I recently finished writing the second book in the River City Chronicles series, Down the River. Overall, I’m really happy with it – the storylines all wrapped up well, and the ending seemed perfect.
Almost. Oh how I hate that word.
Writing a novel is like putting together a 10,000 piece puzzle, blindfolded. Or maybe it’s like running in the dark, hoping not to hit anything, and trying your damndest to reach the finish line in perfect form by the deadline.
I’d been careful to wrap up each of the major character’s storylines, and to spill all the secrets by the last page. But this nagging was been bouncing around in my head for the last month, ever since I typed “The End.” What was wrong? What was I missing?
And then it hit me. One of the characters who [minor spoiler alert] suffers a grave misfortune never got their send-off.
I wasn’t quite sure how to address it, though. The epilogue seemed pretty much perfect as it was, and I didn’t want to just write more words. They had to be the right words at the right place.
And then at seven AM this morning, lying in bed and trying to come up with a valid excuse not to get up just yet, it hit me. The perfect ending that also nails down the magical realism in the story.
It’s a very short scene, almost a micro scene. But it goes right at the end, and gives the character a fitting departure. I read it to my husband Mark, and I could see that it moved him, so mission accomplished.
Sometimes as an author, you have to wait for your subconscious to put all the pieces together, to figure out what’s missing from your work. You can’t rush it. But when the right idea finally comes in its own time and of its own accord, it’s sublime.
To my writer friends… what do you do when it feels like something is just missing in your work?