what do you do when you have written yourself into a corner?
I am not sure how to end one of my stories ....
what do you do when you have written yourself into a corner?
I am not sure how to end one of my stories ....
You need a life changing event. A birth, a death, a marriage, graduation, a new wife or girlfriend, an important anniversary, a new job, something memorable that you can use as a reason to stop the current story. If you decide to continue it later, the life changing event is just another jog in the road. Unless you killed off the main character.
Depends on the details of the situation. However, I've two things I've done in the past: (1) Put the story aside and let my mind dwell on it while I work on another story, this usually results in an answer at a later date; (2) if no answer results from the first option, which rarely happens, I make a change early in the story that allows me to avoid the corner.
Editors?
Editors have always improved my unfinished stories by asking me interesting questions that I had actually not really thought about while plotting out the story.
Ask an editor to poke holes in the plot as you have it now. Editors who ask 'what happens to x?' 'why did y do that?' 'what if z happens?' will give you plenty of ideas of how to end it, and what tweaks to the trajectory you ought make to the book already written.
There's always "happily ever after."
With due respect, shouldn't your answer be; "Write a second sentence."
Thus doubling your word count...
Change your name to 'Baby'? ;-)
Oh, my. Subtle, so subtle! I love it here, and love it even more when an author slips such references into a story, especially when they are willing to do it like this, without beating the reader over the head with it!
Sadly The Cooler has been ground temperature for the last 12 years. Soon all of these pop culture references will be gone, like tears in the rain.
Soon all of these pop culture references will be gone, like tears in the rain.
For every pop culture reference that's gone, three more rise to take it's place. :)
Soon all of these pop culture references will be gone, like tears in the rain.
sadly, the pop culture has been replaced with poop culture.
Early on, I try to determine what my story is about. What's the theme? If it's about a guy recovering from a messy divorce, then the story ends when he finds peace (if not new love.) If the story is a coming of age story about first love, then it ends either at a high point in their relationship (happy ending) or when they grow apart (bittersweet ending). If it's about an alien invasion, it ends when they are defeated by the common cold. :)
What is your story about?
He brings the best drugs and plot outlines that Admiral Daddy's military intelligence buddies can provide.
He brings the best drugs and plot outlines that Admiral Daddy's military intelligence buddies can provide.
Or have Admiral Daddy send someone to blow a hole in the wall providing and escape route from the corner.
Wrong Door. Follow Neil Gaiman's example (always a good thing for a writer - if often difficult). He got a TV show and a book out of writing a Door.
Wrong Door.
Doors are unimportant.
Some we find open, some are slammed in our face, some are closed to us but not to others, some we can force open, some we lock ourselves. Doors are not important.
Doorways are very important. Knowing which to pass through and which to avoid at all costs are the choices that make or break us.
Some we find open, some are slammed in our face,
I've always wondered how they slammed those early hide doors when leaving angry, and what sort of sound it made.
I've always wondered how they slammed those early hide doors when leaving angry, and what sort of sound it made.
They didn't. Slamming a hidden/concealed door kind of defeats the purpose.
They didn't. Slamming a hidden/concealed door kind of defeats the purpose.
That's 'hide' as in the hide or skin of an animal as I didn't say hidden. Yes, I have Asperger's Syndrome and take things literally most of the time.
I've always wondered how they slammed those early hide doors when leaving angry, and what sort of sound it made.
As anyone who has studied Genghis Khan knows, you never slam a hide door, if you do, it yurts…
Although technically for all in tents and purposes, such an entry is a flap, not a door. Many early timber doors had gaps between their boards so to prevent drafts they were covered in animal skins. Thus were hidebound.
Doors are unimportant.
You've obviously not read 'Neverwhere', to impugn poor Door in such a manner. Door is very important! She's both the damsel-in-distress and the heroine.
True, if the walls can swing open ;-)
Well...
Anthony Wall swung The Open five times
Art Wall Jr. swung in a number of 'Opens'
Currently the PGA has no Doors, just a Daw. (Sadly Robert, not Jack)
I am not sure how to end one of my stories
Too late now, but in the future know your ending before you begin … and then write toward that ending.
but in the future know your ending before you begin … and then write toward that ending.
So what do you do if you start a particular story with a specific ending in mind, and then halfway through writing the story realize your planned ending won't work?
