Notes from the Cavendish: Endings

My six-week Writing for Children course seems to have passed in the blink of an eye - and I am bereft! I don't like endings. I'm useless at goodbyes. I struggle to hang up the phone and even at the end of a casual get-together with friends or family, I'm never the the one who ups and leaves first and simply says, 'See you later.'

I know, I know - I have 'abandonment issues' - and I know too that endings are what make space for new beginnings, but the knowledge doesn't help.

As a children's writer, reaching the end of a story can be hugely satisfying, but there are challenges too. Children hate to be patronised so the ending doesn't necessarily have to be 'happy'. It might be thought-provoking, bitter-sweet, twist-in-the tale, hopeful, redemptive or whatever. But I think young people, like most adult readers - me included - want a resolution to the problem posed at the beginning of the story. I may struggle with goodbyes, but I still don't like cliffhanger book endings.  

Whether the protagonist 'wins' or 'loses' in the final do or die confrontation, when the stakes are at their highest, what's important is how the main character has changed. What have they learned - about life, about themselves? How have they grown?

And after it's all over? Well, I don't want to be overly-dramatic (OK, I do!) but for me - as a reader, a writer or a course tutor - then comes the let-down, the anti-climax, the sense of being cast adrift, the headlong plunge into limbo and having no idea what comes next... that's where I am now.

I'd love to hear how other people feel about endings... what are the best last lines you've ever read? How do you say goodbye - in writing or in life?

Losing the Plot

20,000 words into the first draft of a YA thriller, it’s tough to admit that I’ve lost the plot! I’ve spent the last three weeks desperately editing, revising and rewriting, but I finally have to accept that the story just isn’t working. All that effort – for nothing.

OK, maybe not for nothing. This is a new genre and a new target age-group for me and I’ve learnt a lot, most of which I hope to be able to put to good use at a later date.

When it comes to plotting, I am definitely a planner rather than a ‘pantser’. I need to know the story from beginning to end before I actually start writing. I have tried – and failed – to write a fast, first draft and work out the plot as I went along, but it just doesn’t work for me. I need a plan – not that I necessarily stick to it. It’s like a map I can go back to if I get lost – or a lifeline, if I get stuck.

That said, it’s taken me a while to work out exactly what went wrong this time around. I’d done the research. I had a detailed scene-by-scene outline. I had a synopsis. I knew my characters inside out – their background, what they wanted, what made them tick... and I knew whodunit.

In two of my books for younger readers – Spike and Ali Enson and Spike in Space, due out in August – I blended realism (adoption, sibling rivalry) and fantasy (aliens, space travel).

This blend of fact and fiction was the starting point for this latest project, but the present-day real event – or series of events – is harrowing and by adding an element of fantasy, I was left feeling that I was not doing justice to either strand of the story. So, I've had to choose between the two (more on that later)... and start plotting all over again.


Of course, this whole process has made me feel like I've lost the plot in more ways than one. Anyone else know that feeling?

IN YOUR OWN SWEET TIME

                 

Do you write fast – or slow?

I have to admit that I am very slow. It’s not because I don’t have a routine or a good work ethic or that I’m an ill-disciplined procrastinator. Whatever else I do, I write (almost) every day... read more