![\"IMG_6583\"](\"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/IMG_6583.jpg\")
<\/a>Badwater Basin<\/p><\/div>\n
A. I find myself in this situation more often than I\u2019d like to admit. Starting a novel is hard. So is writing the middle. It makes sense that the ending would be equally difficult to write, if not more so. We know that an ending is supposed to wrap up everything, or almost everything, and that it\u2019s supposed to leave the reader both satisfied and dazzled. A good ending should resolve the conflict and bring the main character to a point of epiphany. Our expectations and standards are high, especially since we read books that end well all the time.<\/p>\n
What we often forget is that published books have gone through lots of revisions, and that includes revisions to the endings. When I wrote Birthmarked<\/em>, my editor gently suggested that the ending didn\u2019t work, so I scrapped the last 60 pages and wrote a completely new one. I changed the end of Promised<\/em> so many times I lost count. For me, that\u2019s normal. It\u2019s part of the process, but revision isn\u2019t where I start. I have to have a complete draft first.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s what I do. When I need an ending, I just keep writing. I don\u2019t have the story all figured out like some classy writers I admire. Instead, I allow the ending to be bad. I set the building on fire (first bad ending of Prized<\/em>) or send in a helicopter (first bad ending of Rule of Mirrors<\/em>) or roll an earthquake (first bad ending of Vault 3<\/em>). It kind of doesn\u2019t matter what I write, because by writing my first ending, I\u2019ll start to discover what works and what doesn\u2019t. The same will be true for you. Later, once you have a complete draft and you begin to have a deeper understanding of your whole book, you\u2019ll be able to gain some clarity about the shoddy ending, too. Then you\u2019ll be able to scrap it and try another one. And another, if need be.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the secret. Writing isn\u2019t about getting it done and checking off the box. It\u2019s about starting a rich, complex experience and taking it deeper. It\u2019s about discovering more ideas as you go. The right ending will emerge in its own way. You\u2019ll know when it does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Q. I\u2019ve started a novel, (more than one, actually), but I can\u2019t seem to get to the end. How do I finish my novel? A. I find myself in this situation more often than I\u2019d like to admit. Starting a novel is hard. So is writing the middle. It makes sense that the ending would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-4692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4696,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692\/revisions\/4696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}