Tag Archives: writer’s block comic

November 10, 2012 · 11:20 AM

Ending the Ending

After a great deal of confusion and me wanting to pull my hair out…

…it looks like the poll is working.  (I was wearing purple pants and a gray shirt that day, so I decided to roll with it)  The problem seemed to be that it was showing up for everyone but me.  But the results are in and the winner by a landslide is Danya.  So that’s the character’s new name!  The poll is now closed.

On to the topic at hand: The Ending.

A lot of my books are going to have sequels, so I’m going to start with that – Ending a book that is going to have at least one sequel.  Surprisingly enough, I don’t ever try to write a book with the intent of giving it a sequel.  I sat down to write The Dreamcatchers, Hellbound, and Grotesque with the intention of making them single, one-shot novels.  In fact, I don’t like writing sequels, because I don’t think I’m very good at it.  For The Dreamcatchers, I just came up with some cool new ideas, so I started sequels for it.  For the other two, I was so upset when I realized I had already gone through an entire story, written over 60,000 words, and still had a lot more material to cover.  In both books, there was this central villain that I thought was going to be killed off and taken care of by the end, and both times I found other obstacles had to be tackled first.  And by the time I got through those, the book was over!  Which led to conversations like the one I had with my friend, Micah (M), in an IHOP.

The main reason I balk at sequels is I have so many writing projects going on at one time that I am always angered in a way when I end up with a new one.  That’s why when I had the dream that led to the writing of Hellbound, my first reaction was something like, “Fuck!”

Oh my, I have gotten off topic.  Alright, so when you write a book that’s going to have a sequel, you need to do two things when you write the ending: 1) Wrap up with the main conflict that was covered in the book 2) Set up the conflict that is going to be in the next book.  You can read examples of this in Harry Potter, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Trickster’s Choice, or any other book that has a sequel.  The main point is that you get the feeling when you’re done reading it that you get when someone starts saying something but doesn’t finish the thought.  You’re waiting for more.  You know there should be more.

And there are still a million ways to do this.  You can leave your characters in utter turmoil, or you can make it seem like everything’s going to be fine, until the next book starts and that new conflict arises.  My biggest piece of advice would be to go with your gut, as I’ve said before.  After you’ve managed to write a full book, the ending should come naturally.  If it doesn’t, ask for help from family and friends.  This advice doesn’t change if you’re writing a stand-alone book.  The ending doesn’t have to wrap everything up with a neat little bow.  Graveminder didn’t end that way.  That book ended with the central conflict wrapped up, and a sort of consensus that the changes that had occurred in the main characters’ lives were permanent, and that they were okay with that.

This is pretty much the only advice I can give you.  But here’s something else: I love helping people with their writing.  So if you want to post a comment with a question about something you’re working on, or go to my Contact page and send me an email, I’d be happy to give you a few tips.  Just don’t sue me for offering the advice if it ends up not working for you, because then I’ll be sad.

COMIC!! Please note that I tried to make my writing more legible.  Operative word is “tried.”  (Click to Enlarge)

Finally, for those who don’t know, George Takei has written a book and it is available for pre-order.  To anyone who is not a fan of George Takei, you actually are a fan of George Takei, you just don’t know it yet.  Try watching this video if you are unconvinced.

So don’t forget to buy his book!

Word of the Day: Ingenuity (n) – The quality of being cleverly inventive or resourceful; inventiveness.

P.S. Keep an eye out for my next post, because that will be the guest post by Liz that I hinted at before!  You don’t want to miss it.

Also this.  Can you guess what book she’s reading?

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November 7, 2012 · 2:10 PM

Starting the Ending

My dad asked me the other day how I come up with endings for my books, and my response was, “Uhhhh…well…um…yeah…I…I don’t know.  I mean…I just do.”

So yeah, that’s not very helpful.  But it did make me realize that while I have talked extensively about how to begin a book, I haven’t really touched on the ending at all.  I think the reason for that is that it never seemed like something I’d need to talk about.  See, I hate to brag, but the endings for my books usually just come to me.  About halfway through the book, I’ll have a small revelation while I’m writing that will clearly detail how my book is going to end.  And then I go, “Ohhh, so that’s how it’ll end!” and then I keep writing.  And when I get to the end of the book, I write the ending pretty much how I imagined it, and that’s that.  I might just have assumed that it happens for everyone that way, and I might just have been wrong.

