Keep on Keeping on

This article was originally written for Fairfield County Writers, now Full Coverage Writers.

You're almost there! You're so close. You can taste that ending. Only five--six--wait, forgot to wrap up that plotline, call it seven scenes--so...close...just...can't...quite...get...there...is it...getting...farther away?

The end of a book is a difficult place. You've spent a lot of time in that manuscript, poured a lot of energy and thought and sacrifice and sweat into it. Maybe you're dreaming of publication. Perhaps you're dreading writing a query letter. Or wondering how on earth you'll edit this mess.

Hold on, cowpoke. Back that horse up. First you've got to get to the end. All the worrying in the world won't get you there faster; it can only slow you down. Trust me on this one. Set all that aside for now and focus. Your worries will be there later--you can trust me on that one too.

So. Here you are. You're close to the end, but every word is an agony and every time you look that last scene is farther away. How do you get through?

The same way you fight past any other stumbling block, that's how--one word at a time. Sometimes, though, we hit a stall. We hit a wall. We hit...something, and the story Will. Not. Move. When that happens, try one or more of these methods.

Summarize. You've heard it a thousand times: Show, don't tell. Well, sometimes telling is what you need to do. Maybe somewhere back there you messed up and you need to fix it before you can write your ending, but you know better than to go back and try to edit now. Maybe you're on a deadline and you need to move on. So just write what happens. "And then Bob and June iron things out using poor Billy as a bargaining chip, and they start a new family with a paperclip and two gendarmes." I'd put a bit more detail in, myself, but you get the idea. Just tell it as if you are explaining a movie to a friend. Get it down, then get it right.

Another summarizing method is to just use dialogue. I'll admit I've never just written dialogue at the end, but I've used it as a technique to get through other tough scenes, and I'd think it would be just as useful here. Sometimes keeping it all in your head and wrapped together and writing it that way just doesn't work. So get the important stuff down and save the rest till later. Don't worry about the moves of the sword fight or what Vader is throwing at Luke, just write the words. You can put the action in later.

Elizabeth Bear (an awesome writer you should investigate) does what she calls a "deathmarch" when she nears the end of a manuscript. (Sometimes, if it's going slowly, she calls it a death-mosey.) It's just what it sounds like--a take-no-prisoners, serious-as-heck, march to the end no matter what. No time for excuses or problems or a bit more research, just words and more words until it is done.

When all else fails--well, another option I've used more than once is just to drop it. So your story doesn't want to go. Fine. You've got others that are more cooperative. Toss it in a dark corner and let it sulk a bit. (Don't do this if it's your first story, though--fight on to the end. You need something finished behind you.)

I should warn you this only looks like the easy way out. No one wants to drop their manuscript right before the end. And taking it back up again is going to be a lot of work. Most professionals would, I think, tell you never to do this--they'd tell you to get through no matter what. But this has worked for me, and so I recommend it as a method you might try. Generally if I do this, when I come back I start at the beginning with a major edit. By the time I reach the point where I stopped writing, my manuscript is in much better shape and I can write the ending.

Endings can be incredibly frustrating. At least now you know you're not alone in there--all across the fictional landscape, writers share your pain. Remember that, if you are facing this problem, you've already written more than most people will in their entire lives, and if you've come this far, you can surely go on.

Keep going. You're almost there. Honest, it's so...close...