That Feeling You Get.......?

[Kantarii]

What's the feeling you get when you near the end of writing a storyline you're working on and how does it compare to the feeling you get when you actually finish?

I've had readers ask me if I would continue on with the story(maybe they have become invested in some of the characters), but for me I love a happy, climatic ending that does the entire storyline justice, ties up loose ends, and kinda allows the reader to assume their own ending in part. That's just me.

So the feeling I get is a little nervous. It's the ending. Will the readers like it, accept it, hate it, want more....

This is the end, my only friend - the end.Kant

 

[weftandwarp]

What's the feeling you get when you near the end of writing a storyline you're working on and how does it compare to the feeling you get when you actually finish?

I've had readers ask me if I would continue on with the story(maybe they have become invested in some of the characters), but for me I love a happy, climatic ending that does the entire storyline justice, ties up loose ends, and kinda allows the reader to assume their own ending in part. That's just me.

So the feeling I get is a little nervous. It's the ending. Will the readers like it, accept it, hate it, want more....

This is the end, my only friend - the end.Kant

It is strange, I guess, but I never think of mine as being finished. I have a similar problem with sex scenes - I'm always so pleased when I have them done. I go over my stories after they are written many times, correcting and sharpening language, looking at plots etc. When I get through that I have a feeling of doubt that it is any good. Some times it isn't. I find I become so invested in it I no longer see it. If I don't though it looks worse. Conundrums!

 

[Halin24]

If I know for sure that the end is near and how to get there, then 'relief' is the word to describe it. When I have come that far I have read the story so many times to remind me of the details, and changed it so often that all I want is to leave it forever.

Unfortunately I'm usually in doubt that it is any good, so I let it rest until I stumble over it again, read it and either submit it 'as is' or put it away for later rewriting...

So, 'relief' and 'doubt' is my answer if I know I will finish it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

What's the feeling you get when you near the end of writing a storyline you're working on and how does it compare to the feeling you get when you actually finish?


This is the end, my only friend - the end.Kant

Satisfaction.

I'm done, my story told, my characters have done whatever they've done.

I then move on, my next set of words await. I seldom sweat it: it is what it is, it can be no more, it's writ. Time to submit, and move on.

The music's never over, there's a killer on the road, there's a rider on the storm....

 

[NotWise]

I usually don't get any particular feeling when I reach the end of the story. I normally already have a to-do list waiting. Getting to the end is usually followed by one or more sweeps back through the story to adjust pacing, to fix weak points, or tweak characterizations, then comes some editing, and then it's done.

 

[jezzaz]

Wow.

For me an ending is "Ok, well, now we do a first pass through, and sort out the obvious errors of syntax, misspelling and reformat a bit, perhaps juggle some scenes around. Then a second pass, looking at dialog. Then wait a week, then read again and add stuff I may have missed, then once that's done, pass it off to the editor. Then wait till he's done, and then go through and spend at least two evenings reviewing all his changes, and accepting that which I will accept, and removing those I won't, plus also considering all his comments, and maybe doing some rework based on those...."

It's at least three weeks of evenings taken up with all that (apart from the waiting, obviously).

And then I'll start chopping it into chapters ready for publishing. Once it's in the publishing queue, I honestly don't want to see it again for quite some time.

Finishing the story just means the start of the next bit of the entire tedious process.

Still. It's a nice feeling knowing I got it all down.

 

[Kantarii]

Satisfaction.

I'm done, my story told, my characters have done whatever they've done.

I then move on, my next set of words await. I seldom sweat it: it is what it is, it can be no more, it's writ. Time to submit, and move on.

The music's never over, there's a killer on the road, there's a rider on the storm....

Hey,now! Bonus points to The Doors fan

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hey,now! Bonus points to The Doors fan

Indeed. Weird scenes inside the goldmine.

(Kant, I was probably a Doors fan before you were born! Favourite band when I was in high school - along with The Who. I was a wannabe Jim poet, lol)

 

[ElectricBlue]

For me an ending is "Ok, well, now we do a first pass through, and sort out the obvious errors of syntax, misspelling and reformat a bit, perhaps juggle some scenes around. Then a second pass, looking at dialog. Then wait a week, then read again and add stuff I may have missed, then once that's done, pass it off to the editor. Then wait till he's done, and then go through and spend at least two evenings reviewing all his changes, and accepting that which I will accept, and removing those I won't, plus also considering all his comments, and maybe doing some rework based on those...."

If I did all of that my stories would die in a ditch and lose all spontaneity and flow.

I've developed a technique of editing as I go along, tweaking the previous 500-750 words or so before I write the next lot, sort of a rolling edit. That way I keep the rhythm of the previous part and it makes sure my continuity is right. So I'm always going back and forth, which means by the end, the detailed working edit is 98% done. I rarely resequence anything, might add or cut a paragraph or two - but if it's not written at the time of that plot movement, it's not gonna be written.

I don't use an editor; just myself, spell check, methodical key word searches for known stylistic bad habits, an ability to see repeated words on a page. I write all the time in my day job so over the years I've developed a whole set of techniques to find my own mistakes - left brain right brain stuff.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Endings? Usually I'm writing three or four stories in parallel and jumoing backwards and forwards as the mood takes me so when I actually end one, it's more that I'm just doing what I normally do and jumping to the next one I'm most interested in working on at that moment. I always get that satisfied feeling when a story or a chapter is complete.

I'm not than finicky about editing so I'm not hung up on going over it in detail and rewriting and rewriting. I do that as I write coz when I jump back in I'm always skimming thru to get my head back into the character and I do my rewriting and editing then as I see things I want to change or correct or build out or cut. I don't write linear either. I'll so a scene outline and then start building bits from scenes as I think about them and then linking them together.

Quite often I'll write the beginning and then the ending first, so I know what I'm shooting for. I find it's far easier to finish when I have the ending already written. I'm doing that now with the story I'm working on - I've more or less finished the intro and now I'm writing and rewriting the ending and once I've done that, the middle more or less falls into place.

So mostly I get my endings done early on and finishing the story is almost a non-sequitur.