So what do you do if you start a particular story with a specific ending in mind, and then halfway through writing the story realize your planned ending won't work?
I don't know that can happen. You write your story toward the ending you have in mind. So how can the ending not work?
There's a basic conflict that drives the plot. When that is resolved (conflict resolution/plot climax), the story is basically over. Before you begin, you decide on the conflict and should know how it's going to be resolved. Maybe not all the nitty-gritty details, but the basic resolution.
In my story "Matilda and the Assassin" I originally wanted it to end with her being an assassin and write a series of stories with her in that role. But I learned to like her while writing it and gave her a better, happier ending. I had to go back and add to another character for that to happen, but that was no big deal. So I changed the ending, right? No. The conflict was her needing to find the killer of her little brother. She did that. That didn't change. That was the conflict resolution/plot climax, what I was writing toward. The story could have ended there but I added the part about her new life.
I don't know that can happen. You write your story toward the ending you have in mind. So how can the ending not work?
Because it has some fatal flaw that you didn't realize until you started writing the story or you reach a point where you realize you have no idea how to get to the original intended ending.
Because it has some fatal flaw
If you know the ending and are writing toward it, why would you write in a flaw that would make the ending not work?
You may have an "oh wow!" moment while writing that takes you to a different ending, but you change your ending at that time. If the new ending won't work with everything else you wrote, you either have to do a major rewrite of what's already written or stick with the original ending and forgo the "oh wow!"
If you know the ending and are writing toward it, why would you write in a flaw that would make the ending not work?
I'm not referring to something you wrote that makes the ending not work but rather your planned ending had a fatal flaw before you wrote the first word, but you don't realize that until later.
I'm not referring to something you wrote that makes the ending not work but rather your planned ending had a fatal flaw before you wrote the first word, but you don't realize that until later.
Many stories contain a fatal flaw. It is actually an extremely popular plot device that prevents a character from achieving their objective.
I don't know that can happen. You write your story toward the ending you have in mind. So how can the ending not work?
One way is when characters take on a life of their own and grow in unexpected or unplanned ways. This can result in a the planned ending being incongruous given the way the characters developed.
Forcing such characters to fit the planned ending is usually jarring to the reader and often gives rise to complaints of 'rushed' endings. Or worse, accusations the writer 'lost interest'.
The advantage, and disadvantage, of seat-of-the-pants writing. My characters have grown in a variety of unexpected ways, but I always had flexibility in the direction of the story, while leaving room for resolution.
disadvantage, of seat-of-the-pants writing.
is the mess when you or the character crap in the pants.
Personally, I try to avoid that. My characters, though, have been known to cause various messes.
Too late now, but in the future know your ending before you begin
This hit me as follows: in the future I'll know my ending, so all I need is a time machine so that I can know my ending before I begin.
The two classic options are a) wait for the ink to dry so you can walk over it, scribbling something in the corner and claiming the job is done on your way to the door & b) have your MC wake up and it was all a dream. Then write another 150 chapters. It worked for Dallas, the American public lapped it up. You could try working in water-skiing over a shark for extra points.
C) is the hard one. Pull the story, go back a bit and re-write it to give you a new pathway. I've seen a few pulled over the years for that stated reason, but the re-writes rarely get posted.
This is just me, your mileage may vary, and all that.
What I do is set the story aside for long enough it's not the project that's in the forefront of my writer brain. Pick up something else to work on for a while. The key is to make it remote enough I can't recall all the details. Then, I sit down and read the whole thing, start to current, trying to read it as if it was someone else's and I'm a beta reader. Along the way, I note all the inconsistencies and plot holes and open questions that I would point out to that supposed other author.
In my own experience, the answer has come from that. In one case, I found a plot hole, and fixing that opened up a way to the resolution. Another, there was a plot thread I'd totally forgotten about, and addressing that was the missing climax. In all cases, I had to backtrack in some way and revise my way to the ending, but that isn't always the case with other writers I've talked with.
As I disclaimed, my experience only. You need to honor your process, how your writer brain works. But you asked.
what do you do when you have written yourself into a corner?
When you've written yourself into a coroner, you conduct an autopsy to determine cause of death.
AJ
Thats a Marty Stu / Mary Stu. If cannibalism is involved its a Marty Stew / Mary Stew. Such a writer would be very Dexterous.