Plots within Plots and Delivering an Ending
Well, dear readers, let me explain something. Trying to plot out an entire series is, at times and quite possibly, the most infuriating thing I've ever done. But don't worry. Now that I've gotten the writing bug back, I will find a path through this horrid Wasteland of Not-Knowing. Despite this determination, most of my current lists of how to finish the entire story end with "WTF." So, I shamelessly admit it. I have no fracking idea where this metaphorical beast is going and just hope that it is going someplace fabulous.
Sunday night, I stayed awake reading a new book called The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. I stayed up reading until 6:45 AM on Monday morning, slept until 12:00 in the afternoon then woke and read to the end.
At first, it was compelling and beautiful and heartbreaking, and then the last three chapters seemed like someone threw on the brakes and decided to end the book. The ending was rushed, the characters became suddenly not-themselves, the level of detail and realism was lost. The book is a science fiction novel written by a woman, about religion and what it means to lose touch with being human. Right up my ally. And then the I got to the end.
On this note I will leave you as I mosey toward bed. Writers who promise endings as either horrific, revelatory, life-shattering, or earth-altering should deliver after I have stayed up more than twenty-four hours to read their books. For serious.
So say we all.
Bri
2 comments:
I do love The Sparrow, though I haven't read it in ten years -- it may be new to you, but it's been around since 1997. Don't remember being disappointed by the ending, but maybe that's because there is a sequel, Children of God, that came out in 1999 and I probably just combine the two in my head.
Thanks for hearting me, by the way. I heart you too. And boy, do I have a book for you when you get back into town. Don't let me forget.
Re: Plots -- Try Jeff Kitchen's Writing a Great Movie. You don't even have to read the whole thing in one go... just jump to the chapter on Sequence, Proposition, Plot. Once I read that chapter I realized what I was doing wrong with my plotting... was grasping at very random desperate straws trying to scrape plot up from nowhere. Let's just say Mr. Kitchen has an... interesting principled approach to plotting that I found helpful.
Plots are hard.
So say we all. :)
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