Posts
Anne Gallagher has an intriguing post : "Where do you start your story?"
http://piedmontwriter.blogspot.com/2010/12/where-do-you-start-your-story.html
One of the criticisms of the last LORD OF THE RING movie was that it appeared Peter Jackson couldn't decide where to end the movie
and tricked the audience into thinking they were watching the end, only to be moved to yet another false ending.
By the time the movie did end, many were grumbling about the whole experience.
Are we authors like that?
Do we linger too long, milking the afterglow of the story. Or do we end too abruptly once the crisis is averted or overcome?
Many teachers of creative writing stress not to begin writing until you have the ending clearly in mind
so that you can head to it with skillful foreshadowing and firm precision, not meandering until the end just comes to you.
I think that approach also helps you to know when to begin.
If you know the ending with its transformation of the main character, then you know where to start your story ...
and you get a sense of how to bring your protagonist to his destination.
What mood do you want the reader to leave your novel holding in his heart?
Hope. Despair. Laughter. Resolve in the face of dissolution.
Or a mix of all of the above?
***
http://piedmontwriter.blogspot.com/2010/12/where-do-you-start-your-story.html
One of the criticisms of the last LORD OF THE RING movie was that it appeared Peter Jackson couldn't decide where to end the movie
and tricked the audience into thinking they were watching the end, only to be moved to yet another false ending.
By the time the movie did end, many were grumbling about the whole experience.
Are we authors like that?
Do we linger too long, milking the afterglow of the story. Or do we end too abruptly once the crisis is averted or overcome?
Many teachers of creative writing stress not to begin writing until you have the ending clearly in mind
so that you can head to it with skillful foreshadowing and firm precision, not meandering until the end just comes to you.
I think that approach also helps you to know when to begin.
If you know the ending with its transformation of the main character, then you know where to start your story ...
and you get a sense of how to bring your protagonist to his destination.
What mood do you want the reader to leave your novel holding in his heart?
Hope. Despair. Laughter. Resolve in the face of dissolution.
Or a mix of all of the above?
***
