I Loved You, But You Kinda Lost Me There At The End

Between the disappointing ending of a certain TV show and struggling to come up with the perfect ending for my story, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a good ending.

Since I started writing, disappointment seems to be a regular part of my reading experience, especially when it comes to endings. Of the last ten books I’ve read, I’ve only been satisfied with two endings. Two. Is that number low?

It’s not like I go into reading intending to be critical and find all the things wrong with a book. I really want to get lost in a story to the point I can’t put it down. And when I’m done, I want to feel like I didn’t waste my time. I absolutely LOVE when I finish a book and I think, “Oh no. It’s over? I didn’t want it to end.” That’s the ultimate test for me. Am I left feeling like the main storyline was resolved (happy or sad) but still craving more?

Lately, though, my thoughts fall more in line with, “What? Really? That’s it? But what about this, this, and this?” (especially for the final episode of that one show) Or, “Really? That was way too easy. It would totally never happen that way.” Or the worst, “Nothing was resolved?! Argh! No, frustrating author, I will not be buying your sequel so I can be disappointed again.” I’m fine with a little bit of a cliffhanger, but just ending mid-story makes me batty.

What do you all think? What makes a good ending? Do you want absolute resolution? Or do you like an ending that leaves a little or even a lot open to interpretation? Any books you recommend with awesome endings?

Stuck

I'm writing this post just to write something, since I've barely been able to to squeeze out 1500 words over the last five days. And I literally had to force those out. Did I mention that they all suck too?

This isn't writer's block. This is scene block. I'm at the turning point in my story where it starts to build toward the climax, but I can't seem to figure out how to end this stupid scene. And how this scene ends determines the rest of the story, so I can't even skip ahead and work on something else.

I've restarted four times, but I'm still not happy with it. Of those 1500 words I mentioned earlier, I probably won't be keeping any of them, and it isn't a matter of word choice or not liking the writing. It just doesn't feel right. I can't tell if I'm just brain dead and burnout from how much effort I've been putting into this over the last couple of weeks or if something is seriously off in my plot.

Normally, I can discuss it with my husband and figure it out, but for some reason, I can't seem to articulate the problem. I don't even want to work on revising what I already have written, which I normally love to do. This is getting serious, people!

I'm considering plugging back in (this post doesn't count) and ignoring the beast for a week or two, and then trying again. But I want to be done. :( Done, done, done! (Yes, I'm stomping my foot like a toddler.)

The most annoying thing? I thought I had the plot solid, but I change one little thing... Argh!

Anyway.

So, how are all of you doing? :) Anything exciting happen while I was away? You all got book deals, didn't you? That always happens!

We Interrupt This Unplugging...

...for some neurotic ranting.

So the unplugging is going awesome. The words are flowing, and I feel like I have a good chance of finishing this rewrite by the end of the month. If you're my friend on Facebook, you already know this, since I've been feeling the need to brag share my progress. :) I'll put up a full report here when I'm officially plugged back in.

That being said, why is it that every time I go online to do a tiny bit of research or just give my brain a five-minute break, I keep finding all these similarities to my story floating around out there? I'm turning into a neurotic freak (more than usual), hyper-analyzing every little thing my characters do, or every step forward in the plot. Is this fresh enough? Is it riddled with cliches or overdone? Am I just wasting my time?

It's like the unfinished novel gremlins are just dying to get their grubby little hands on my baby. I think they sit next to me while I sleep and whisper insecurities in my ear, just hoping I'll let this thing go. If I still have all my hair (and it's not all gray) by the time I'm ready to query this baby, it'll be a miracle.

That is all. :)

Just Grow Up and Get Out, Already!

I vaguely remember posting something a while back about my first novel being ready to query. Seems so long ago…

My query was awful, resulting in several rejections. I revamped the query with the help of my awesome bloggy friend, Suzanne, and several suggestions from a critique session on Beth Revis’s blog. It still needs a little tweaking, but I think it’s pretty close. I’m itching to test it out, but I’ve hit another speed bump.

I rewrote my ending a couple of months ago and sent it off to one of my crit buddies. She sent it back with lots of very helpful red marks, prompting me to look at the rest with a more critical eye.
I hadn’t looked at the ms in almost two months, and we all know how much things can change in that amount of time. When I started going over it again, I realized it could still use some work. So, I think I’ve decided to do one last round of revisions. It makes me kind of grouchy every time I think about it. It’s never ending! Never. Ending.

So, I’m wondering. How do you know when you’re done and ready to submit? When is it time to say, I’ve done all I can, and set that baby free?

Perspective

Apparently, I was due for a good, strong dose of perspective. I’ve been really stressed and whiny lately. I won’t go into detail, but we own our own business and with the wonderful economy, well, you know. Same crap a lot of people are going through right now. That stress seems awfully trivial after this past weekend.

As some of you already know, my 9-year-old daughter was in the hospital over the weekend with appendicitis. We were very blessed to catch it early, and it was removed without any complications. We only had to stay in the hospital two days and two nights, and she’ll be back to school tomorrow. It could have been so much worse.

It really helped me see my life from a much different angle. I’ll take financial stress any day over having one of my kids in the hospital. I am so grateful my kids are healthy. I have the utmost respect for parents who have kids who spend months and months in the hospital fighting terrible illnesses. I can’t imagine enduring that. I’m exhausted after only a couple of days.

A few things I learned (or was reminded of) this weekend:

*I have the BEST sisters in the world. They, along with my awesome friend Tori, stepped in and took my other two kids so my daughter could have both Mom and Dad at the hospital with her.

