So I'm on my second draft, and took the big decision to rewrite the last 20,000 or so words in my story completely. It didn't work, and I was forcing my characters into situations that suited my ending. Classic square pegs in round holes situation. I've rewritten it now so it flows much better and is realistic to the situation my characters find themselves in. The problem I have now though is that I don't have an ending. I've made it impossible to feasibly reach my goal. Instead of one of my characters being the bad guy, and mentally ill, he has simply made a mistake that has left him guilt ridden. I have no idea how to move on from here. Obviously this has to be a big storyline moving forward because whatever it is is going to finish the last quarter of the book. I've set it up so that in a post apocalyptic word 5 characters meet and set up base. 1 is responsible for another's death and as a result he disappears ( I don't know where too). Another is hit hard by grief and is stewing alone in her room refusing to move. The mc wants to bring the group back together but has no idea why, and then you have this 4th character, who has potential to be really interesting but has only been introduced to the story recently. She was a massive part to the original ending but at the moment is a bit part player.
It's a bit difficult to give practical advice without knowing more details of the story. Is it not possible to simply end it with that mistake you mention and the following guilt and whatever action evolves from that? The way you word it, your previous ending was the reveal of one of the characters as the bad guy and showing he's mentally ill, if I understand that correctly? Seems to me like ending it with a mistake (a potentially big one?) and the ensuing guilt would work just as well... Also, reading your last paragraph makes me think you as the author don't really know where this story is headed either (you don't know where a character disappears to, your MC doesn't know why he takes the actions he takes, a character with 'potential', not to mention the 20,000 words rewrite). Which isn't a bad thing, per se, since some authors do just write and see what happens without having a clear outline of the story in their head. But at least for me it's tough to give advice on something that feels like it's far from finished.
Heli-plotter to the rescue. * lands * Cut to disappeared character journeying alone, save for their demons, self-destructing by the way they push themselves on and on without regard for their body. Give the chapter their inner monologue. The guilt, the thinking, the so wishing to say sorry to the others until—serendipity (semi ex-machina I know), they chance on a sanctuary, an Eden even where after recovery, and not a few initiation trials, they're accepted by its inhabitants. Character then travels back to find the others to release them from the Apoco-hell they're in. Two there have survived (see below). Character four could be the potential love interest of locked away, stewing, damsel, who brings her from her funk with his amorous advances. All looks and no personality though, he's spurned and expended soon after, by you the writer, at the cost of substory/plot in trying to save her with his sword of devotion...an assault on their hideaway or something.
Tapioca, your correct in assuming the ending. I did have a clear and concise plan in mind when writing it but as the words hit the page it didn't feel right. Seth, what you say about doing a cut scene is actually workable, and I probably will go with that but I could do with something to keep the other characters occupied. It would be feasible to do a love interest between the mc and the character 4 but it just feels like I'm using it to gap fill, and sort of leaves the breakdown character with nothing to do. I could do with a big event that gets the blood flowing and brings the group back together but my thoughts process has simply gone numb. The only thing I can think of is a nuclear power failure resulting in explosions of the plants but it's a bit obvious given the circumstances.
For the fact that you are close to having a finished draft, there's an awful lot about the story you don't know, and therein lies your problem. How do you wanna write an ending to the book when you tell us you, the author, don't even know why the MC wants to bring his friends back together? You don't even know the reason that motivates your characters - are you surprised you can't write an ending? A pivotal character - the one who causes the death of another, which is the very inciting event that sets the characters moving - disappears and you, the author, don't even know where. What's this character been doing all this time? Just sitting like a hermit? Eating chips and watching telly? These are key questions that your plot hangs upon. If you were at the planning stage, or perhaps only starting your draft, then I understand you may still be working things out - but not this late into the draft. A good question to ask yourself may be what has changed for your characters. How have they changed? What have they learnt and how do their actions/choices show that? Your ending should encapsulate this. My advice - find the answers to your questions of who, what, where, why, how. These are puzzle pieces you need to come up with. We can help with how they may fit together but we can't make it up for you. Trust your gut - you feel the ending is wrong and you're probably right. So rewind, go all the way back to where the problem started, when things took a turn that led up to this mess in the first place, and either adjust or delete that event altogether. I did that with my current WIP - got up to about 80k words and got stuck because about 3 chapters before something happened that I just kinda threw in there (I'm a part pantser, part plotter, but I pants more than plot usually) and that curveball messed up everything. An alpha reader told me he wasn't even keen on the very event and that it honestly wasn't my best scene nor best writing (and he enjoyed my writing and often praised it throughout - so the negativity wasn't coming from someone who just didn't like my writing. It was coming from someone who liked what I did). Based on this I thought, "Well, all right, I'll delete everything from that point." Deleted probably about 20k words and started again from that point. It went something like this: Scene A, Curveball, Scene B, Scene C, stuck and it's a complete mess. What I did wasn't just delete Curveball. I changed the ending to Scene A, which naturally led to entirely different events so I didn't even need to think what on earth should happen next in the first place, which meant no curveball needed. So think: what happened that led your story down this path? Go right back to the thing that sent you down this road and consider if things went as they should have. Delete and rewrite.
At the risk of tempting you with an "easy out," my immediate reaction to your problem is to sacrifice the guilty character. A selfless (perhaps even madness-induced) suicidal act of redemption, which ultimately rescues and bonds the remaining three characters together, and gives them impetus to soldier onward.
