Insecure Writer’s Support Group AUGUST!

August 7 question – Has your writing ever taken you by surprise? For example, a positive and belated response to a submission you’d forgotten about or an ending you never saw coming?

My answer is the second part of this. So many times I start a story and think I know where it is going only to find it takes on a life of its own and drags me to an ending I didn’t plan. Definitely so in Dream Warrior. I mean, the protagonist is not a ‘girly-girl’ and very definitely a warrior type so what the heck is this ending? However once written it fit.

Other books the ending was perhaps predictable, sparks of antagonism lead to sparks of romance/love. In Olivia I like to think that there is a nod to collecting ‘a bet’ that the female protagonist doesn’t cotton to as the ‘hero’ hurriedly distracts her with a kiss and hopefully leaves the readers chortling as they weren’t expecting it either.

Every ending should have an element of surprise, I think. Some twist the reader does not quite anticipate, Agatha Christie-style at its best! Nothing so glaring as to be out of character but still satisfying in that the reader did not exactly see it coming, and sometimes I didn’t either. Definitely part of the fun of writing.

Click here to see other writers’ responses to this month’s question.