The problem with endings...

Last week, Steph Sinkhorn over at Maybe Genius wrote about the trouble with endings and her blog really resonated with me. Between her wise words and the kick butt Star Wars picture, I was sold.

I have two books in varying states of completion. They were both NaNoWriMo novels, which means (in my world) that the minute I finished the scene where I hit 50K words, I stopped.

All stop. Do not pass Go.

Cue Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's before I took another look at my stories only to realize they both needed an ending.

"But, Trish," I hear you ask. "You're a plotter. You live by the outline, so what's the problem? Write the ending you have listed on the handy-dandy sheet at the front of your 3-ring binder and be done with it."

Yeah, about that. My outlined endings are terrible, but that's okay. Throughout the organic process of writing my stories, things changed. Some scenes were canned while others that were sub plots became major plot points. SO by time I got to the ending, the one I had charted out was really no longer applicable.

I've been blogging MIA for a while because I've been working on my book with major hopes of finishing a draft for printing via CreateSpace by the end of June. More on that later but until last week, I was still working on my 2010 book and I realized the ending just wasn't there. And what's worse, I knew it wasn't there because the three chapters leading up to the Point Where the Ending Should Begin were just stall tactics.

So, I busted out ye ole 2009 NaNo and am reading, editing, and clawing my way to the finish line. More on that later, too. (Apparently, I need to start getting my Proposed Blogs out of my head and into the queue!)

For all you plotters out there, do you keep to your original ending? Or you pantsers, do you work towards some end game, or do you really just pull a magic ending rabbit out of your hat? (Please tell me there's *some* forethought or else I'll cry...)

When do you know you're done?

I had a whole story done, with the exception of a few ending pages and a few scene re-writes. The character and plot development were all in place, there was appropriate tension throughout the story, and it was well-received by my crit group.

So why did I start back at page one with a re-write in 1st person instead of the 3rd that I have been doing? Why can't I just call the book done, make some changes, and submit it by the June 30 CreateSpace deadline to get it printed?

I think I'm afraid of completing the book. I'm afraid to see the book on my shelf and know that it is complete, but not "Finished" in the sense of starting the query process.

But you see, I don't have to start the query process, or the oh-my-God-this-time-I-mean-it-revisions if I don't complete the necessary ending pages and scenes.

How is it that I'm afraid to finish the draft of my book for my own bookshelf, but still have dreams of friends and family buying my published book at a bookstore? In order to reach part B of the dream, I have to take care of part A. Which means I need to do the finishing touches and get the draft printed. I can still work on the 1st person POV, but the act of printing my story out is a mental obstacle that I need to get over.

I need to be done with this phase of my book so I can move on to the next one.

How do you know when you're done with your book? Or do you keep finding new scenes to write or story lines to incorporate?

Rewrite and a guest post!

Friends, two crazy things happened this week.

First, I started rewriting my WIP (side note: if I'm rewriting it, does it count as a new WIP?). Not only did I start over at page one, but I'm trying my hand at first person POV. *she cries as she gazes longingly at her ~55K word third person WIP*

This was going well until, in a blog-induced epiphany, I came up with my at-this-moment-most-awesome first sentence. But it's in third person and I'm six hand-written pages into my shiny new first person draft. Crap.

For now, this isn't a big deal. The thing to focus on is that I picked up a pen and started scribbling in the first place. It's been ages since I've felt possessed to write in a mad fury, grammar and penmanship be damned.

The second cool thing that happened this week actually freaks me out a bit, but sooner or later the cat's gonna be out of the bag so I might as well tell you all at once.

My friends over at Wicked & Tricksy asked me to write this week's guest post. Eek! Not wanting to disappoint those who have shown me such support, I agreed and gave it Ye Ol' College Try. Check it out and say nice things!

Happy Friday!

Three cool things

I found a bunch of neat stuff online over the weekend. It's amazing what's out there once you start clicking around and reading tons of blogs!

First, THIS. Alan Rickman penned a thank you homage to J.K. Rowling and it appeared in Empire magazine. I've read and re-read it dozens of times and it still gives me goosebumps.

Source

Second, (and really, how do you follow Colonel Brandon Alan Rickman?) I have seen this person's blog handle pop up enough times to recognize it. Being the curious cat that I am, I found SA Larsen's blog and was pretty dang impressed with her blog, Writer's Ally.

This lead me to think about the blogs I follow that are more than one person's take on a topic. Instead, these sites are almost like a clearing house for all sorts of information or tips you should know about writing.

• Writer's Ally
• Smack Dab in the Middle (this is a MG blog by MG authors)
• From the Mixed-Up Files... (seriously, how haven't I seen this until NOW?)
• Ali Cross (check it out if only for the ninjas)
• Adventures in Children's Publishing (I killed about three hours perusing the links on the left under 'Helpful Articles.')
• And naturally, Wicked & Tricksy

And finally, as a child of the late 80s/early 90s, when all my friends were listening to NKOTB and MC Hammer, I was rocking out to Motley Crue, Poison, and of course, Guns N' Roses. I am not afraid to admit that I had a poster of a shirtless Slash on my bedroom wall, complete with black top hat, black leather pants, and a python. Imagine my delight when I heard this... (It's okay to admit you were shaking your head to the beat. I understand.)