Lately, I’ve been begging my characters to talk to me so I can figure out the ending of the book I’m writing. Unfortunately, they have conflicting viewpoints. As a result, I end up with fewer words than I began with during each writing session. At one point, I thought the final two thousand words were in sight. Not now.
I’ve reached a point that the characters’ voices recently invaded one of my dreams. In the past, when this has happened, it was because my subconscious successfully continued working out the issue while I slept. Not this time.
Instead, I woke up understanding that the characters hadn’t been able to reach a resolution either. One pointed out a perfect paragraph that could easily tie things up, but the next one added words that successfully blended with the style of the paragraph, but took me in a completely different direction.
It reminded me of the time that members of this blog decided to write a story where we each wrote a chapter. The story had great characters, tension, and the plot moved. I couldn’t wait to add my chapter as I had conceived of a wonderful twist. The only problem was that the person who wrote the chapter ahead of me added his own twist by killing both characters I was going to spotlight and the plot line. In my mind, the piece never recovered.
I tried, as did the person who wrote the final chapter behind me, but neither of us ever felt we fully salvaged the story. What I did learn from that experience and my recent dream is that ideas can be blended, but sometimes instead of a smooth flow, one gets a mishmash.
Has this ever happened to you? Did you find a way to save your work in progress, or did it end up buried in a drawer?
I’m praying that my characters show me the way to end the book soon. The one thing I’m holding onto is that I wrote a short story several years ago for an open call. It was rejected. I kept rewriting, revising, and submitting the story because I thought it had merit, but it failed to find a home at least three more times. After the last rejection, I went to bed wrestling with this story and one of the characters, who had a wonderful final line of the story, came to me and basically said, “You idiot! My last line is great, but no one is going to believe, considering the career you gave me, that the action leading up to the line could happen.”
Instead of trying to be cute, as I had been, I listened to the character. I changed his career and his behavior, but I kept the last line. The story sold this week.
I love reading how authors handle writing issues in different ways. I enjoyed your take on your characters.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteCongratulations on the short story sale. From what you are describing, your unconscious is telling you something similar to what the character said -- the endings so far don't quite fit the motivations characters have demonstrated so far. I have confidence the right answer will appear.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had your confidence. I can't tell you how many times I've reached the same point and know it isn't right.
DeleteYou wish your characters would confine their quarrels to the progress of the work, preferably quarrelling on paper with one another (and you,) but sometimes they do set up conflicting narratives that don't reconcile, especially regarding something as important as how a story ends. My solution to such things is to write a short story from the point of view of each of the characters. That lets each one have his/her say, and lays out the possibilities. Usually one version rings true. And you have a few short stories. Some may never evolve past a rough draft in your computer, but some might be suitable for polishing and submitting somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhat great advice!
DeleteI love the way our subconscious minds continue working on the story and getting to know characters—even when we don't give our subconscious minds permission! Lol!
ReplyDeleteI've reached the point to give it permission... just wish it would figure it out sooner than later.
DeleteWoot! Congrats on the sale. Great news.
ReplyDeleteAs for character voices, I’ve found it takes a bit of time for all of the characters to work through their egos. When they realize they may end up in the drawer of forgotten intentions, they often put their personal desires aside and bring the book to a satisfying, and accurate, ending. Good luck!
I think I will read them your reply.
Deletecongrats! After ignoring my battling characters for a month or two, they usually make a group decision one way or the other. Why does this process remind me of jury duty?
ReplyDelete