*I really, really like my bed. Really. =)

*I can look at blogs on my cell phone. I’ve had internet on my phone for over a year, but I’ve never taken the time to really see what it was capable of. Had some spare time this weekend and a whole new world of cell phone usage has opened up for me. Not sure if that’s a good thing. :-S

*Staying in the hospital is a lot like querying. There’s waiting for test results, wondering if the news will be good or bad. Waiting for the surgeon to come tell you what the plan of action is. Waiting for the surgery to be done, hoping it will all go perfectly. Waiting for the surgeon to release you from the hospital. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. And then more waiting. :D

Thank you, everyone, for your supportive comments and emails. You guys are the best!

So, anyone else have any enlightening or harrowing experiences recently? Any good news you want to share? I’m totally up for some good news. :D

Argh!: Episode 2 – The Bane of My Existence or Why Living Rural is So Much Fun

When we moved to our little patch of dirt almost six years ago, it was literally the middle of nowhere—undefined winding dirt road, very little concrete or asphalt, dark nights, ten miles to the nearest grocery store or gas station. Okay, so maybe not as middle of nowhere as some places, but still, it was more rural than anywhere I’ve ever lived, and the kids called it “our desert” because that’s all you could see from our front door. And we had an incredible view of the Superstition Mountains. I loved living out here, despite all the dirt. My only real gripe was we had frequent power and phone outages.

With the urbanization of our area, those outages have come less often. In exchange, we'll be losing our mountain view, we have a heat trap asphalt road running in front of our house (which, I have to admit, is kind of nice when it rains), a lot more traffic in front of our house, and we have street lights. No more clear, starry skies at night. :( So, with all I’ve had to give up, I get a little peeved when the power goes out.

Now, I know it’s expected once in a while, but ours just goes out for freak reasons now. There was the very frustrating incident last September, aka Argh! Episode 1, and then there was last night. At approximately 2 am, my world got very quiet, so of course, I woke up. I was dead asleep too. My husband said there was a pop and then the power went out. Great. This was sounding too familiar.

We looked outside and it appeared we were the only ones without power, and a/c—it had to be 90 degrees last night. Fortunately, due to the previous incident, I had the power company’s number programmed into my phone. After a quick call to them to report it and shutting down my computer, we went outside to investigate.

Just a little FYI: If you don’t have a battery backup for your computer, get one now. It will absorb the shock from a lightning strike and save your electronics. What? Lightning? Yeah. See Argh! Episode 1.

Anyway, everything looked okay on the power pole in front of our house, but upon closer inspection we discovered a barbecued critter lying in front of it. Though my morbid side is very tempted to post photos of the crispy critter, I know some of you are sensitive about that, so I will leave it off, along with the type of critter. But if you’re really interested, feel free to email me, abbyannis (at) earthlink (dot) net, and I’ll send them to you.

The power guy finally came out about 4 am, and we got our a/c back, so I could finally go back to sleep, only to get up again at 6 am to get the kids on the bus. Fun night. :)

Anyone else have a similar experience to share? Or anything else you want to share? Sorry, my question generator is still asleep. I’m going back to bed.

Argh! Episode 1

The last week has been frustrating, to say the least. As most of you know, we had some pretty intense electrical storms last week. Well, last Wednesday at about 7:00 am I was surprised by a very loud clap of thunder which, at the time, seemed to happen simultaneously with a very, very loud explosion sound coming from the east end of our house. My first thought was that the house had been hit by lightning. The burning smell didn't help. We checked everything and couldn't find where the smell was coming from and there was no evidence to show us where the lightning hit.

Then Jason said the most ridiculous thing ever, "I think that sound was the computer and I think that's where the smell is coming from."

Of course, there was no possible way my computer had been affected, because I can't deal with that. Eventually, I was forced to come to terms with the fact that my computer is not indestructible. It did smell pretty bad.

Our power was out, so I took it down to work and it wouldn't turn on. While I was there, I pulled the hard drive out and hooked it up to another computer and everything was intact. That's the most important thing - all my photos and videos of the kids and all of my digital scrapbooking stuff are on there. I think I might still be in bed crying if that was fried too. Anyway, I hoped it was just the power supply that was fried. We traded that out and it sounded like it really wanted to start but just couldn't make it. Then I decided it was probably the motherboard too, so back we went to the computer store to see if they had a comparable replacement.

That would have been too easy. Since my computer is now three years old, the parts are all obsolete. I should have known that, but I think I was dreaming a little. At this point there's no point in replacing parts, since I can get a new computer so cheap.

Well, the power was back on when we got home. Apparently, the lightning didn't strike our house, but it did strike the power pole directly in front of our house and then took a quick trip into the house and fried not only my computer, but also my router, my printer (which I bought just two months ago), and the surge protector that supplies power to the antennae for our internet.

It also put my phones out of commission. I felt totally disconnected. They finally got our phones working again Sunday and the internet was fixed today. Hooray! Thank heavens for my crappy little laptop, with the broken CD drive and mouse, that will only take a charge if the cord is placed just so and nobody touches it. It's better than nothing.

If that wasn't enough computer drama, all of this was exacerbated by the modem going out on Saturday at work, so when I went into work yesterday I couldn't even check my email.

We put in a claim with our homeowners insurance, so that should help offset the cost. Fortunately, computers are about half the cost they were three years ago and much better systems. I've been wanting a shiny new computer, and now I don't have a choice. Darn it! Oh well, I guess I'll survive.