It's the final week of NaNoWriMo and I've got over 60,000 words into Winner Takes All. My only problem: the ending sucks. To be more precise, I've led my characters on a merry chase, complete with rising tension, cliffhangers and increasing danger only to find that they have gathered in one place and there is no way to wrap it all up. I'm sure there is a name for this syndrome. If not, I'll make up one.
Well, says the dedicated outliner, if only you had listened to me and made a detailed plot outline before you started to write, this problem wouldn't have happened.
A good point, and I'll take that into account. The trouble is, my characters speak to me along the way and the plot goes where it wants to. I do need to do a better job of visualizing the ending and divert the plot in the right direction in the future. I don't know that I'll ever succeed in writing a detailed outline. In a way, that's what the first draft is anyway. So much revision has to take place that I'm not bothered by having to fill in a few plot holes or tweak the characters.
My current goal is to fix the bad ending and let the first draft sit while I go back to Win or Go Home for a final revision. Maybe I can have Winner Takes All in presentable shape when I begin agent queries in the spring. A series with the first two books completed. What's not to like about that?
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