Endings... knowing when to jump off

[JamesSavik]

Anybody can write.

The tough part is writing an end... or perhaps ending the writing.

As I grind towards the conclusion of Twilight, everything is harder. It's taking more research, more back checking, more fact checking and a lot of second guessing.

Anyone else suffer from ending anxiety???

Falkner and Steinbeck just got real drunk and worked through it but I just barf & pass out.

Does anyone have any healthier suggestions?

[Cole Parker]

The best suggestion I have is to have an idea where it's going before you begin. But it's a little late for that now.

I just read a book by someone who had end notes, and she said she wrote about five endings, taking months to do so, before she was satisfied. So that's one suggestion. Write an ending, and if it's not quite what you want, write another one. And another....

No, it isn't easy. I don't think much of anything in writing is, if you want it to be good.

C

[Constantine1453]

I think though, even if you know exactly where the story is going--things can change, new ideas or ways to approach particular characters, etc. pop up, and that impacts the ending. The last 2000 words or so of my first draft are probably going to be the hardest to write--and they will be revised the most, I'm sure.

Ending anxiety--I love it! I probably am as well, even though I have five other books planned in the series...and this is only a first draft anyway, so I have a LONG time before I have to move on...

Good luck with everything!

[Merkin]

An exquisite dilemma. As the author you may have had a solid plan for how the story was going to end, and you may have settled on that before you began to write. But the real difficulty, I believe, is dealing with how the narrative then played out, and how the characters -- now real people -- are going to end up.

Good luck with that!

James Merkin

[DesDownunder]

It's possible to think up number of alternatives as to where Twilight might go in an endeavour to end the story.

I could list the genre endings that might appeal, as I am sure many of us could, but I wonder why we can't allow the scenarios already in progress come to a natural evolution. I describe these as such, because apart from turning the story into a fantasy dream sequence, which would have to be really clever to avoid the cop-out accusation, we are left with a war torn planet, political and military mayhem as well as civilian catastrophes.

The question is, do all of them need to be resolved, or can the story conclude with a hope for the future of mankind once the situation and catastrophes of the war have been revealed.

A similar parallel can be seen in say the old movie San Francisco which, after the earthquake disaster, ends on the high-note of the spirit of rebuilding the city.

The alternative doom of an apocalyptic end, is of course possible, but there is usually not much left, after an apocalypse, to write about.

Still, the horrendous costs in such a war as has happened in Twilight, really only offer the above solutions or variations, or the hanging/question ending of one of the lead characters observing the truth of the futility of such confrontations, by asking how to forestall these things from happening again? You could even have a character wondering how long the Twilight will last? This brings to mind the possibility of a Terminator type solution with never an end in sight, but plenty of sequels which continue to reveal new horrors.

James, we can't know what your inspiration was for Twilight. I think many of us will be very happy with whatever you have in mind, and that may have nothing to do with what I and others have mused over here.

You have done a terrific job with the detail and the story so far, and I don't doubt for a minute that the research takes heaps of time and effort.

Where did you want the story to go? I guess that is what we want to find out, too. What do you as the author have in mind to tell us?

I don't mind waiting to find that out.