Curious

[Tasmin21]

I heard it commented lately that the last 20% of a book is harder to write than the first 80%.  Now, as I sit here struggling with almost exactly the last 20% of my own project, I was wondering how everyone else found it.

Is it easier toward the end, when you're on the down hill rush?  Or do you find yourselves like me, grinding out the last few chapters in order to rush on toward the first Big Revision?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I heard it commented lately that the last 20% of a book is harder to write than the first 80%.  Now, as I sit here struggling with almost exactly the last 20% of my own project, I was wondering how everyone else found it.

Is it easier toward the end, when you're on the down hill rush?  Or do you find yourselves like me, grinding out the last few chapters in order to rush on toward the first Big Revision?

For me it varies a lot from book to book.

[Cyclone Jack]

Nope. I generally write endings first.

[blgarver]

I'm also dealing with the last 20%.  It sucks because I'm so close and I feel like I"ve hit a wall.  It's like some sick torture dished out by the cosmos.

But I think most of my delay has been because I just moved a couple of weekends ago and packing and dealing with all the other stuff has thrown off my schedule.  I plan to return to normal now that I've got mostly settled in, so we'll see what happens.

BLG

[RMatthewWare]

I actually found the last bit the easiest.  But then, I had outlined, so I knew the way I was going to end from the beginning.  I think a lot of writers don't outline first.  For me, it's a necessity (novel-wise). 

Matt

[meg_evonne]

Aren't endings fun? I also outline so I have a pretty good idea where I am going, although characters have a way of re-routing the outcome sometimes. 

Once in awhile I find endings difficult because the story line or the character isn't ready to say goodbye or maybe I'm not ready to say goodbye to them.  Life is a journey and so are your writings. 

What I do know is that if you get stuck in an ending, it's a lot harder to get through.  By that point in the book it is really hard to just force yourself to write through a writers block with a bunch of gobblygoop that you know you'll cut later--mainly because you are supposed to be tying up the story archs of the novel.  God, the number of times I've forced myself to write ten pages and then suddenly the most wonderful single paragraph shows up.  90% of the time I cut the forced part and find the paragraph covers that whole section!

Maybe if you try to make a list of everything you want to cover in the last pages it will focus you towards the goal, but if the character or story are telling you that you aren't done--you might still have a way to go to get there!  Your gut will tell you!

If it's you not wanting to let it go, better pop a beer and face it head on and cry your way through it.  It's like a mother eagle pushing the baby out of the nest.  It's hard to do and they may crash--but it's gotta be done.  Luckily with writing, unlike baby eagles, you can pick it up later and have a mulligan or a do-over.

Best wishes as you finish your pages. 

PS.  One really wierd time I realized a few years later on re-reading, that the story had ended about two chapters before I did. Now that was a waste of time but while in the moment I stubbornly kept going and just couldn't see it!  That's where having a friend read it with an outside perspective helps...

[Grogtard]

With my very limited experience, it's the opposite.  I have the hardest time with the first 20% of the story then I hit my stride.  Of course when I finally finish a draft I usually end up cutting the 20% and rewriting the entire beginning.

[ballplayer72]

where to start and where to end are always the hardest for me

[RMatthewWare]

Start at the beginning.  End at the end.  Anything else is just silly.

Matt

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Start at the beginning.  End at the end.  Anything else is just silly.

May I recommend Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons ?

It has two narrative threads. One starts at the beginning. The other starts at the end. They converge towards the key event in the middle.  There is no way it should work a tenth as well as it actually does.

[Kelli]

I'm about to finish up one right now, not a novel so much as a short story turned novella. It might technically reach "novel length" by the time it's done, but just barely.

In my case, this particular story is the back story of a character that I've been writing about and developing for a long time now, over many stories. He's a recurring main character that I'm quote fond of, so I'm having a really hard time finishing up this story in particular because it's been such an interesting and revealing examination of his life. It's very satisfying, but there's also a part of me that will be very sad when it ends. It's been quite a ride.

[RMatthewWare]

I always know the end of my story before I start writing it.  The process I follow is to start putting ideas together to the point I have enough to write the outline.  Then I write the outline (mainly to keep things in the right order) and write it out to the end.  I don't start the actual writing until I know where I'm starting, the main events along the way, and the way I'm going to end.

Is that odd for most writers?  Do most of you just start with an idea and go from there?  Or is it more organzied?

Matt

[Tasmin21]

Often, I start with a character, then I figure out what story they want told.

With my current monkey-on-my-back, I decided I wouldn't write it in order, I'd simply write the scenes as they came to me and put them together like a puzzle later.  Now, as I try to fill in the last gaps, I find myself struggling.  So, it's not really the end of the story that's got me thrown, it's the end of the process.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Is that odd for most writers?  Do most of you just start with an idea and go from there?  Or is it more organzied?

Steven Brust has said in public that he starts writing and sees what happens, with no more planning than that, and it certainly seems to work for him.  Tim Powers outlines to the extent of knowing everything that's said in every conversation before writing the actual text. Among reasonably successful published fiction writers of my acquaintance, I know one who never outlines because doing an outline counts as the story being Told and then not tellable again; one who regularly does an outline, finds the characters take things in a different direction within a couple of chapters, and hopes one day to actually tell the story she's been outlining for ages; and one who writes scenes in entirely random order.

There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays
And every single one of them is right.

[Kelli]

I finished my latest story today... the first one I've actually finished in a long time. I've been wandering around feeling a bit lost today.