Today, I had my end-of-the-book crisis. It happens when I'm approaching the end of the book. Since the book will have to conclude soon, I have to figure exactly what needs to happen before the end of the book and in what order it will happen. And I can't keep writing until I have it set.
When I wrote my first book, His Name Is Mine Backward, it wasn't a big deal. I just wrote out what would happen in the rest of the book, chapter-by-chapter. Then I continued. It took about ten minutes.
In my second book, Camp Bluejay, I had to figure out exactly when and how a huge piece of information would be revealed. To resolve this, I went outside and gathered a few pebbles. I set a particular event to each pebble and set them in a random order, then rearranged them until I decided they were in the best order. Then I went inside and continued writing.
This book skips around in time. There's some major event that happens a little before the story, and little bits of information are revealed about it. I got to the point today where I had to stop and plan everything out. There are four key things that need to happen, but the order they happen in determines the way the story is told. I wrote out a chain of events without these key things, then stuck them in in possible spots. I came up with five possible ways to end the story, then had to start ruling them out.
I finally have it down to either ending B or ending D. They are similar, except for the point where the exact event is revealed. This decides when the chapter ends, which really affects the story. So I'm just going to keep writing and see which ending happens naturally...
But since I've had the end-of-the-book crisis, that means I'm getting close to the end! So exciting! And kind of sad...
When I wrote my first book, His Name Is Mine Backward, it wasn't a big deal. I just wrote out what would happen in the rest of the book, chapter-by-chapter. Then I continued. It took about ten minutes.
In my second book, Camp Bluejay, I had to figure out exactly when and how a huge piece of information would be revealed. To resolve this, I went outside and gathered a few pebbles. I set a particular event to each pebble and set them in a random order, then rearranged them until I decided they were in the best order. Then I went inside and continued writing.
This book skips around in time. There's some major event that happens a little before the story, and little bits of information are revealed about it. I got to the point today where I had to stop and plan everything out. There are four key things that need to happen, but the order they happen in determines the way the story is told. I wrote out a chain of events without these key things, then stuck them in in possible spots. I came up with five possible ways to end the story, then had to start ruling them out.
I finally have it down to either ending B or ending D. They are similar, except for the point where the exact event is revealed. This decides when the chapter ends, which really affects the story. So I'm just going to keep writing and see which ending happens naturally...
But since I've had the end-of-the-book crisis, that means I'm getting close to the end! So exciting! And kind of sad...
