Inklings: Resolving Your Conflict

Your story got off to a great start. It has great characters and action. It moves along at a good pace and keeps the reader interested. So, can you celebrate your creation of a great piece of literature? Well, not yet. There is still something that needs to be done. Your story has to come to a satisfying conclusion. As an old ballplayer, Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Starting a story can be hard. Keeping it moving along and interesting in the middle can be a challenge. So after all that, how hard can writing the end of a story be? Try very hard. Think about it. You've worked hard to get your reader interested. You've got them wondering what's going to happen to your characters. They keep turning those pages to find out what happens next. The tension's building--and then the story just fizzles out. Nothing's resolved, no loose ends are tied up. The characters, and your readers, are left hanging.

Not good. As a reader, there's nothing worse than reading a book with a bad ending. It's like listening to someone tell a joke and forget the punch line. Ugh, I hate that, don't you? You feel like you've been cheated. As a writer, there is nothing worse. Whatever you do, don't cheat your reader!

How can you avoid doing that when writing your story? You can start by understanding what goes into a great ending. Here are a few things:

• Climax--All the tension you've been building up in your plot needs to reach a breaking point, the climax. Will the hero unmask the villain, or will evil triumph? Does the boy get the girl, or is he dumped? You find out at the climax, the high point, of the story. If you don't have a climax--if the hero never confronts the villain, or if the boy does not kiss the girl, then your story just fizzles out. Ho hum, who cares?

• Resolution--This is also known as tying up loose ends. After the climax, how is everything else resolved? Are there any subplots that have to be taken care of? Now that the boy has the girl, do they live happily ever after? If you've mentioned something earlier in the story, like the prince's cousin had been scheming to take the throne from the prince while he was busy wooing the fair maiden, you have to show how he was thwarted. Otherwise, the reader will be left hanging.

• Happy, sad or somewhere in between--You also have to decide if your story will have a happy or sad ending, or a bittersweet or funny one. Hopefully when you outlined your story you had some idea of what was going to happen. Sometimes, though, things don't go the way you thought they would when you started writing. That's okay. Sometimes a surprise ending is fine. Just be sure that everything makes sense. The prince can't decide that instead of marrying the princess he's going to marry the shoemaker's daughter if you've never said anything about a shoemaker's daughter in the story. Again, this confuses the reader and makes them feel cheated. 

A great ending is the icing on the cake of a great story. It's something that will make it memorable in the minds of your readers. What are some of your favorite endings? Share them in the comments.

A Writer's Week #63: Taking Stock

For about a month now I've been bumping along writing about 2,000 words a week. It's the weekly goal I've set myself. While it's not very challenging in and of itself, it is tremendously so when you add in everything else that I've got going on in my life. I've been hitting my goal pretty consistently, but I've felt that I've been in a rut. The thing was, I could not for the life of me figure out why.

Then on Monday as I was writing my latest Inklings post it hit me. The post was all about writing the middle of the story. I listed three things that you need from the middle of a story to keep it from getting bogged down--challenge your characters, pick up the pace and throw in some details and history. As I was writing the post, I suddenly had an uneasy feeling. Was I ignoring my own advice? I was worried that maybe I might be going a little bit astray in the middle of The Deliverers 3. After all, while I thought there was some good tension and suspense and also a little bit of a mystery going on, it did not seem to me that there was a whole lot of action.

Now, my wife had read it through and said that she thought the pace was good and that it was not boring. Okay, that's nice. I respect her opinion and she has never been wrong in the past, but I still had this uneasy feeling. The second book in the series, Order of the Crystal Lion has, I think, a lot of action in it. There's a lot of fighting, people getting captured, two storylines, etc. On the other hand, The Golden Dragon of Ang has had one abduction, no fights, and only one real storyline (although the groundwork has been laid for a second one). Uh oh, I thought, I may be in trouble.

So, I decided to take some time and read the story all the way through. I'm happy to say that I think things are pretty good. The pace is fine, there's tension and I really like what the new characters populating this latest world bring to the table. It made me feel a whole lot better and loosened me up. In fact, the day after I read it I wrote 1,400 words including the first battle of the book. There is also a chase that will take place in the next chapter. I don't know if this was an unconscious thing on my part, but as I was writing all the ideas kind of clicked. I think it was just the right part of the story for some action. Things had been leading up to it.

This week I wrote 2,200 words which puts me at 30,100, 27 chapters and 130 pages. Getting to 30,000 words feels good. I love those little milestones. I had been thinking the book would be about as long as the second which would put it at 61,000 words or so, but right now I'm not sure. The Deliverers still have a long way to go on this journey. Will I break 300 pages? Part of me thinks it would be neat, but the other part thinks that may be a bit too long for a middle grade novel--I'm not J.K. Rowling after all. Anyway, we'll see. Now that I'm sure of my direction again I'm hoping to get back to weeks of 2,500 words or more like I was doing at the beginning of the year. I'll let you know if that's the case next week.

Inklings: Middle, Keep the Story Moving

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the beginning of a story. Once you've set the whole thing in motion, you need to keep the momentum building. This happens in the middle of the story. Middles can be tricky things. Sometimes, your plot can get bogged down or start to wander.

In the beginning, your characters are introduced to some sort of conflict. They're launched into the story and are raring to go. Then they hit the middle. One off two things can happen. Either they scale the mountain, facing challenges and obstacles and overcoming them, or they get stuck inn the mud and sit there going nowhere.

So, how can you avoid getting stuck in the mud? How can your characters climb the heights? Here are a few good things to keep in mind as your story unfolds:

• Keep challenging your characters--Don't let them relax for a second. Keep giving them problems to solve and obstacles to overcome. Maybe they don't always succeed. In fact, they probably shouldn't succeed all the time--after all who does? You don't want to set them up for failure, but you also don't want their journey to be a walk in the park. The more they struggle, the sweeter their victory will be in the end for them and the reader.

