A Beginning Without an Ending
This time last year, I had finished zero novels, as Remember, November wasn't even out to my beta readers yet. Now, I have not only finished, but published, two. And one big reason why is the cumulative advice that I have synthesized down to this:
A beginning without an ending isn't a beginning, it's a scene that doesn't go anywhere.
It took me a long time to internalize this, and to really get it. I have been writing stuff for almost twenty years, but never actually finished anything. When I finally made the commitment to finishing a novel, it was because I knew where it was going. Sitting down and planning out the end of the story is the only reason I finished it. The 'planner vs. pantser' debate is one for another post, so I won't go into it here, but outlining made a world of difference to me, and now I'm in the middle of writing the third book in this series already.
The first scene I wrote for Remember, November was November waking up in the open grave with her memories gone. I knew that was a great opening, but my hard drive is littered with those, and I knew it. So I didn't pursue this story or any others until I figured out where it was going to go. I wasn't going to waste this one like I had so many others. It took months of thinking and pouring over ideas before the story took the shape you've (hopefully) read, but it was worth it.
It took a massive shift in how I think about my writing and my process for me to finish my first novel, and I'm glad I forced myself to do it. The old adage of 'done is the engine of more' turned out to be absolutely true for me, and it was finding my ending that enabled me to be done with something for the first time, and continue that story on into a sequel, and now a series.
Every book presents a different challenge, but every challenge you overcome makes the next one that much easier. You have to learn how to finish, as weird as that sounds, but when you do, there is no better feeling. Sure, you immediately start to second-guess every choice you made, but that's true of all art, because there is no perfect, correct answer. But you can't second-guess until you've first-guessed. Gotta do that first.
How does that apply to a whole series? Much the same way. I don't want to go into it too much, but I will tell those of you who have read this far that I do know what the final scene of the entire series is. Just give me time to get there!
To wrap up, I want to acknowledge that this was really more of a post for the writers among my readers, but I feel an obligation to, however I can in my small way, pay forward the advice that has changed so much for me. I know I'm nobody, just a small-time indie author, but I wasn't even that a year ago, and now you're reading this.
To me, that's a big difference.
Thank you.
A beginning without an ending isn't a beginning, it's a scene that doesn't go anywhere.
It took me a long time to internalize this, and to really get it. I have been writing stuff for almost twenty years, but never actually finished anything. When I finally made the commitment to finishing a novel, it was because I knew where it was going. Sitting down and planning out the end of the story is the only reason I finished it. The 'planner vs. pantser' debate is one for another post, so I won't go into it here, but outlining made a world of difference to me, and now I'm in the middle of writing the third book in this series already.
The first scene I wrote for Remember, November was November waking up in the open grave with her memories gone. I knew that was a great opening, but my hard drive is littered with those, and I knew it. So I didn't pursue this story or any others until I figured out where it was going to go. I wasn't going to waste this one like I had so many others. It took months of thinking and pouring over ideas before the story took the shape you've (hopefully) read, but it was worth it.
It took a massive shift in how I think about my writing and my process for me to finish my first novel, and I'm glad I forced myself to do it. The old adage of 'done is the engine of more' turned out to be absolutely true for me, and it was finding my ending that enabled me to be done with something for the first time, and continue that story on into a sequel, and now a series.
Every book presents a different challenge, but every challenge you overcome makes the next one that much easier. You have to learn how to finish, as weird as that sounds, but when you do, there is no better feeling. Sure, you immediately start to second-guess every choice you made, but that's true of all art, because there is no perfect, correct answer. But you can't second-guess until you've first-guessed. Gotta do that first.
How does that apply to a whole series? Much the same way. I don't want to go into it too much, but I will tell those of you who have read this far that I do know what the final scene of the entire series is. Just give me time to get there!
To wrap up, I want to acknowledge that this was really more of a post for the writers among my readers, but I feel an obligation to, however I can in my small way, pay forward the advice that has changed so much for me. I know I'm nobody, just a small-time indie author, but I wasn't even that a year ago, and now you're reading this.
To me, that's a big difference.
Thank you.
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