On Endings (Apocalyptic or not)

Well, despite rumours to the contrary, the world is still intact and didn't come to a biblical end yesterday as predicted. But there is an appetite for the apocalyptic judging by the volume of fiction devoted to the subject. And if Revelations is any guide this is not a new phenomenon. Mankind has always speculated on how the story will end. For that reason Endings are perhaps the most important part of any story. It ain't how you start, it's how you finish, as the saying goes.

I'm revisiting some study notes I took from talks given by screenwriting guru John Truby. I won't bore you by waxing lyrical on his advice about structure, except to say his book Anatomy of Story is one of the few I'd recommend you read if you haven't already. But what's interesting in his talks is the fact that the ending or final revelation, as he puts it, is so crucial to story structure it must be decided even before character or setting. The ending determines everything in the story.

In the past I might have fought shy of this idea. Let the characters loose and they will find out the ending by themselves, I'd say. Well, maybe they will, but they're just as likely to wander off down to the pub because of the wrong decisions you made along the way. Plotting a novel is not simple and there are lots of blind alleys you can find yourself wandering into. My early attempts dried up because of this and once you've wandered too far off course it's almost impossible to find your way back. You end up giving up in frustration and having to start again.

And when you think about it, the ending is the point of the whole exercise. Just as joke writers craft the build up to a punchline with the punchline already in place, a story is the build up to the final scene, whether it's the confrontation between the hero and antagonist, or the blissful surrender of lovers in a romance. The ending determines who and what your characters are, what they want and what they have to do to get it. So it's worth the time to figure out what the ending of your story will be, even before you've figured out how it will start.

Blind alleys

I've recently been trying to resurrect a WIP I put aside a month or so ago, a paranormal mystery I'd been working on since Christmas. To help me past the logjam I'd been reading a few how to books, most notably "Novel Writing" by author and literary agent Evan Marshall. His approach is very formulaic which I'd always fought shy of in the past. But it's a meticulous and painstaking process and in forcing me to sift through the facts it is already firing some new ideas in my head.

I don't know about you, but I find it very easy to write myself into a blind alley and get stuck. I think it's because I'm too impatient to plan properly. Trusting that things will work themselves out is a gamble and on this latest WIP it hasn't paid off. Using the Marshall plan has made me go back to basics, to looking at my characters and my original set-up with a critical eye. I'm beginning to think this book can be saved, but I need to do some radical changes to the whole concept.
The more planning I do the more sold I am on the whole idea. I'm not going to write another word of this WIP until I get a proper outline of the story however long it takes. It may never happen, of course. Some books were never meant to be written. I suppose it's another lesson along the way, discovering which ones to write and which ones to ditch.

Comments (added because the comment function keeps losing them)
Juliet Marillier apparently plans everything in detail before she starts and edits as she goes so that when she finishes the draft it only needs a polish, not a redraft. Sounds like a good idea, but I haven't tried it. I'm a lousy planner. from Kate

Sandra I am the world's worst at planning, and you are not alone in writing yourself into a hole!

Writing short stories without a plan is never a problem for me, but my novel is pretty stuck at the moment and a framework would be very helful. Back to the drawing board, I think! x from Joanne Fox

The Art Of War For Writers

Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to buy any more writing books - or if I didn't I probably thought it - but I weakened again this week following a bit of advice I spotted on The Book Deal.

The Art of War For Writers by James Scott Bell is a handy little book, divided into 77 bite-sized chapters each one entitled with a maxim like The Outsized Ego Is Not A Weapon of Value and Characters All Alone Should Do More Than Think.

I haven't finished it yet but it's very wise and entertaining, a quick easy read full of useful tips.

More netsurfing

Well I'm at a loose end again, having completed the latest revision. Conventional wisdom is to plough on with something else in the meantime, if only to get some distance from it, and I really want to but as usual I'm surfing the net instead. It's at these times of hiatus I succumb to the lure of Writers' Software.

Downloaded a freebie this morning: Storybook is a novel writing programme which looks pretty good although I've only tinkered with it so far. The website has tutorials to help get you started, and best of all it doesn't cost a penny so nothing to lose.

Another one I'm wondering about getting is Quick Story which is a plot generating tool. I'm always attracted to the idea of a structure to work to instead of my usual rabbiting on. It does strike me as more efficient in terms of man hours, but would the spontaneity suffer, I wonder? Anyway it's about £30 for that one, so I'll mull it over a bit first.

Talking of structure, I'm also looking for inspiration in Story Structure Architect by Victoria Schmidt. I bought this book a while back and it's very handy for dipping into when planning a new project.

Finally, an early Happy Birthday to my elder son Mike who will be 23 tomorrow.
Yes, 23. I know...imagine how it makes me feel...