So we’re going to talk a bit about conclusions today.  But first!  There is a character in Grotesque named Dinah.  She is a six-year-old girl, and I don’t like her name.  So I’m going to change it (God I’m starting a lot of sentences with “So” today), and for the first time ever, YOU are going to get to help decide.  I figure you just got done voting for president, so you’re in the voting spirit.  I’ve created a nice little poll here for you to use.  Go ahead and vote.  Please only do it once.  I disabled the thing that uses Cookies to prevent you from voting multiple times because I don’t really like Cookies (of the computational variety).  Yes there are only two choices, but that is because the others (I use www.babynames.com to find names that have appropriate meanings) were unappealing to me.  E.g. Chipo, Donatella, Matias, etc.  The name meaning I was going for was “Gift.”  So here’s the poll:

UPDATE: The poll doesn’t appear to be showing up, so if you can’t see it, just vote using the comments.  The two names are Nita and Danya.

I’ve already talked too long, and there aren’t even pictures, so I’ll probably split this into two posts so you don’t get bored.  I’ll just do a brief introduction to Ending the Novel.

The ending for your book is largely up to you, and it is honestly very hard to pin down any universal rules for writing it.  Here’s why: If you want to make your ending vague, that’s up to you.  If you are planning on writing one or more sequels to your book, that changes how the ending is going to be.  If your favorite color is blue, then you might write an ending entirely differently from a person whose favorite color is puce.  Here’s my opinion on endings: I once wrote a Facebook status after reading the series that begins with Blue is for Nightmares, by Laurie Faria Stolarz.  I finished reading the last book in the series, and then I said, “How can you even think to contrive a happily ever after that is more like a mildly happy present with a fairly good chance of a felicitous outcome? The ending to a book shouldn’t read like a weather forecast!”

That’s my opinion.  I’ve read a lot of books for work recently that have had really inconclusive and frustrating endings.  If you’re going to write an ending for your book, then write it with conviction.  Even if it’s vague, or purposefully inconclusive, write it like you mean it.  Trust me, it shows.  Your book shouldn’t just peter out once the story’s wound down.  Okay, I’ll talk more about this with more pictures in another post.  For now, enjoy strip #2 of Writer’s Block!

(Click to enlarge)

Word of the Day: Contrive (v) – To plan with ingenuity; devise; invent.

P.S. Results for the Poll will be posted next week sometime, or whenever I get around to writing the next post.

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October 27, 2012 · 2:31 PM

Writer’s Block, the Comic

A few notes.  One, another grammatical pet peeve of mine.  It’s short, so don’t worry.

It is amazing how the simple addition of an extra letter can change the meaning of a word so drastically.  I talked before about every day and everyday, and those don’t even have any difference in their lettering – only in the addition or deletion of a space.  Today, for your benefit and my sanity, I am going to quickly illuminate the difference between the words “Lightning” and “Lightening.”

LIGHTNING, no E, is the weather.  Here is Lightning illustrated:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Recently, in I think two different sample manuscripts I was reading, the word “Lightening” was used to refer to the weather pattern illustrated above.  I haven’t illustrated “Lightening” for you, namely because the first definition that came up on Dictionary.com was this one:

Lightening (n) – the descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity, occurring toward the end of pregnancy, changing the contour of the abdomen and facilitating breathing by lessening pressure under the diaphragm.
So you can see why I didn’t want to draw that.  The word can also describe a progression from dark to light, or from heavy to light.  In any case, it is NOT used to describe the flashy electricity that comes from the sky when the weather gods have been angered.  Please don’t throw an E in where it doesn’t belonge!
Next, a quick note.  In drawing my best friend in my previous post, I realized that I had put her in a stance that I always draw her in – arms crossed, glaring out at the world as if she’s daring someone to cross her.  In thinking about this, I had to wonder why I always give my drawings of her that particular position, when I know her to be a very kind, witty person.  I felt the need to explain myself here because I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression.  So I’ll say this: Liz does not suffer fools gladly.  But she is still a wonderful person to get to know.  The reason I draw her that way is that, in my mind, she has always been the stalwart warrior.  Someone who does not easily bend or break.  Someone who is assured of her own convictions, but still very open to new possibilities – studies, research, discoveries, whatever you may call it.  For that reason, I draw her in a warrior’s pose.  Just thought I’d let you know.
Finally, I’ve decided to take on a more serious cartooning endeavor in the form of a semi-regular comic strip entitled Writer’s Block.  And, before you ask, no this does not mean you’ll be seeing less of Mini Bex.  The strip will be included at the bottoms of blog posts, not on a separate page or website or another blog.  It will just be for fun, something you can glance at like you would a strip in the morning paper.  I’ll include the first strip I’ve drawn here in this post (Click to enlarge).  I hope you like it.
That’s all for now!

Word of the Day: Stalwart (adj) – strong and brave; valiant.

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