How are all those NaNoWriMo's out there doing? Everybody hitting their word count?
For those not doing NaNo this year, how are the WIP's? Revising? Editing? Finishing up that painful first draft?
My WIP is going well, the first chapter has been handed off to an alpha reader, and I'm hard at work trying to shape the ending. Urgh, the ending. My lovely characters always seem to get particularly prickly toward the ending of my first drafts. They think it's funny to snicker and pass secrets amongst themselves instead of moving the story forward. They know where it's going, I know where it's going, but they're like a pack of three-year-olds who have decided they don't want to do something.
Sometimes I tell them, "You are as bad as Super Spawn! Get off your butt!" But they just laugh at me. It's a game.
I've got one chapter left to finish up the WIP, and get the ending where I want it. One chapter. And my characters turn toddler. *headdesk*
Do you guys have these kinds of problems? I had lunch with a writer friend (who writes adult fiction) on Saturday and we talked about this. She said it's the same for her, the endings are always the hardest to write. So I wanna know what you think, lovelies. Weigh in!
6 comments:
WIP 2, mostly written last nano, does not have an ending.
I'm ashamed to admit, that I wrote this prizewinner as an ending:
“You will pay, fire bearer!” they heard on the air as the General rode away.
PLEASE, shoot me now!
Oh endings. Gah! I have to admit that for Falling to Normal, I have huge chunks of text at the end with notes like "Suggestions deeply appreciated" for my alphas to help me with. Last year's nano has an end, but it's so filled with purple prose it's laughable.
@ Claire - I love the prizewinning ending. Genius. :)
Endings are definitely difficult to write. You want to be able to wrap everything up, you also want to leave a bit of mystery because yo don't want to spoonfeed your readers. It's hard to balance it. I usually have the most difficult time with the middle, though. I have to find things to make the reader want to keep reading in order to get to that tricky end. :)
You're so close to the end! I know you can do it...
I suck at endings too. I'm not evening thinking about it for my NaNo WIP. :) I'll be following your tactic on writing/outlining, methinks.
NaNo is going swimmingly for me! This week, I'm especially grateful since I don't have to think about being on submission! ::cue scary, psycho music::
Good luck sorting out your final chapter!
@Susan I was thinking about that yesterday morning. It hit me when I got to work and I ran into my co-worker's office and said, "OMG my crit partner is going on submission today!" She just kinda looked at me funny. lol Good think you have a distraction!
For me it depends on teh story. I normally have pretty clear way I want to end it, but Penny and Hank I had no idea. I'm still not happy with it, but I figure I"ll let FUTURE Erinn fix it in edits.
Push through, finish it and put it down for a while and come back to it MONTHS later.
It's the middle where I struggle the most
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