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 Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 8:40 pm
So my November Novel is FINALLY ready to be finished. But I don't know how. See, part of the problem is that even though I have 56K words, there's still at least on more book (probably two) to write before the story is done. That's right, I'm writing a trilogy. It wasn't intentional, but that's how things happened. (Similar to the way my daughter came into my life! ^_^)
At the moment, (the chapter before the last chapter/epilogue) My two main human characters have been knighted by the dwarf queen and my goblin main character has received the blessing from a dragon so he can start amassing an army to take back the goblin throne.
I want a satisfactory ending so that if it takes a few years between publishing book 1 and book 2 my readers will be interested and eagerly anticipating my next book without baying for blood because of a over-dramatic cliffhanger. Where do I stop for the best effect?
I know that's kind of a broad question, but let me qualify that: Should I end the story with the knighting ceremony? Should my human heroes get sent out on their first mission as knights? Should my goblin hero and human heroes leave the mountains of the dwarves together LotR style? Should I have some terrible news come in about the villains? Should my Elvin supporting character be confronted with a plot twist from her past? Should I tone down the seriousness of the situation? Should I riot the drama?
What do I do?
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 4:40 pm
You know Scarlet, there are so many opinions out there that if you aimed to please them all, you'd get nowhere real fast. This is why some of the best stories are in video games, the players can just act out whichever scenario they want without having to buy lots of books.
If you are interested in my personal opinion, I say go for the "terrible news come in about the villains" and maybe have Elvin be confronted with a plot twist from her past or something. I think that if you write from the heart and you care both about the characters and the readers you are bound to have a success. Sometimes you just need to go with yer gut and hope for the best. However, sometimes it is good to also listen to people but not too much, otherwise yer back where you started. That's just my common sense talking btw... he-he mrgreen
At least I told you what would sound most interesting to me without knowing much about the story anyway. Maybe if I knew everything I'd have a more helpful comment.
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 8:53 am
Thanks for the help! I'd love to tell you everything, but "everything" is about 92 pages long. Plus all my notes. ^_^
I think I will end with the first roomers of the evil goblin king's doings and maybe a little explanatory history on why goblins are the way they are. Then I think I'll do an epilogue about my villain to draw the reader into my conspiracy. ^_^
Now if only I had the time and an experimental audience...
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Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:34 pm
i think you definitely need a twist, something juicy that will leave the reader thirsting for more . . . like hypno said though, stick with your gut cuz you can't please everyone. A dramatic twist is always good though . . . mrgreen
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 3:36 pm
ScarletFrost Thanks for the help! I'd love to tell you everything, but "everything" is about 92 pages long. Plus all my notes. ^_^ I think I will end with the first roomers of the evil goblin king's doings and maybe a little explanatory history on why goblins are the way they are. Then I think I'll do an epilogue about my villain to draw the reader into my conspiracy. ^_^ Now if only I had the time and an experimental audience... You are most welcome buddy! I get that it would be a bit too complex, not to mention time consuming, for me to know everything about yer story so don't worry about it. It seems to me that the choice you made could be a good one. I can't wait to see if it pays off for you or what. I sure hope it does and who knows, maybe we'll get to see it on the big screen one day like with Eragon. I just hope the movie version of yer story is better. sweatdrop You know, I was sort of thinking about the same thing. Wouldn't it be great if somebody like "Nintendo" or "Sony" came up with a videogame where you had to entertain a virtual audience? You could use a camera like the eye toy or whatever and it might be interesting to play. What do you think? Writers like us could have a field day! 3nodding Thanks green dragon! I feel so knowledgeable now, he-he. xd
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 1:03 pm
I had an epiphany today. ^_^
When my story ends, my heroes are going to be fairly confidant that this wont get out of hand. I mean, they've just finished taking down one of the evil goblin king's best generals, so how much worse can it get?
Then, in the epilogue, I'll allude to the nefarious plans of my villain to build suspence.
Then in the second book Goblin Knights, my prologue will open with the dark deeds of my villains, and use THAT to motivate my heroes to get their butts out of the mountains. ^_^
It works out so well. I'm so happy!
Now that I think about it, it seems kinda stupid and obvious. sweatdrop
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Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 3:38 pm
I'm glad you thought of something.
You know what? You shouldn't dwell on how something sounds at first cuz you are the writer and you can always come back and edit things to be more appealing to you and the readers. I had to come back to one of my stories many times cuz I wasn't satisfied by the way things turned out. Come to think of it, I still have to make some arrangements but I keep thinking I can always do that later, he-he. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:49 pm
I must say, having just read this, that I also had a lot of trouble orchestrating the end of my first novel, Ravensblood. It was all because it had to be planned just so that something large was accomplished that served both as a conclusive end and a possible beginning for the next book. It took me quite a while before everything clicked seamlessly in my head and unfortunately the thing ended up at a big fat 146,000 words in length. And I still ended up leaving it on a cliff-hanger (although to be fair, a major plot point was resolved).
What I'm trying to say is: Do what you feel is right, and in the end it will reward you with what you feel is great. And if the first reader that gets to the end begs you for more, take it as a compliment and continue writing! it's just a book, even though it is your baby, and they'll live. 3nodding
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:57 pm
Alanora; this was a very old thread, you know that? Ah, never mind. we should have a thread about endings anyway. I might make one, now I've thought of it.
Ah, I'm planning to finish 'One Star' with the protagonist looking out into the sunset, wondering about what will happen in the future. But I've a feeling that's rather cliche. But I know I want to have a cool down, because, if it all goes to plan and doesn't completely change like it loves to, they'll have just finshed a big battle and escaped from the, *cough* can't insert plot spoilers *cough* um, evil plan type thing. I don't know how I'm going to finish my other two novels, which I really shouldn't be writing because I can't write three novels at a time *shot*.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:33 pm
Vaporae: Yeah, I realized that after I posted.
As long as you tie up (most) of your loose ends it will be fine. Will there be a sequel to the book? If you really want the sunset motif not to be cliche, it might be productive to look up what sunsets represent and bounce off of that. They can represent endings, sure, but I'm pretty sure you could use it as a segway into darker times.
I know you you feel about the multiple novels at once thing. Sometimes I really have to rein myself in because there are so many ideas that I want to get to work on. and even right now I'm debating if book 2 of the trilogy I'm writing should be undertaken during NaNoWriMo or if I should just take a break from it to write something different. >_>;;
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:58 pm
Ah, I do that too often.
I'm not sure if there will be a sequel, it'll depend on how it works out, I guess. But I'm going to leave it open for the possibility of one, so if I do want to write one, I'll have some stuff to work with.
And I really must decide on which one to write. Because I can't keep writing three.
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:04 pm
So Alanora, yer first novel is called Ravensblood? It sounds really cool! And gee, it seems to have a lotta words, doesn't it? Have you made any modifications to it lately?
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Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:05 am
hypnocrown So Alanora, yer first novel is called Ravensblood? It sounds really cool! And gee, it seems to have a lotta words, doesn't it? Have you made any modifications to it lately?
The sad part is, I can't seem to figure out exactly what it is I've done wrong to have such a high word count. I'm sure there's some stuff that doesn't need to be there, I just need to (wo)man it up and get rid of it. Back to editing, XD! And I may yet change the ending just a little bit to make it more conclusive and less like a dramatic cliffhanger (actually it's not a huge cliffhanger, just a little one). I can flip you the synopsis or the blurb when I write it if you want.
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