What I have quoted there is exactly where I'm at. I've deleted 20000 words, re wrote bits before it throughout the book and rewrote the ending to the previous chapter. I actually like what I've wrote it works well, and I've basically followed your advice word for word before you gave it. Think of it as a 'hitting rock bottom' moment before I pick everyone up and bring them back together. I don't expect anyone to write the book for me, u know it's got to come from me, but how do I beat the slump? How do I pick.them all back up and direct all their paths back to the centre, to a central meeting point.
I've thought about that but my big ending was the breakdown woman killing him, completely out of character and a blow from the blind side.
If you both find it hard to squeeze into key events with a progressive style and derail too much when improvising, you need to write short stories starting from almost impossible derailed situation just to practice recovery. Then analyse how you saved it or which element made it impossible. Death, depression, extreme wealth and power are derailing cues, because they consume the character arcs too quickly.
Agreed, but have heart, I'm sure it's fixable @Philliggi. Breakdown character's off on the wandering path remember (self destruction thru to being a saviour). For the pantsing not to seem contrived (re. love interest) there'd need to be some foreshadowing. Maybe thread in to earlier parts of your draft some sentences to give some steer, augur (subtley), character four's secret fondness of damsel to be and of the villains out there that could threaten the hidey-hole. The reader would then, I'd say, expect these to develop through the progress of the narrative. The other characters, their story could then be fleshed out and their time occupied by the defence of their base once it's attacked. Tension and heroics. It's a post apocalyptic world after all, resources will be fought for.
Hello, my friend. And why not being, for now, his end? Your characters don't necessarily have to succeed in their struggles. At times is more interesting if they don't conquer their fears, to make the audience feel connected to your MC. However, if your intention is to make that character a bad guy and mentally ill, then something in your story needs to be rewritten. Perhaps his past? His behaviour? His story? 1. Which is the relationship this character have with the one she/he will kill? Family? Lovers? Employee? Boss? After you know this answer, the location can provide you with a clue. Maybe it was a special place where both could discuss? Or be themselevs? 2. I presume this character is connected with the first one? If so, why wouldn't he/she leave beside the death? Whatever is the answer, first establish if this character has some connection with the first, they will provide you with another explanation. Maybe that character is a rival? A criminal? Or is a sibling? 3. It seems you are trying to fit this character somewhere in the story, so I will be a little difficult for me to answer or give a piece of proper advice. It seems to me you haven't decided the relationship between your characters yet. I will suggest starting with that. Play a little bit with their destiny. Try to see if they all fit together, not like each other, but if they contribute something to the story. Maybe not all are necessary? About the story, I will suggest writing possibilities of your characters actions. Forget what you just had written. Write new outcomes, see how it goes and then see if fits on the story. I hope this helps. Keep on good and have fun.
I think I might have had a breakthough as I type. Does this sound feasible? I'm thinking mc and the 4th character (Think Lara croft) get drunk one night and have a fling. Meanwhile the electrics the mc rigged up from a generator fail and a fire sparks. Breakdown ends up trapped on the upper level of the building and mc and Lara can't get to her. Up steps grief ridden guy to save the day, having done a cut scene where he works through his issues and demons. Once it's all over breakdown is torn between her hate for him and being thankful, and in the end he dies from smoke inhalation.
First, well come to my world. Secondly, you seem to not know a lot about your novel and some of them are major things. Figure out the middle muddle first.
Not a great deal to go on... would probably need to read the whole novel to figure out a decent ending but I would say this: I did what you're doing, re-writing my ending until it fit. What I set out to do was come up with an ending that wasn't so long-winded and so complex, so that I might tie up some threads neatly, rather than leaving questions. If your original ending just didn't work for whatever reason, don't get rid of it entirely but simply modify it, change one character for another, if you have a mentally ill character you could introduce a tick that the reader identifies with being a pre-cursor to their compulsive behaviour, to build into this murder scene. The whole electrics catching fire thing is contrived, unless you explain beforehand how sketchy they are, maybe even have them set fire to something beforehand when someone was around to put the fire out? It would also need to be a pretty spectacular fire to kill someone from smoke inhilation... if the original plan was to have her lash out, the smoke is a great way to hide a murder. It would cause a rift between the remaining characters and set up very complex questions of banding together out of necessity or exiling her for her actions. If she's mentally ill, she might not be able to cope on her own, another very interesting question for the rest of the survivors. Like I said, it's a nightmare of a situation and I've been there plenty of times before. My original ending centred on these higher beings leaving the world where my story takes place for a new universe, where they could start again and create a better version of mankind... it's the ending to Akira and I totally didn't even realise. But keeping them around in some capacity has given me options. That's the most important thing when changing any plot element is you give yourself options with how to resolve certain ideas. The smoke could kill the grief ridden character, healing his relationship with breakdown and banding the group together, or it could conceal his murder by breakdown, leading to confrontations and possibly the beginning of breakdown becoming an antagonist. Imagine the reveal as the smoke clears and she's kneeling by his body, hands covered in blood, both shocked and elated with what she's just done (if she was psychotic, this would absolutely fit). As long as you have options, you're going in the right direction. As soon as the scope of your ending starts to shrink, pull it back and re-evaluate. Happy writing!
