A term I use to describe the inability of my longtime partner to make our relationship mean something to the government using the "M" word (since we both are pretty sure it means something to us and our families), I also suffer from severe commitmentphobia.
I am approximately 400 words away from completing my first ever MS, and what do I do?
Scrap it.
Not because I think it sucks. Not because I don't want to finish it. But because those last 400 words need to be perfect, need to do all the other words justice to tie together that one niggling loose end that would bring the whole story to a beautiful and blissful end.
Eh, not to be.
As a writer, I am severely attention-deficit. I fall in love with my heroes and heroines and mull over their lives for weeks and months (if lucky) at a time. When it comes to finishing them off though, it's time to move onto the next best thing.
So how do you finish a story? I feel that as a pantser I'm at a disadvantage here, because there is no clear-cut ending to my characters' saga.
When do you know that a story is finished? I know how I want it to end, but when do you feel comfortable closing the figurative cover, content with the knowledge that you've done everything you possibly could do to make sure your couple (or triad, or what have you) has reached there HEA (or happy-for-now)?
Maybe you should turn your book into a series. That way your book never really ends and you don't have to get rid of the characters(Just a thought).
ReplyDeleteHope you finish that novel. Who knows, maybe you are the future Best Selling Author of Paranormal Romance.
I had an ending all picked out. I had the happy ending all planned. I did. Then I tried to write it and it didn't work. For days I couldn't make it work. Then it hit me. I deleted a few pages and started over taking the characters on one last adventure and it brought itself to a close. It was a really nice day when I typed the words The End.
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