transposable_element | NFE home stretch?

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So, I basically feel like I'm done. Although I can always do more tweaking and fine-tuning, I have a solid draft, 5000 words, I'm pretty happy with it, it does what I need/want it to, etc.

But...

(You knew there was a "but," right?)

But I don't have an ending. I feel like I'm done, but I don't have an ending that will satisfy anybody else. The only way I can think of to end it is to write a lot more that won't really add anything, just to get it to a point where I can hook it back up to the main canon story arc. Bleah.

I'll figure out something. It's just frustrating because I'm just SO CLOSE.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

heliopausa

Ha! I'm also in search of an ending. Maybe we should just write half-a-dozen endings and assign them randomly to endingless stories. Here, take your pick:

Before them, the path to the future stretched out, cool and inviting.
"I suppose we'll just have to carry on, then," she ventured.
"Looks like it," he agreed.
Her hand found his, and gripped tight - together, they would face the unknown!

Suddenly, something warm and soft land on my face.
Cuddles! My pet kitten had woken me up.
It had all been a dream, after all.

Oh, no! unperceived, one of them had crept closer, and was even now pulling the pin from a hand grenade.
Boom!
Everything went dark.

From:

transposable_element

Ahahahaha! I love these. Here are some more.

"Go to sleep," his mother said, firmly pulling up the covers and tucking them in around him. "You've had a long day, and even heroes need to rest sometimes."

He braced himself as he laid his hand on the doorknob. The last five had been tigers, not ladies, and why should this one be any different?

She paused at the castle gate and looked back, half wishing that she had decided to stay. But that choice was behind her. Her country needed her more than the prince did, or so she told herself.

"Well, I'm back," he said. [I admit to stealing this one.]

From:

marmota_b

Haha, this sounds like it, I don't know, requires a community to collect these, or something.
(Don't feel obliged to do it; I don't.)

I, too, wrote my story and realised it needed more of an ending than the one I began with. I guess it's a common problem. (I tend to start, or almost-start, with the ending, because it's good to know where I'm going with it and saves me some trouble at the end: but clearly, that approach does not always work, because sometimes the story twists under my hands as I'm writing it and the ending I began with no longer fits.)

Edited Date: 2015-08-23 04:25 pm (UTC)

From:

transposable_element

Starting with the ending is a good strategy. I tend to write vignettes -- start in the middle, end in the middle. This is fine for shorter pieces, especially in fanfic, where the surrounding narrative is already in place. But for longer pieces, it's really better to have an idea where you're going before you even start.

From:

marmota_b

From that point of view, playing with a word list and the Three Sentence Ficathon were really interesting for me, because it's a different, more open-ended approach than I used to have. There's a lot open-ended in how I write as well (filling in all the blanks, not in any particular order), but playing in that particular sandbox is different.

From:

transposable_element

Me too.

I've been thinking about how I jumped into writing fanfic with no plans and no expectations and no method whatsoever, because I didn't feel like I had to take it seriously because, well, it was fanfic. And then of course I realized that it was worth trying to do it well, and therefore I had to take it seriously if I was going to do it at all. And it was all downhill (or, depending on your perspective, uphill) from there!