The last two stories I've worked on (for the past month) have done exactly that. With both stories, I've started off with a good idea, run with it, then bogged down trying to find the finish line. I can tell that I'm manipulating the endings, something Jeff Ford warned us against at Clarion. I can even point to specific sentences and tell you "That's where it's happening, right there." But I can't seem to "unmanipulate" it.
I suppose that these stories will take care of themselves in time. Probably the thing to do is leave them alone for awhile and let Fred take over. It's frustrating, but everybody goes through it. (I hope they do.)
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I've found that sometimes such fizzling out comes after reading a lot of really great stuff, then trying to write too soon afterwards. It's sort of like watching Roger Federer play tennis then picking up a raquet and hitting the courts. Anyway, lately I've been reading some short stories by Flannery O'Connor, one of my favorite writers.
There's much to admire in O'Connor's work. I certainly appreciate all the Southern touches, but I marvel at how she weaves a spiritual element into each story. The South is filled with spiritually, and not all of it good. O'Connor knows how to bring this out without beating the reader over the head with it. She also knows the importance of word choices. So many of her sentences could have been written with slight differences, but sacrificing much. Hers is a true world of wonder with enough strangeness to satisfy spec fic readers (even non-Southern ones).
My reading has been all over the place lately. In addition to O'Connor, I've been reading:
Scott Westerfeld
Jeff VanderMeer
Anton Chekhov
Dante
Jasper Fforde
Hans Christian Andersen
No wonder I can't write anything....
* from Neil Young's introduction to "Don't Let It Bring You Down" from the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young live album 4-Way Street.
5 comments:
Do you start writing a story before you know the general ending? I never do because I never finish any story if I don't have some general end point in my head before I start.
JeffV
Hi, Jeff. When I do know (or think I know) the general ending, the story usually ends up feeling manipulated and predictable. I don't really know how to break out of that cycle.
I have to have some sort of target for the ending, some moderately solid notion of where these people are going. Elsewise the thing just wanders. I'm willing to change it, but I have to have something. But I think you're right: if I don't know, most of the time I need to let Fred have at it for a while.
What you wrote about O'Connor/the South/spirituality reminded me of something I read recently from Lucius Shepard in Louisiana Breakdown:
What keeps them going year after year through boredom and welfare hassles, hurricanes and heat? Belief, that's the answer. Not belief in God necessarily, or America. Nothing that simple. These people have a talent for belief. They've learned to believe in whatever's necessary to preserve the illusion of the moment.
Hmm... here's something you never heard at Clarion: "Your story actually ends on page 17..." (grin)
My problem with endings is often I cascade into multiple endings. And I try not to overwrite the last line, but sometimes something leaks out of the brain and the last line just feels right -- the rest of the time I worry about it. (double-edge-grin)
Dr. Phil
Jeff Ford roams the earth busting my balls. It's his great joy in life.
We're both right, but it sounds like you've already tried my solution...which is the same as Jeff F's, actually. I wasn't saying to force it. I was saying if the general end doesn't come clear at some point, I've found I personally can't write the story. But the ending always changes by the time I get there. I just gotta have something general to shoot for. And it ain't always a plot thing. It's a character reaction or emotion.
Everybody works a little differently.
Thus endeth another bit of anecdotal evidence.
JeffV
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