Between shopping sprints, baking, and gift-wrap frenzy, I’m also thinking about the end of my Work In Progress. It’s not a mystery, so without a crime to be solved, a villain to catch, justice to be served and order restored, how do I know it’s the end?
Well, it is a little tougher to recognize without those handy mystery elements. This WIP is a fantasy adventure novel, and theoretically the adventures could just keep piling on. But no matter the genre, all endings have certain things in common:
- The story has to have resolution. (check)
- Characters have to grow. (check)
- Goals have to be reached. (check)
- Loose ends have to be tied. (well...almost...)
But my favorite?
5. The end of the year makes a great deadline for ending a book, which is mainly how I know this one is almost done.
Seriously. Finishing the WIP along with the year just feels...tidy. It’s a great way to clear my desk before taking a break for holiday partying. After that, I’ll sharpen my pencils for a brand-new project at the first of next year. After many months of this old WIP, I can’t wait for the New Shiny!
But, Trouble always lurks, trying to undermine my careful plans. For many months I’ve been feeding questions to my subconscious about all those loose ends. Why are they there? Why is character x doing this and that? Why is character y even in this book? What does it all mean? Not being a plotter, I just can’t conjure the answers until my subconscious decides to spit back the answers.
With the days on my calendar dwindling to the end of the year, and still with no answers in sight to tie up everything, I’ve been working myself into a sweat. Then, thankfully last month, eureka! The answers came in a blazing flash. Nothing like waiting to the last moment, right? It’s going to be tight, with only a couple more weeks to work them in, but at least I’m finally on my way to the end.
