Do you ever have mixed emotions when finishing a novel or book? Perhaps you may feel sad that the characters and book you've been reading about are near to an end, or a bittersweet feeling that your writing also draws to an end. Does anyone else feel a little sad after reading or writing a book?
Reading, yes, writing, no. When I read a book, I know there's things about their characters I will never know, because not all of a writer's intentions are expressed in the actual content. At the end of writing, I feel satisfied and happy that I've made progress and expressed what I want to.
I used to when I was a kid... when I didn't have to really do anything I didn't want to. Now that I'm an adult, it's more like, awesome, I finished it! Time to hang shelves, pay bills, go back to work, and stave off mortality for another 48 hours!
Never because the next day, I'm on to the next book. I never stop working. There's no time to be sad.
When I finish a short, I experience a moment of accomplishment. Yeah, I did do it. I finished. And the next day, my mind's already grabbling with the next short and I anticipate writing it, so... no. Not sad at all.
That makes perfect sense. Oh, I understand you exactly! There's so much to be done and once you complete one thing, another immediately pops up.
If I really enjoyed a book or series, and there are no more to come, I feel a little deflated. But there is also so much more to read out there. I am also the type that re-reads, and often through that effort I will glean more from the characters and tale. As far as writing, if it is part of a series, I always write the first chapter or two to the next novel, especially if I am going to be going on to a project that is not related. This way, when I return to the book, I am not staring at a blank page (or screen). Plus, I have maintained the voice and pacing and it is easier to pick up and go with that established momentum. So in at least one way, I am not really done with the story. But whatever the case (series or stand alone), though all of the novels and novellas I have finished (14) and about an equal number of short stories, I've never really felt sad. There is always another project to take up. Plus, I have read through them at least eight or nine times while writing and revising and editing. And so far, just about everyone I have had the opportunity to revisit when I proof the audiobook version.
Didn't feel sad, per se. Just scared. Like, 'where do I go from here now?'. Seemed so daunting that I preferred to just start writing part three.
There's a high after finishing it then a kind of bittersweetness knowing you have to say goodbye to characters you've brought to life, thought about continuously for years - at that point they're like friends and you know that this is it, you won't be thinking about them that much anymore. Of course it never lingers too long as I'm always moving on and getting excited about another project. One of my most unhappy moments after reading a book was when I was younger and a book series I loved stopped quite abruptly with no heads up for the reader. I waited three months for their next book to come out and ... it never did. That was sad as I had been following the character and stories for three years.
Once you do this for a while, all of that fades. Sure, you get a momentary high for a bit after you finish, but since you're moving on into another project directly thereafter, that fades quickly. I don't miss characters because I know I'm just going to create more. I'll go back to books I wrote 3-5 years ago and I've almost completely forgotten about those characters, even though I loved them when I was writing. There are always more books, always more characters and you will have your momentary infatuation with all of them, then you will move on. That's the nature of being a writer.
From the reading perspective, 9 out of 10 books seem to have awful endings that make me sad at how bad they are, the 1 out of 10 usually makes me sad for the right reasons. In fact, if I'm honest I quite often don't finish the last chapter or so as they are so often a disappointment. Usually the actual end of the book tells me nothing and I'm just as well off without it assuming there's no big reveal.
There was one book I felt sad finishing because I knew it hadn't quite hit the mark and I would have liked more time with it. Other than that I feel pretty great.
I do feel sad when I finish writing a book. It doesn’t help that the stories themselves are sad. But it’s more than that. Of course I feel accomplished and happy that I managed to write them, but I feel kind of… “alone” without the characters I was writing about. I never have another project in mind when I’m writing. That’s not how it works for me. Maybe that’s the reason why I feel “empty” and “alone” when I finish.
I have never written a book. But as a theatre major plenty of plays I was a character in caused plenty of loss and sadness for the cast. It was customary for us to have a end of play party to help alleviate that feeling.
I just finished "In the River" by Jeremy Robert Johnson, and the end messed me up. I almost threw the book across the room. Instead I swore and took a shower before anyone spotted me. I think that the years are making me emotionally weak. Even though the dialog seemed anachronistic, I still give it 5 stars. I'm still thinking about it . . . god! I also read "The Executioner's Song" by Norman Mailer. What a strange contrast, one wins the Pulitzer and says nothing about the human condition (it says not much of anything, really) and the other is merely a horror novella that will never get high recognition, but somehow says it all. I moved on to Wooster and Jeeves just to detox.
I read an Agatha Christie novel that was like that for me. It was one of her later forays into Gothic fiction, and I actually did throw the book across the room. It was one of those unreliable narrator things and I was pissed off. I hated it so fiercely after I finished it.
For series, yes. I feel sad that the series ended, and i want more of the characters and stories. But stand alone novels, i've never felt any particular way about their endings.
What exactly was it about this book that made you respond to it that way? Sounds like a pretty neat book if it could do that. I’m just curious . I think books or the end of novels used to get me more when I was a lot younger. I used to be into other genres back then. Certain novels used to make me put aside the book and think “Damn!”
I didn't hate it at all. Normally my urge to throw my book (or kindle) is all about terrible writing and my anger that this author has "made it" and really didn't deserve to. This author deserves success. This book was expertly written. It was perhaps a little experimental with the text spacing, but it's just a novella, so that's okay. Also, the dialog was strange. I thought the MC (the father) and his son were fishing in the present day, just because of how they talked to one another, but they are natives in some tropical, Amazonia-type land. It never spells out where this is taking place. It could be Polynesia, I don't know. It definitely happens in the past because the rubber trade is mentioned, so 1800s? I think the modern dialog was deliberate. It's that way so that the reader sees themselves as the MC. Without spoilers, it's about a father trying to find his son, who is lost in the river. Spoiler: With full spoilers . . . While the father is teaching his seven-year-old boy to fish, the boy is eaten by a beast in the waters. All the father finds is the boy's hand. Of course he goes crazy. Later, you realize the beast is a massive bullhead shark, which can swim upriver many hundreds of miles. The father knows that his wife will kill herself if the boy is lost, and so he exiles himself in a futile attempt to "rescue" the boy, whatever this entails, or die himself so that his wife will think the son is still somehow alive. Missing is better than dead. She would endure that. You're not sure if the son is still possibly alive (such things have happened with crocs in the river) or if the beast is supernatural somehow. The father is captured by a cultish tribe who are enemies of his own, and their shaman grants him the one thing he wants most (his son). What will the father sacrifice in return? "Everything," he says, and the shaman says that will be adequate. The shaman sends him with a blade fashioned from his son's hand (it's the hilt) and the father follows the river to the coast where a Europeanized tribe is fishing. They've caught the shark. Actually, it tore off a guy's leg and they're running around completely nuts, but the shark is there. The father finally talks in his native tongue and tells them that the shark killed his son (he's accepted the son is lost) and he wants vengeance. He jumps in the water and after a fight in which he is chewed apart, he kills the shark. Or more precisely, the boy's hand, which is now a blade, kills the shark. The father guides it to its purpose, which is what he was trying to do in the beginning, more or less, teaching the boy how to survive and provide. He cuts the shark open and retrieves his son's body and then dies on the beach holding him. Much like "The Road," the title represents life and our journey through it, and what a father fears most. That ending was too much for me.
haha! That's too funny. I have the paperback. I got it last Christmas but haven't got around to it until now. I even see my receipt on Amazon. It cost $2.92 back in the day. I don't see it anywhere. Seems like there should be an epub?
