Energetic Efficiency

[Yes, I'm a day ahead... yesterday's blog has the explainer if you are interested, but rest assured, there is a plan]



Sometimes when I'm writing, each word is a chore; drawing out the story is a painful extraction. But every once in a while I hit the zone, a euphoria of excited energy, and my efficiency skyrockets. So I've been thinking maybe I should identify how to create that, and bottle it. I could make a FORTUNE, not to mention rolling through these books I write with much more efficient speed.

It is almost a chemical elation, but it seems any drug that induces euphoria, dampens focused elan. I've asked Evan, Ethan and Eric, but eagerness is really all I can get out of them. That's not to say I can't appreciate a little enthusiastic event now and again, but they seem to prefer my hands occupied elsewhere.





Edgy Endings



How do you like them? Firm, taut, nicely rounded?



You think I am to the butt part already, don't you? Patience, Grasshopper... Endings are my most frequent complaint on a book. I can easily get sucked into story, plot, character... but if the ending doesn't satisfy, then I am disappointed... so I thought I'd go through what I like in an ending and toss it out there and see if I'm a freak... okay, so I know I'm a freak... but do y'all like the same kinds of endings as I do, or do you want something else?



Ending DO: Elegantly tie in dozens of details that have been sprinkled through the book.



Ending DO: End a long term tension with eagerly awaited satisfaction.



Ending DO: Entertain me with a really twisty, bendy surprise. I like the kind when I can SEE IT COMING on a second read, but the first read it bowls me over.



Ending DON'T: Edge off a cliff and abandon us. I HATE endings that are way too sudden or jarring. I need some sense of what life AFTER the climax will be like. Spoon me, if you will.



DON'T: Pull some sudden obstacle or antagonist out of thin air. (Oh, I know, the lack of E words in that is apparent, but the point of WRITING the darn book is not to string together a series of independent events. It is to craft a solid structure that can hold up on its own and this is my very most frequent complaint—that there is some contrived plot point that nobody could have seen coming, even in retrospect).



And now what you've all been waiting for...





Euphoric Ends

Almost makes me think I could take another six weeks of winter, eh?

All right now boys... turn around and drop 'em...





Okey dokey, so there we have it. Have a great week!