Nearly finished!!!
Oct. 14th, 2005 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estepheiaWhoohooo, yesterday I wrote the first draft of the last 4 pages of Four Fear. Today I typed these pages into the computer and tweaked and tinkered. Theoretically, the story is done now. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
myfeetshowit started to beta V.1.0 (i.e. the version posted in my LJ), but it will take her a while to reach the end of the story. Which is why I'll post the last chapter unbeta'd. Most of the changes she suggested so far concern replacing weak verbs with strong ones, and making the POV more consistently Xander's. I took those suggestions into consideration while writing the last chapter.
I have only one problem to solve before I can post: Do I cut off the last two paragraphs or don't I? The fact that I'm asking myself this question is probably a 'yes', but I'm not sure. According to Nancy Kress's Beginnings, Middles & Ends an ending should not be too open or ambiguous:
A successful denouement has three characteristics: closure, brevity and dramatization.
I want to tie up a few dangly endings (which means abandoning the main character's POV) but I don't want to spell things out too clearly. Baah.
Well, I'll probably post the ending I have right now, and then I'll do a poll and ask the readers if they think the last two paragraphs should get the axe.
Anyway, I'm excited that it's done. 24.200 words in all. Too long to be a short story, to short to be a novel. I guess it's a novella, not just because of its length but also because it concentrates on a single suspenseful event/evening. There's no concrete symbol, no item that encompasses the whole theme of it - but I just had an idea how to make an image I use throughout more prominent and conrete and visible. I will have to insert a little scene in the middle, that's all. Something I can do when I give it the final polish.
But what counts today is that the first draft is done done done!!!! *dances the conga through the house*
myfeetshowit started to beta V.1.0 (i.e. the version posted in my LJ), but it will take her a while to reach the end of the story. Which is why I'll post the last chapter unbeta'd. Most of the changes she suggested so far concern replacing weak verbs with strong ones, and making the POV more consistently Xander's. I took those suggestions into consideration while writing the last chapter.I have only one problem to solve before I can post: Do I cut off the last two paragraphs or don't I? The fact that I'm asking myself this question is probably a 'yes', but I'm not sure. According to Nancy Kress's Beginnings, Middles & Ends an ending should not be too open or ambiguous:
A successful denouement has three characteristics: closure, brevity and dramatization.
I want to tie up a few dangly endings (which means abandoning the main character's POV) but I don't want to spell things out too clearly. Baah.
Well, I'll probably post the ending I have right now, and then I'll do a poll and ask the readers if they think the last two paragraphs should get the axe.
Anyway, I'm excited that it's done. 24.200 words in all. Too long to be a short story, to short to be a novel. I guess it's a novella, not just because of its length but also because it concentrates on a single suspenseful event/evening. There's no concrete symbol, no item that encompasses the whole theme of it - but I just had an idea how to make an image I use throughout more prominent and conrete and visible. I will have to insert a little scene in the middle, that's all. Something I can do when I give it the final polish.
But what counts today is that the first draft is done done done!!!! *dances the conga through the house*
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 05:15 pm (UTC)Gina
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 07:20 pm (UTC)This story ate up way too much time. I guess I was too stubborn to give up.
Finishing this is such a relief. I'm still fiddling with the ending, but hey, almost there. :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-15 06:47 am (UTC)Don't pay attention to Nancy Kress, go with what your heart tells you, but ask it again in a few weeks time just for a second opinion ;-)
Writing books are, IMHO, the flotsam and jetsam of the writing world.... Apart from the one by Stephen King. That was cool...
Writing books are for people who want to write but can't find the will power to do it. After completing 24k words, I think we can safely say that this isn't you... :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-15 04:44 pm (UTC)I solved my endings problem. But you're right, in a few weeks I'll ask my heart (and brain) again. :-)
As for the books on writing - I find some of them helpful. Others not so much.
Some are at least entertaining. ;-)
It's frightening to think that books on writing sell better than many novels.