I want to bring resonance to the ending of a book. To fulfill reader's expectations or even exceed them. To bring the themes to a conclusion. I want the character arcs completed in a satisfying way. The plot needs to be tied up.
The ending is what the reader will walk away with, what he or she will remember. If I can create a good feeling at the end, then that's the reward.
Anyway, I've liked the ending to Blood of the Succubus, but last night I wrote a ending line that had me raise both fists in the air and shout "Yes!"
It requires that I go back an add something earlier in the book. I'd thought about doing this scene already, but it wasn't totally, absolutely necessary, so I was still mulling it over.
This one final line clinched the deal. So today I write that scene and then tie it together with the ending line and it should have a nice completed feel to it.
NEXT DAY: Today I went through the writer's group critiques -- (a couple of reams worth of paper).
So the completed book is now 93K words, or about 9K bigger than I handed off to Lara, and 35K longer than the first finished version.
It's scary how much better it is. Because I thought that first version was good. Which makes me wonder about everything I'm doing...
The only thing left to do is go through the 9K red-colored changes and make sure they are copy-edited since Lara won't be seeing them.
It's a real book. It has heft. It feels substantial and layered.
But because it was such a heavy rewrite, it's pretty hard for me to judge. I just have to assume that the improvements really are improvements, each and every one.
The ending is what the reader will walk away with, what he or she will remember. If I can create a good feeling at the end, then that's the reward.
Anyway, I've liked the ending to Blood of the Succubus, but last night I wrote a ending line that had me raise both fists in the air and shout "Yes!"
It requires that I go back an add something earlier in the book. I'd thought about doing this scene already, but it wasn't totally, absolutely necessary, so I was still mulling it over.
This one final line clinched the deal. So today I write that scene and then tie it together with the ending line and it should have a nice completed feel to it.
NEXT DAY: Today I went through the writer's group critiques -- (a couple of reams worth of paper).
So the completed book is now 93K words, or about 9K bigger than I handed off to Lara, and 35K longer than the first finished version.
It's scary how much better it is. Because I thought that first version was good. Which makes me wonder about everything I'm doing...
The only thing left to do is go through the 9K red-colored changes and make sure they are copy-edited since Lara won't be seeing them.
It's a real book. It has heft. It feels substantial and layered.
But because it was such a heavy rewrite, it's pretty hard for me to judge. I just have to assume that the improvements really are improvements, each and every one.