Ending Your Story

I remember one of my first critiques with an editor. I spent the ten of the fifteen minutes telling him my wonderful, fantastic, post-apocalyptic story (this was before everyone else was writing them). Of course he told me it wouldn’t sell and I thought it was the storyline, but when I told him the ending, he lost it. 

I mean he actually yelled at me. And I’ll never forget what he said, “No one wants to invest time in reading a 300-page book only to find out it was all a dream. Change the ending. Make it real.”

And so I did, but at the time I was a teacher with tests to create and correct, lesson plans to design, parent conferences, mandated meetings etc…… and so by the time I did rewrite the book, you guessed it……everybody was writing post-apocalyptic.

And so my story still remains in my computer file, but the experience did serve to teach me a valuable lesson……….

ENDINGS ARE EVERYTHING!!!! At least when you are writing stories.

The ending is in your head all the time you are crafting words and ultimately driving toward the finish. You make sure your characters are in place for the fantastic ending. Or it may be a surprise ending with unexpected twists, but the thing to keep in mind is that the ending is what you’ve been selling the whole time you wrote.

And the editor was right. The ending is why the reader invests their valuable time to read your story and if it isn't good they feel like they wasted their time and may not read another thing you write.

So what is a good ending?

In a nutshell… SATISFACTION

It should resolve the conflict.

Tie up the main storyline and secondary storylines.

It should grow organically out of the plot and actions.

How do you know if your ending is a good one?

The answer is CHANGE!

Obvious, right? When you finish your novel, or even your picture book, you should go back to reread and even sometimes rewrite your beginning because the ending MUST reflect the beginning only a definite CHANGE must take place. And it doesn’t just change at the end. Your ending reflects all the changes that took place in your story, the growth of your character and the decisions he/she made. The conflicts they overcame.

One of the worst mistakes a writer can make is to just end the story without any real change taking place. When you write, you make promises to the reader, from the very first paragraph, even the very first sentence (but that’s another topic). You had better deliver those promises at the end.

Here is an example of the first paragraph of my novel, RATGIRL: Song of the Viper and the last. Do they connect? Each one of these lines makes a promise to the reader that by the end, circumstances will have changed.

Whoever said the teen years were the best of a girl's life didn't come from

Metro City. Hell, they can't imagine what it's like to be me, living in a sewer

tunnel by day, and foraging the forest for food or scavenging through

abandoned mansions at night. Anything I find that I can't use to survive

 this hellhole I trade for money.

And here is the last paragraph.

I continue. "Tomorrow is July 22, 2511. It's the first day of our new lives."

Andy and Nyla get to know Colt and I contemplate what tomorrow

may bring. As our new lives start, I can't help but think Culpepper will also

 be starting a new life, one he never envisioned for himself—stinking and

dowsed in darkness, scratching through the alleys to sniff out morsels of

 food—the life of a rat!

Look at your beginning and then check your ending. Make sure they match and most importantly, that you delivered the change you promised.

Next topic in the Author'a A,B, C's is FORMATTING.

Dear Lucky Agent Contest

14TH FREE “DEAR LUCKY AGENT” CONTEST: CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE GRADE FICTION

Check it out. J

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/14th-free-dear-lucky-agent-contest-contemporary-middle-grade-fiction

THe 4 D's of First Drafts

My critique group and I love sharing first drafts. It gives us a chance to sample the unexplored possibilities of each other’s characters and quite often leads to a more exciting character arc or storyline. Think of FIRST DRAFTS as your unmined claim and you are seeking the gold within your words.

Keep in mind that 4 D’s for FIRST DRAFTS are for:

1.    Discovering details.

2.    Describing characters

3.    Developing scenes

4.    Demonstrating arcs.

Get the story down on paper in the FIRST DRAFT. There’s always room to perfect style later.

Your first writing is raw and true. Don’t be so quick to polish it before the story ends. The story comes first. The editing comes second.

