'm really not so sure about that now. Two, I won't be meeting my goal of finishing the book by the end of the school year. It's a self-imposed goal, obviously, but I've done so well about hitting those goals before that I really wanted to get this one, too. But it would require more writing than I can plausibly do in a single sitting (somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,700 words per writing session, or nearly 1,000 words per day if I wrote daily). I've had days where I've hit nearly 10,000 words, yes, but those were exceptionally rare. I doubt there'd be a way to plan on that for the next seven writing sessions. Now, in my favor, there is only my final in my World War I class that needs to be finished next Saturday. So my sessions will be able to start sooner--a whole three hours or so. If I can find it in me to get up, get out, and get writing by 10:30 after my class is over, then do lunch, then go back and write again, then maybe there's a chance. In fact, it's my only chance to reach my goal.
3) It's a little discouraging to work so hard, see the end slide a little further away, and then realize that I haven't even resolved everything that I needed to. I'm thinking of postponing some of my coolest monsters, since getting them involved in the story in any greater way isn't going to happen. I just ran out of room and time. The focus never went that way, and so I'll either need to give them a lame ending or just omit them entirely. I want to do neither, but since I haven't made them a real issue in the last, oh, 100,000 words, there's no real way of taking care of it. Unless... (see #4)
4) The story is headed toward a middle ground of the world burning and the characters not being left in ashes. This is predictable, but I have a hard time justifying anything else--the story is pointing me toward a happier ending. Unfortunately, I can't just have them be wrapped up perfectly at the end and be satisfied with the ending. That means that there are too many problems to sort through for one book. I might have to write a sequel. Now, I'm not at all opposed to writing a sequel to this story. I never am--even with the hideous Tales of the Flame I had some ideas for what a second novel in the world would look like (ideas which, I'm happy to say, I've entirely repressed and cannot recall at all now). So writing a sequel--after a spell away from Coratha, of course, as I have some small ideas that are germinating that would need some time--isn't the issue. What bothers me about that is that I couldn't finish my story. I expected the tale to end in and of itself. I don't want a story to end and have the reader feel compelled to read the next book "just because" the ending wasn't really an ending. That's manipulation, if you ask me. Now, there are always things that are unresolved. I mean, even Harry Potter ends with questions that aren't fully resolved by the Epilogue, and that book ends quite well, if you ask me. So it isn't that there wouldn't be questions. It's that the questions that remain are crucial to understanding the first book, but the answers are deferred. I hate that. I don't want that. And I'm grumpy that I'm writing that way.
5) The action ends, the catharsis and explanations kick in...that's how I have it outlined. This is--again picking on Harry Potter--how EVERY SINGLE BOOK ENDS with Rowling's stuff. That always bothered me, because the context for the action is always misunderstood or too vague. I wanted to be able to put it together better than that. Unfortunately, when there's a lot of mystery in the story, you have to hold on to the information before letting it go. I can't say that every time a book ends that way is a bad thing. (If I did a quarter as well as the Harry Potter books did--crucial issue in the endings notwithstanding--I'd be a pretty happy camper.) Again, I'm just disappointed in myself for not figuring out a way to have the loose ends explained, the action culminated, and the catharsis served in a hat trick of writing brilliance. I'm just not that good. So... >:(
Despite the abovegrousing, I'm happy that I hit over 3,900 words today, almost all from the outline. There are some good things coming and, while I'm not thrilled by the ending, I'm glad to have one and I look forward to seeing where it takes me from here.
And who knows? Maybe there'll be some lighting strike in my brain that shuffles things right and the revision fixes up all the problems. It's (kinda) happened before. Why not again?
Anyway, I'mma go kill zombies.
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