Munday conclusions
Let's talk about endings!
1. Do your stories/RP arcs have endings? Or are they like sitcoms, incidents end but the story goes on.
-More like sitcoms, really. And worse, the timeline stretches both ways.
2. If you write trilogies/quartets/quintets etc. does each book have an ending of it's own?
-Pretty much. I try to wrap up stories at critical transitions or junctures for each character. The beginning of an installment is likely to pick up at the very ending or shortly after the ending of the preceding book. For instance, the back story" arc starts with the beginning of my characters' adventures in their first year in high school, balancing out academics, writing, and community work. This story runs all the way up to Marce and Ida's graduation from high school and their leaving for college in the big city. The novel I'm working on now picks up about half a year after the ending of the first story, when Ida and Marce are freshmen and involved in various activities within their respective universities. The story runs up to the time after a national election (which influences the outcome of their activist activities), and when Emil goes to law school. The law school arc picks up the week or so after, and runs up to Marce and Emil having their first child. The final story in the timeline starts off some months later, when Marce has survived a traumatic incident and must recover psychologically from it. The story ends with new transitions: Marce and Emil having another child and putting their lives back together, and their best friend Darren (the narrator) starting anew in California.
3. How far ahead do you know how your book will end?
-Usually I know from the get-go, so I can imagine my characters at that particular point and write how they got there.
4. Do you write happy endings? Or less so.
-I tend to go the bittersweet route: my characters grow up and have some of their conflicts resolved, but they plunge headlong into new problems, the social ills they are combating do not really ease up (or they just change form), and separations inevitably occur. I make characters leave their hometowns or schools, or work away from the people they love the most.
5. Do you ever have trouble with endings? Which do you think is harder - Endings, or beginnings?
Beginnings definitely! I always know where I want to see my characters, but I never know when to jump into their stories.
1. Do your stories/RP arcs have endings? Or are they like sitcoms, incidents end but the story goes on.
-More like sitcoms, really. And worse, the timeline stretches both ways.
2. If you write trilogies/quartets/quintets etc. does each book have an ending of it's own?
-Pretty much. I try to wrap up stories at critical transitions or junctures for each character. The beginning of an installment is likely to pick up at the very ending or shortly after the ending of the preceding book. For instance, the back story" arc starts with the beginning of my characters' adventures in their first year in high school, balancing out academics, writing, and community work. This story runs all the way up to Marce and Ida's graduation from high school and their leaving for college in the big city. The novel I'm working on now picks up about half a year after the ending of the first story, when Ida and Marce are freshmen and involved in various activities within their respective universities. The story runs up to the time after a national election (which influences the outcome of their activist activities), and when Emil goes to law school. The law school arc picks up the week or so after, and runs up to Marce and Emil having their first child. The final story in the timeline starts off some months later, when Marce has survived a traumatic incident and must recover psychologically from it. The story ends with new transitions: Marce and Emil having another child and putting their lives back together, and their best friend Darren (the narrator) starting anew in California.
3. How far ahead do you know how your book will end?
-Usually I know from the get-go, so I can imagine my characters at that particular point and write how they got there.
4. Do you write happy endings? Or less so.
-I tend to go the bittersweet route: my characters grow up and have some of their conflicts resolved, but they plunge headlong into new problems, the social ills they are combating do not really ease up (or they just change form), and separations inevitably occur. I make characters leave their hometowns or schools, or work away from the people they love the most.
5. Do you ever have trouble with endings? Which do you think is harder - Endings, or beginnings?
Beginnings definitely! I always know where I want to see my characters, but I never know when to jump into their stories.