The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating
^ That is is the original (more sensible) idiom that is more commonly used today as 'the proof is in the pudding' (which makes no sense, and has been retconned into 'the end result is it's own justification,' but... really?). What it originally meant was that the only way to know if know something you were making was good or not was to eat it. And not just as in 'tasty' but as in 'not poisonous.' Anyway, why did I bring this up? Oh, writing, right.
Book IV is the first book I've written the ending to first. A while ago I wrote a post on here called 'The Rush of Creation,' which was about how I had a great rush of ideas that I needed to get out all at once. Those ideas were 80% the ending of this book, and now, writing the rest of it, I know that if that happens again, I'm biting the bullet and not writing it. I'll sketch out an outline so I don't forget what I thought up, but I won't write the ending first ever again.
Endings should be cathartic, for the writer as much as the reader, and while it felt amazing to have all of that flood out of me, it was the catharsis of a story I hadn't written down yet. The idea of it was in my head, but I wrote the payoff before the setup, which I've never done, and I don't think I like it.
Even though I know the endings to my stories before I start them, they've always been goals I'm working towards, the destination for the journey I'm taking, but it turns out just teleporting there isn't any fun. Doing that, combined with the MIrrors launch fallout has meant that this one is not going the way any of my other books have. In a way, I'm glad, because I'm learning more about my process and how my brain works now than I have since the first one. I'm in the heart of this story right now, and I've missed being here. In the belly of the beast, feeling my characters, fleshing out the world, it's fun again.
So will the ending be 100% what I wrote a few months ago? No, probably not. A lot of it will be, but there are little moments I'm creating now that will inform the story going forward, so it will be massaged a little bit, tweaked. It's not set in stone. And that's one of the beauties of writing long-form stories. You can change it. Good ideas don't all come at once, sometimes it takes awhile, and the story isn't done until it's published.
I know the ending to the series, too. I have for a long time, but now I know that there's no way I'm writing it until it's time. I'm going to earn it, just as my characters will have to. It's called a climax for a reason!
So, I'm eating, and so far, at least, it's not poisonous. I hope you find it tasty.
I still have to think of what to call it, though.
Book IV is the first book I've written the ending to first. A while ago I wrote a post on here called 'The Rush of Creation,' which was about how I had a great rush of ideas that I needed to get out all at once. Those ideas were 80% the ending of this book, and now, writing the rest of it, I know that if that happens again, I'm biting the bullet and not writing it. I'll sketch out an outline so I don't forget what I thought up, but I won't write the ending first ever again.
Endings should be cathartic, for the writer as much as the reader, and while it felt amazing to have all of that flood out of me, it was the catharsis of a story I hadn't written down yet. The idea of it was in my head, but I wrote the payoff before the setup, which I've never done, and I don't think I like it.
Even though I know the endings to my stories before I start them, they've always been goals I'm working towards, the destination for the journey I'm taking, but it turns out just teleporting there isn't any fun. Doing that, combined with the MIrrors launch fallout has meant that this one is not going the way any of my other books have. In a way, I'm glad, because I'm learning more about my process and how my brain works now than I have since the first one. I'm in the heart of this story right now, and I've missed being here. In the belly of the beast, feeling my characters, fleshing out the world, it's fun again.
So will the ending be 100% what I wrote a few months ago? No, probably not. A lot of it will be, but there are little moments I'm creating now that will inform the story going forward, so it will be massaged a little bit, tweaked. It's not set in stone. And that's one of the beauties of writing long-form stories. You can change it. Good ideas don't all come at once, sometimes it takes awhile, and the story isn't done until it's published.
I know the ending to the series, too. I have for a long time, but now I know that there's no way I'm writing it until it's time. I'm going to earn it, just as my characters will have to. It's called a climax for a reason!
So, I'm eating, and so far, at least, it's not poisonous. I hope you find it tasty.
I still have to think of what to call it, though.
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