FIRST DRAFTS are just that—First, and they are filled with plot holes and inconsistencies, but once the story is down with a beginning, middle and end, it can be edited to perfection.

It isn’t about writing something publishable. It’s about getting the story down on paper. It’s a step in the process, not the process itself.

OUTLINES 

Your outline (if you outline at all) is just a blueprint to building your story, a guide, a safety net to keep you from veering off in a totally different direction, however if a character insists on turning right when you want to turn left, follow them to the end of the turn and see if they have a better idea than you.

You can always turn back if it doesn’t work out. But never delete it.

I save my unused writing in a folder titled “Snippets of ____.” Fill in the blank with the working title of your novel. You might be able to mine a small golden nugget from there in a later draft.

STARTING POINTS

Action? Too many stories start with ACTION.

Fights. Wars. Explosions. But the reader has no idea who the main character is. My advice is not to start with action unless you identify the main character before the action starts.

Dialogue? Who is talking? If the main character isn’t firmly planted in the reader’s mind, dialogue is NOT the place to start. It becomes an exercise in talking heads.

Setting? Yes, we need to know whether we are in the jungle or on top of a mountain, but we don’t need every nuance of every leaf or the colors of the sunset. Give us a simple setting, but again, make sure your main character is firmly planted in the scene.

Dreamweaver

Once you’ve got the story down, then weave in back-story, world-building, or character moments in-between plot elements. Just continue with the story.

Second drafts are for filling in the holes in the plot left in the first draft. It’ll be more effective to fill in those gaps with important information based on what you know happens, because you’ve already visited the end of the story.

When in doubt, just continue with the story.

STRUCTURE

Write the first draft as simply as possible—start to finish. You’ll end up with a story that makes sense.

Then get ready to…

…plump the plot

…stretch the scenes

…and create depth in your characters

REMEMBER:

First draft is getting the story written.

Second drafts are for revision

Third drafts are for polishing.

So what are you waiting for? Get writing……

Next up in the Author’s A, B, C’s is……..ENDINGS!

Cliches - How to Avoid Them in Your Writing

Frankie was sleeping like a dead man when his mother screamed like a Banshee for him to get up. She wasn’t heralding the dawn. No, it was 3:30 P.M. and Frankie missed school again. His eyelids were as heavy as lead as he wracked his brain for excuses. But he had none. That what happens when you stay up playing video games until dawn's early light. He hoped to at least make the PM classes, better late than never. Now he had to pay the piper and the hand of doom was heavy upon him. If he failed this year, he’s ass was grass.

How do you identify and avoid cliches?

Question any comparison or image you choose to use. Is the phrase you're about to write one you've heard frequently? If the answer is yes—don’t write it. It’s probably a cliché or on its way to being one--but beware!

I’ve seen writers stretch for descriptive phrases to avoid clichés, but their analogies are so out there no one knows what they are referring to.

Inventing your own descriptions can lead you as far astray as worn-out phrases.

One of the resource books out there, The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi has helped writers develop interesting storylines and increased emotional arcs, but since so many writers out there are using it, even their helpful suggestions have become clichéd. I can tell when I critique a manuscript who owns a copy of that precious resource book. :)

White-knuckled grip

A jutting chin

Tilting the head

You get the picture. Try to be original to show fear, smugness or confusion.

The editors at Writer’s Digest have suggested that the following clichés be permanently retired. So don’t even think about them.

1. Avoid it like the plague


2. Dead as a doornail


3. Take the tiger by the tail


4. Low hanging fruit


5. If only walls could talk


6. The pot calling the kettle black


7. Think outside the box


8. Thick as thieves


9. But at the end of the day


10. Plenty of fish in the sea


11. Every dog has its day


12. Like a kid in a candy store

Finally, avoid "padding" your work with clichés. Agents and editors can smell clichés a mile away and won’t touch your manuscript with a ten-foot pole. J

Thanks for stopping by. Next up in the Author’s A, B, C’s  -- Drafts. 

Take a tip from Barry White— Your drafts are “your 1^st, your last, your everything!”