Hi everyone! Today's post is about a new writing experience I have just discovered: Finale Fear.
Finale Fear is sort of a new thing for me, and I think it's because right now I am writing Book #2 of the As Yet Unnamed Trilogy. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up (will I ever get tired of quoting The Princess Bride? Probably not!).
Normally when I come to write the finale of any book I am so excited about finally getting there, finally getting to the end - usually writing one of the first scenes I ever envisioned for the story - that I get swept along on this tide of euphoria. It's an amazing feeling that often produces some of my best writing, and it lasts until about half an hour after I've typed The End, at which point I get a bit tearful and need chocolate and Taylor Swift or possibly Katy Perry.
Anyway, the point is: I love writing endings. Normally. The only exception to this was the end of FrostFire, for reasons which people who have read FrostFire will probably understand.
Now, the ending of The Night Itself was no exception to this. Long-time readers may remember that my Finale Euphoria was so strong that I wrote the whole thing (nearly 9,000 words of it!) in a single mammoth session one Sunday, and that I had to ice my hand afterwards because my hand kind of swelled up and went all stiff.
But somehow, the ending to Book #2, which I will be starting as of tomorrow, is freaking me out.
Maybe it's the fact that I love the ending of The Night Itself so much. Because I do. Something magical happened during my insane writing frenzy that Sunday and for the first time in my life the stuff that ended up on the page? Actually matched the stuff in my head. Which may sound really crazy but I know the writers out there get what I mean. That *never* happens. Except this one time it DID. It might never happen to me again, so I cherish the experience - but it does mean that future finales have a lot to live up to.
Or maybe it's because the events of this finale are huge, dramatic and emotional and yet - because there is another book to come - they aren't really the *end* of this story. Obviously plenty of threads need to be left lying loose or there would be nothing left to happen in Book #3. With The Night Itself I don't think the fact that I was writing a trilogy had quite sunk in yet. After spending the last ten months editing The Night Itself and drafting Book #2 at the same time? It has now definitely sunk in. So even though I'm going to put everything I have into writing this finale, some tiny part of my brain is not seeing it as a proper ending, and is refusing to give me my delicious euphoria.
But whatever the reason, now that I'm looking at the final 10,000 words of so of my book, instead of Finale Euphora, I have Finale Fear. Oh, the FEAR. It is not delicious at all.
Cross your fingers for me, my lovelies! I need all the help I can get.
12 comments:
You can do it! *cheerleader*
Go Zo! is all I shall say. I'm just at the beginning of book 3 of a quartet, but I have the Deadline of Doom, so I feel your pain. Absolutely can't wait to read TNI, and know you will wrangle Book 2 into submission very shortly.
Q: Thank you! I do hope that you're right...
Lucy: Thank you so much! Hearing that ppl are looking forward to TNI really helps for some reason - I think it makes me feel that all this groping about in the dark is worth it. Good lucky with your quartet and the Deadline of Doom!
We all have the utmost faith in you! :D
Rebecca: Thank you! I'll try to live up to it :)
Good luck! Maybe the burst of inspiration just hasn't hit yet. Although I do know what you mean when you say that writing never comes out on paper the exact way you see it in your head. I think that's only happened to me once before too.
On the subject of writing, I have a question for you that I couldn't really find in the "all about writing" section. I don't know if it's a problem with me or my story, but recently (like the past couple of months or so) my creative juices have sort of stopped. I've been able to write stuff, but it doesn't feel quite right, because I'm not as into it. Is this just writer's block, or something bigger, and have you experienced it before? Is it maybe a problem with the book I'm working on? I know that you've talked about periods in your writing life when you've felt really uninspired, so I thought you'd be the best person to go to about this.
Isabel: Thank you. Although, as I think I've said before, if you wait for inspiration you'll probably end up writing once a month. And the less you write, the less inspiration comes, so sometimes you just have to suck it up and do without.
That's probably, in a way, the answer to your question too, Isabel! However it's probably not that helpful on its own, so I'll have a good think and post something for you next week, OK?
Good luck - I'm sure you'll get there! :D
Jesse: Thanks :) Still stubbornly plugging away, anyway.
Thanks, Zoe!
Good luck, Zoe! I have full faith in you :)
Megha: Thanks - I appreciate it :)
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