Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "character-actions"
Writing the Ending
Life has a way of throwing a writing schedule off track. My goats have discovered a break in the fence. This lets them wander down the road and into the yard.
My next day home will be spent putting up fence as the break is not fixable. The road crew opened up the ditch so flood water goes down to the creek through what used to be a fence.
I was planning to finish Mistaken Promises that day. The end is so close, a mere 4000 words away.
At this point I know what is going to happen, mostly. There always seems to be wiggle room. characters say or do something unexpected.
Still, the ending is there, a few words away.
And that is the problem.
Normally I can easily add a thousand words to the draft in a couple of hours. Now I struggle to add five hundred words.
This isn’t an attack of the “This is stupid” demon. No, it’s impatience. The ending requires solid set up. And my mind is on the ending, not the lead up to the ending.
Why not write the ending, then fill in the other?
Those pesky characters will undermine the ending with some remark.
So I will soldier on. I’m to the closing day, even to noon with the climax looming in only a few hours. The characters involved now must have reason and opportunity to arrive at the point of interaction at the same time.
This will take finesse. After all, the county fair is in full swing and all three are participating in the fair in one way or another.
My next day home will be spent putting up fence as the break is not fixable. The road crew opened up the ditch so flood water goes down to the creek through what used to be a fence.
I was planning to finish Mistaken Promises that day. The end is so close, a mere 4000 words away.
At this point I know what is going to happen, mostly. There always seems to be wiggle room. characters say or do something unexpected.
Still, the ending is there, a few words away.
And that is the problem.
Normally I can easily add a thousand words to the draft in a couple of hours. Now I struggle to add five hundred words.
This isn’t an attack of the “This is stupid” demon. No, it’s impatience. The ending requires solid set up. And my mind is on the ending, not the lead up to the ending.
Why not write the ending, then fill in the other?
Those pesky characters will undermine the ending with some remark.
So I will soldier on. I’m to the closing day, even to noon with the climax looming in only a few hours. The characters involved now must have reason and opportunity to arrive at the point of interaction at the same time.
This will take finesse. After all, the county fair is in full swing and all three are participating in the fair in one way or another.
