Okay, I think *now* I've got the ending.

[hmpf]

6550 words - 14 pages exactly.

Six years.

There's still a few details to fill in with research, but that should be easy enough.


... Wow. I can switch my brain to another fic now! That feels amazing. (And slightly scary, because of course none of them are easy... In fact, it's *really* scary, because my plans for most of the fics I want to work on now are far too vague to begin/continue writing right now, yet I want to be writing away at something.)

Comments

[diotimah.livejournal.com]

Congrats! Look forward to reading it.:)

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Turns out I was premature (if only a little). All the components are there, but they're not yet quite in the right order, I think. I'm shifting things around at the moment, trying to find an arrangement that works.

[diotimah.livejournal.com]

Okay. Good luck. I know you're a perfectionist.;)

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Less a perfectionist, in this case, than actually pretty terrible at ending stories. Let my beta tell you about the horrible endings she's convinced me (easily, usually) to cut from my stories. In this respect I'm like Tolkien - who needed an editor to convince him to cut the unnecessary epilogue he'd attached to TLotR.

[diotimah.livejournal.com]

LOL. Well, that's flattering after all.:) For that matter, in this respect, J K Rowling was too successful for her own good, for Harry Potter also would have been better without the unnecessary epilogue, but of course, at that point, she no longer had to listen to editors.

By the way, if I remember correctly, Becca is your beta, isn't she? I remember some really fascinating conversations I had with her at Burg Lohra, many years ago (that was a delightful weekend!;)).

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

May I just rant at you for a minute? Because this ending is driving me crazy. No matter what I do and how I rearrange it, it always either feels like too much closure, or too little. It seems impossible to hit just the right balance. Arrrrrgh!

[diotimah.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can sympathise. Endings are always the most difficult part, in many ways - particularly the last line - even more if your intention is to leave the reader wondering, but don't want to leave matters completely obscure. I'm sure you'll find the way in between, though, even if it means wrangling with multiple version first.;)

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Another thing I seem incapable of is finding the right balance between being needlessly obscure and hitting the reader over the head with my point.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Right now I've got something that feels like a decent ending to me, but I'm not sure if readers would get it.

asfdjlkhfgjfkljkljd *frustrated keyboard mashing*

[diotimah.livejournal.com]

LOL. Well, if you're unclear about that, it's possibly a good idea to keep it as it is, but include some symbolic sign posts.;)