I need an ending

Don't ask me. I'm a sap. I want the romantic ending. Oftentimes, life doesn't show those roses so I like my books to show them. There are times, now, when I read a book and say.. KILL EM ALL DEAD! Let the liver virus wipe out 3/5 of the population! Blow the submarine up! But if it's a story based on reality, that's when I want my nice little pretty golden bow on top.

I know a couple... who were married, had 2 children, and fell out of love after several years. One day, he decided to leave her but the more he thought about it, he said.. well.. let me try this one more thing. Let me pretend I love her all over again. And he did... and OMG they fell in love all over again! That's not a book. That's a real story about my great friend Mary. So, happy endings work for me.

Sappy Jade

***********People matter.***************

Right now I want to kill everybody off and Be Done With It Already!!!!! As it is, I am probably going to have to add like 3k of words to it to compensate for all my padding (acknowledgements and quotes etc I have written) so I will feel that I have reached 50K without cheating.

Sheesh. I gotta write 3k a day just to make it--and I have written 400 words or so today and this story is the last thing I wanna see but I can't stop thinking about it--just none of what I am thinking will come out on a screen, grrrrr.

Side note--on quotes (I begin all my chapters with musical quotes). Do y'all think it is ok to quote twice from the same song? (Or even three times, if I go with one of the endings...LOL in a way this could be my novel's theme song.)

Happy ending. Barring that I'll take an ending where I get to decide which way it goes.

Free, are you a touch-typist? If so you might try closing your eyes and picturing your scene then type what you're seeing, with eyes still closed. It won't work for those who can't do touch-typing though.

Thanks for the tip Mel. kewl idea.

Free... I don't know if it's true.. but I thought i read somewhere on nano... that you couldn't use more than30% of a song... or 10% was it?
But that doesn't matter. Right now, this is your story! Use what you want or make up your own song for the theme song, "based" on that song.

jade

Haha OK Mel I can take a hint--I guess I will go for happy ending. It is definitely easier to write that one, even if it isn't very believable.

"When she said she was dying to find out what happened next, she wasn't kidding...The gotta. ..You didn't know exactly where to find the gotta, but you always knew when you did." Stephen King, Misery

Alas, Mel, no such luck. I don't have to look at my hands to type, and I am fairly quick, but I don't always spell words right. If I closed my eyes who knows what I would get. Maybe I should start dictating to the tape recorder I bought. I got that just because I wanted to do an audio book copy--but this might be another good use for it.

That's what spellcheck is for! I'm pretty good on the laptop, but holy crap you should see what it looks like when I download what I've written on the Alphasmart. I just do a quick check and fix it all. :)

Seriously, the main idea is to get the story written and once that's done then you go back and start fixing things. For the first draft you really need to gag, tie up and throw down in the basement your internal editor. Don't worry so much if it isn't right because once you're done you'll have the whole story down, and that's what you will work at to straighten everything out.

Second drafting... ooooo so daunting to me.
I'm not sure which one I will enjoy more though.. 1st or 2nd or 15th draft. =)

jade

I've heard that by the time you get to the 50th or so you might be more than a tad sick of the whole book.

Just tryin' to chear you up.

That's IT Mel... I fire you as my muse!

Hey, did you 2nd, 3rd draft your nano from last year? What happened to it?
Had you finished writing it at the end of November or did you have to keep going?
Where is it now?

jade

I write white on white. That way, the edits and revisions are easier! LOL

yech drafting. Don't Wanna. So Sick of Story already---but for those of you who have read pieces of it (before I took it down) I am going to have to do some drafting on Brian Vance's intro I think he has warmed up as a person as I have written from his POV and it doesn't seem to me as if he is the same char as when he started out at all....this is more than just char development, this is, "Is this the same guy?"

::sniff:: Just passing on what I've heard others say. Honest. :)

Ah, last years, still working on it, and the second one from last year too. The third I need to tear apart completely because I switched POVs later on and I want to delve into her background. I attempted 3 novels but didn't make it, just a decent word count to show. I have sooo many novels started it's pathetic. That's why I'm sticking to just one main one, although I do jot a bit down on another from time to time.

As for editing, yes, I've done some. Was a bit scared at first from all I'd heard, but I found I actually didn't mind it and sometimes enjoyed it. Some do, some don't. I guess I enjoyed taking a bad sentence and making it better. Have a short story I've made a couple of passes on and need to do one or two more, then have it critiqued again.

I still say you can look at your first draft as an outline because you have all the basics for the story there to work with. And, I know there's a published author who does just that so I'm comfortable at looking at it that way.

Mel you probably get a ton more done that way than I do my way I am such a perfectionist. Everything has to be acted out almost like improv theater before I can get it down. Basically by the time it makes it to my screen it HAS been edited. I need to kick my effing editor out already. But I trust you know what you are talking about and I will try to do it more your way. Geez, you have multiple novels? This will be my first Nano--and no, I have no idea what I am gonna do, this novel was supposed to be it. I don't know if I have another story to tell.

***Begs Mel the Muse to be hired again!

Happy day,

jade

My suggestion would be to give a bittersweet ending that demonstrates how the main character(s) has grown over the course of the story.

As for your question about song lyrics, according to my research it's a gray, and potentially dangerous area, that need not concern you unless you decide to publish it. Fair use typically only applies when quoting something for educational (rather than entertainment) purposes. But that's what the publisher's legal department is for. Don't go self-publishing it without talking to a lawyer first.

Peace out,
Dharma

On one condition. You'll have to be my muse. Fair is fair, ya know.

Muse I'll be. That's a kewl deal.
Tell me Mel, what's the secret to forum reading during NaNo? Did you pick a room or three to read and consider the others off limits?
What other forum habits did you have that worked / didn't work?

jade,
muse for mel

One I would suggest is to go to MyNaNoWriMo then to Forum Selection. Scroll down through the list and decide which ones you know you won't miss and tick Hidden. If there are any threads you know you want to keep track of you can Subscribe to them. You'll get an email notice each time someone posts - that goes to the email you gave when you signed up.

I find it's hard for me to not check most of the genre areas because each one sometimes has something to offer, especially when you're writing sub genres. The first year or two I'd sometimes go to the beginning and see who posted a question and didn't get any replies, but it does take too much time. I still feel bad though when no one answers those. But, like I said, the whole board moves so fast it's hard to catch everything.

You're addicted now, wait until they really start going and you try to keep up. :) Some set a rule that they can't check the forums until they've written a certain amount. Me, I can't write first thing in the morning, have to have my coffee and get woke up before I can function and that takes a couple of hours.

What I did learn was, I can write during the day and not just in the evenings. My highest was last year and managed 11K one day. Others can do much more than that each day. If you feel you're lagging word wars are great for catching up.

Don't compete with anyone but yourself. Whatever word processor you use set it fullscreen so that's all you see. If you have a problem with wanting to keep fixing your writing then use one that doesn't have those functions. Set the background and text colors that are easy on your eyes - it does help.

Last but not least, have fun during NaNo. It's said over and over here but I think some forget that's part of doing this.

I'm scared I will get off into the fantasy tid bits when I'm not writing fantasy for my NaNo. That's my interest. However, I now see a reason to at least check them out because the advice or happenings there may be applicable to my November writing. It will be fun for me FOR SURE! I won't forget that part!

jade

Love your muse! LOL