About Finishing and Finished
Post 1972:
The ending is the hardest part of the story for me to nail down. Some guys and gals have problems coming up with premises or tend to get bogged down in the second act. Never happens to me. It’s finishing strong that’s tough.
It all depends on confidence and strength of skillset. If you’re a big-picture person, maybe the thing is finished in your head already. That’s cool. I bet that’s way less frustrating than the way I roll.
My strengths are probably in character and dialogue. Should probably write plays. But that would mean theater-adjacent things… I’d probably come apart. I’ll stick to the stark, isolating, cruel and anti-social world of writing novels.
I think there’s a few elements to my finishing woes. I really enjoy great scenes and bits of dialogue, stuff that makes people look up from the page and pull a face. I like all that so much I almost don’t think any ending is sufficient. I’ve lived with these characters and maybe a part of me will miss them.
I should probably go back to therapy. I mean, go to therapy…
No joke, working on something too long can be make it harder and harder to finish. You might even want to walk away, but you can’t. Too much sunk cost. That’s a fallacy, I guess, but it’s also not. All those scenes, all that plot. It deserves a finish.
One time, I ran a marathon. The beginning was really exciting. My pace was steady and I couldn’t wait to tell my friends about my accomplishment. After a while, I got in the zone. Even though it was tiring, all my parts were moving and things were heading in the right direction. The ending was the hard bit. Sort of just over it, in body and spirit. The worst part? There was no finish line. They took off and left, I guess. Not sure. Nobody with cups of water. I’m still investigating.
None of that happened. I would never finish a marathon. But I have finished a novel. Lots, actually. None of them are perfect, and I’m not sure I’ve stuck the landing 100. That’s okay. There’s always the next one. And while I’m cursing this finish line, I can be thankful that I had the stuff to get there in the first place. Okay, I’m finished. I’ve gotta go finish. Cheers and see you after.
