what is brain, I cannot brain

[layla]

In the last four days, I’ve revised 90,000 words of (unfinished) novel and rewritten chunks of it in the hopes of figuring out how it ends.

Spoiler: I still don’t know how it ends.

Aargh.

In the meantime, an interesting link: The Worldbuilding Blogfest – this looks like immense fun! I think I’m going to sign up. I’m not sure if I want to use it as a platform to explore one of my existing worlds (Kismet, maybe?) or if it would be better to develop something entirely new. But anyway … fun! I thought some of you might enjoy it too.

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Comments

[trobadora]

Spoiler: I still don’t know how it ends.

I'm finding this so fascinating. Do you mean you really don't know at all? Because myself, I can't really move forward on a story until I know exactly how it ends ...

[layla]

Well, I know the generalities; it's the specifics that I'm struggling with. Basically, ever since I've been writing the book, the ending has been "Bad Guy X is defeated by Good Guys ABC", with no idea of how it actually goes down. And that's ... still what it is. Except now I've written up to shortly before this is going to happen. I know what the outcome is, because I've written most of the very last chapter, so I know these people need to die, these ones need to live, this person is a turncoat, this one takes over after he dies, this is how the final battle affects the overall magic situation and sets up Book 3, etc.

What I still don't have, though, is any clear idea in mind of how the battle happens -- how to maneuver everyone onto the same stage, how Bad Guy X dies, and what the final component of his plan actually is. Normally I start writing with a vague idea of what's going to happen, and the specifics of the scenes a little way ahead of where I'm working resolve themselves as I go along. To my frustration, that's not happening this time, and I suspect it's because, among other things, certain aspects of his plan just don't work, so there's nothing plausible that can be done with them. I need to tweak something earlier and I haven't figured out what yet. I also have about a million characters and I'm having trouble getting them gracefully on and offstage; I think I might need to cut out a few.

I have been known to start writing before I have the faintest clue how a story ends (actually, I think most of the novels I'm currently working on started out that way: with a beginning set-piece and no idea what it was going to lead to) but the plot tends to come into focus pretty early. This one has been nothing but trouble from the beginning. I've been working on it for a year and a half, started with a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline and then changed I don't know how many things (such as the character who was slated to be my major antagonist morphing into a minor ambiguous ally and the major antagonist being someone else entirely) and the one good thing that's come out of the last few days was the realization that it's WAY less of a mess than I was afraid of; it only needed relatively minor rewriting to smooth over the rough places where different chunks of plot had been smashed together. I'm only about 10-15,000 words from the ending (which sounds like a lot, except I've already written close to 100,000 words on it, so this is just a drop in the bucket), but I still can't see the shape of those words at all.

[trobadora]

Well, I know the generalities; it's the specifics that I'm struggling with.

Oh, I see! That's a very different thing to me; it happens to me plenty. *g* You're probably right that it needs something in the actual set-up to make it work out ... I'm crossing my fingers that you work out quickly what it is that needs tweaking!

I have been known to start writing before I have the faintest clue how a story ends (actually, I think most of the novels I'm currently working on started out that way: with a beginning set-piece and no idea what it was going to lead to) but the plot tends to come into focus pretty early.

Heh. I'm sure I've said this before, but for me it's generally the ending that comes first. The few times I've started with a beginning, I was completely stalled until I came up with an ending. As a matter of fact, I have several WIPs lying around - both original and fanfic - that are just beginning scenes that go nowhere. One of them's particularly annoying because I really love that beginning, and the worldbuilding I did for it, but I can't for the life of me figure out where the thing should go.

the realization that it's WAY less of a mess than I was afraid of

That's always great! I'm sure you can work out the rest of the kinks as well.

I'm only about 10-15,000 words from the ending (which sounds like a lot, except I've already written close to 100,000 words on it, so this is just a drop in the bucket)

I'm always so impressed with your word counts!

[layla]

Thank you! :) And I was a little unclear; I feel very stuck right now, but when I actually look at it, there really isn't that much I still have to figure out. (And I think I had a breakthrough tonight, when I stopped thinking of the final fight as a one-on-one showdown between two characters, and started focusing on what everyone else was doing -- suddenly things started falling into place!)

As a matter of fact, I have several WIPs lying around - both original and fanfic - that are just beginning scenes that go nowhere. One of them's particularly annoying because I really love that beginning, and the worldbuilding I did for it, but I can't for the life of me figure out where the thing should go.

I have quite a few of those, too! For me, though, stories typically begin with an initial concept or setup, and a lot of the early writing is developing the beginning of it and seeing if it's going to go anywhere. The ending typically comes later.

[trobadora]

Yay for your breakthrough! \o/