Musings on The End

[wayfaringwordhack]

Or at least the chapters and scenes that lead up to the climax and denouement. 

For the past week, I've been stuck on a certain chapter that I already drafted once (So much for my goal of finishing by March 5). It didn't make it past my first beta, who I let read it, along with four other chapters, because I was worried about how I was handling the build-up of tension for the climax. The chapters concerning the MC riveted her, and she didn't want to leave the MC to find out what was happening to someone else. That is understandable and good; it lets me know that the main thread is doing its job. But what happens in the "uninteresting" chapter is vital to the next thing that happens with the MC, so I need to have the setup on-page for it to make sense for the reader.

I failed in my first attempt for several reasons:

1) I didn't focus enough on character; I wasn't deeply enough into the POV's head and I related events rather than how those events affected the character.
2) The chapter was too long for what I was showing and included an extraneous foreshadowing scene.
3) I ended it in the wrong place. I didn't include an argument that would have furthered character and made the next situation with the MC clearer.

So knowing that, one would think backtracking and whipping out another draft would be easy, right? Maybe for a better wordslinger, but not for me. I cut the foreshadowing and replaced it with a good character moment. That's excellent. But I treated the character stuff too much like a prelude, and once again ended up with, not exactly foreshadowing, but a delay to the main action.

I have another plan of attack, but I'm afraid of once more writing something that will only irritate the reader, of writing a couple thousand more words that will only end up on the cutting floor. So afraid, I guess, that it's had me paralyzed for a week. I should move on. I know that, but I want to get the next chapter, which is already written, tweaked, and finish the next pesky-POV's chapter, which is already started. I've never been good at skipping ahead, but here, at the end, I find it even harder to do because everything must fall together just so.

*Sigh* Usually rambling "aloud" like this helps me clarify things in my mind, sometimes even gives me an epiphany. Alas, it ain't happenin' now. Guess I'll just go stare at the page some more. Maybe fiddle with prose that will probably ultimately be cut.

Comments

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

As someone once told me, even if you can't use what you're writing, at least you're finding out what doesn't work. And sometimes that can be just as helpful, though not as glamorous, as finding out what does. I wouldn;t keep writing past the point of frustration -- maybe your backbrain needs to figure something out -- but don't give up on it. You'll get it soon. :-)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

So true. Unfortunately, I think it is still the case in what I'm writing now. The paradox is that what I'm writing is "okay" but is it really the best? Can't I say it better, shorter? I don't know if these are valid questions I'm asking myself (of course they are--in context) or if the usual fear of This book is TOO LONG! is trying to sabotage me.

I seem to be on one of those writing plateaux, yet I'm too afraid to make the climb up to the next level because it will mean that everything I've written before is crap and I have to start all over again.

*sigh* The price of growth...

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

yeah, I'm going to ahve to sit down at some point and have a talk with the usual fear of This book is TOO LONG! because everything you've written for that story is good so far, so the length is no concern. it's like complaining that a pizza or cake is -too- big. If it's good, there's no such thing.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the words of wisdom and encouragement!