• Pick up the pace--Keep the story moving. This can be difficult. Sometimes characters like to talk about things. They can talk about their situation a little, but you want to keep the pace exciting. Shorter chapters that cut back and forth from the main plot to a subplot can help you achieve this. Lots of action is also a good way to keep things moving.

• Add details and history as you go--One of the great things about reading a story is to learn things along the way. Add in bits and pieces of characters' histories as the story unfolds. Sometimes it's tempting to divulge a character's entire life story right when you introduce them--don't. Save some of the good stuff for later in the story where it may have more of an impact. This will help keep the reader interested and provide an "aha!" moment. A reader likes nothing more than the feel they've put the pieces of a riddle together and found the answer. You want them to think "Oh, so that's why they acted that way. It makes sense now."

The middle is an important part of your story. In it you work to bring the characters and the reader through many twists and turns right up to the climax of the action of the story. When does that climax take place? We'll talk about that another time!

A Writer's Week #62: England's Green & Pleasant Land

It's been another quiet week here at Deliverers Publishing Headquarters. Work was hectic, and I've been fighting some form of illness that has left me tired and listless. Thoughts of Lyme disease were floating in my head until my wife came down with the same thing later in the week. While I'm sorry that she had to live my pain, I was strangely happy because it meant that what I was experiencing was just a bug.

Anyway, me being out of sorts made for a dull time on the marketing front. Narrator Jimm Singer and I are working on publicizing the audio version of Sharky and the Jewel. We've got a few reviewers listening to it, including Audiofile magazine, which has put us in their "review queue", so that's exciting. There will be more reviews on the way in the next month or so. I'll keep you all up to date when they appear.

One very nice and slightly surprising development this week were my first two overseas sales of the paperback version of Sharky and the Jewel. I check Amazon's UK store very infrequently, basically because I rarely sell anything (who knows I exist in England?). I've sold a few Kindle editions there, but I had no sales rank at all for the paperback version--that is, until I checked on Sunday. Lo and behold, I was ranked something like 525,000 or so. That meant I must have sold something! Could it be? I logged in to my CreateSpace account and sure enough, I had. In fact, I had sold not one, but two copies! I know that does not sound like much (it isn't), but it was just the idea of breaking new ground. Hopefully, I'll sell a few more going forward.

Of course after that little bit of success, I started check Amazon UK every day, hoping to see more sales. On Wednesday, I was pleased to discover that one reader had posted a 5 star review. Hey, I'm off an running. It's very exciting to have started selling at least a couple copies of my book in England, because I really regard that country as the cradle of great middle grade/YA fantasy. If I could ever manage to gain a following, even a small one, in England I would be one happy caballero.

In spite of being tired and having a couple nights of after hour events this week, I still managed to almost hit my writing goal. I wrote 1,822 words. That means The Golden Dragon of Ang stands at 27,922 words, 122 pages and 26 chapters.

To be honest, I probably would have surpassed my goal if it  had not been for a plot decision that I simply did not feel up to making. Eric and Kate are escaping from a bad situation. It became apparent that they were going to bump into someone surprising. I had to stop, because I really wasn't sure that it was the proper time to reveal that character's true nature. So, before I continue I have to sit and think about it a bit. I don't think it will be a difficult decision once I run things through my head, but it was just one decision too many for this particular week. Oh well, I'll let you know how that turns out next week! Have a good one!

My Favorite Books: The Inside Story of the Miami Dolphins

As I look back on some of my favorite books from when I was growing up, a couple things strike me. One is the diversity of genres--fantasy, history, sports, fiction. The other is that many of them were Christmas presents from my parents. As I think about it, I discovered many books that I may not have found until later in my life--if at all--because my parents suggested them or gave them to me as gifts because they thought I'd like them. Most of the time they were right.

This week's book is one of those Christmas gifts. This book is about my favorite football team, the Miami Dolphins and it's called The Inside Story of the Miami Dolphins by Steve Perkins & Bill Braucher. I think I received it for Christmas of 1974. The book was published in 1973 and revised in 1974, right after the Dolphins had won back to back Super Bowls. I had just watched my first Super Bowl that past January--the Dolphins beat the Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII on a black and white TV set up specially in my room. Man, TV in my room! We only got that when we were sick. Little did I know that it would be the last title the Dolphins would win (so far anyway).

Anyway, my parents saw that I really liked the game, and in particular the Dolphins, so the next Christmas I was given a book about them. Now forgive me if I start sounding like an old man, but 40 years ago there were not a lot of places to read about your favorite sports team--especially if you lived in Connecticut and your team played in Florida. There was no internet, no ESPN. Papers ran stories only on the local teams. Even sports logo clothing was tough to come by. All I could find was a rinky dink Bob Griese #12 Dolphins shirt that I ordered from the Sears catalog. I once found a Dolphins pennant in the local Marshalls that I badgered my mom into buying when I was 10. I still had it when I came back from college 11 years later.

So with that in mind, imagine my fascination as I read this book. The inside story, wow! The writers covered the team during its legendary undefeated season and the following year--perhaps the greatest two year stretch any football team has ever had--and I had a front row seat. I must have read that book about 50 times. The icing on the cake were the seven pages of glorious black & white pictures in the center. Ah, simpler times. 

I've still got that book. It's practically falling apart now. But as I thumb through the yellowed pages and look at those black and white photos of my old heroes, I'm back in the 5th grade drawing pictures of football players during school, breaking in a baseball mitt by stuffing a ball in the pocket and sitting on it during school (ouch, how did I do that?), and trading baseball and football cards, hungering for the players that always seemed to escape my grasp. It really is true books--all books--are magic.