NFE home stretch?

[transposable_element]

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.

Comments

[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.)

[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.

[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.

[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!