Endings part 2. (Will it ever end?)

There's nothing worse than that git at a party who won't bugger off home. It's particularly annoying when it's your party in your house. We've all had a lovely time (some of us a bit too lovely), but if good things aren't allowed to end they become boring, agitating things that beg to be kicked out of the door.

You don't want anyone to feel that way about your book, do you? What I'm trying to say is, it's very important to know when to wrap things up. More words isn't necessarily better value.

Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed The Diviners by Libba Bray. I went through a period of a couple of days where I was picking up a book, and not getting much further than a page before deciding it wasn't for me. Sometimes I get really fussy, and nothing will do. So for The Diviners to tickle my interest was no mean feat.

Seriously good cover.

But boy did it take a long time to end.

I REALLY enjoyed the book. The author gets a great handle on the time and place, makes the reader feel the atmosphere of Manhatten in the 1920's, the excitement of the nightclubs, the danger of Prohibition. The lead character is a bit wild, so when she does anything a little crazy it doesn't feel out of place.

I had a little niggle with the book as it went along, and it had to do with the horror elements. There were a couple of sequences involving the Big Bad at the centre of the story (as there had to be), where he stalks and kills his victims, and they felt a little strong, a touch out of place. Overall though, this book is pretty much the berries (you'll get the reference when you read it (and you should read it)). But the ending. It goes on a bit.

After the climactic battle with the Big Bad (won't tell you who won!), there are a lot of pages left to go. Not many of these are spent wrapping up loose ends. The majority of this space is filled with placing some brand new threads, a whole bunch of them left dangling in a not so subtle manner which says 'There's another book coming and now you're going to have to read it'. I don't mind a book that has all its characters (however many survive) at the end and it is clear that there is a possibility of more adventures. I also don't mind if there's a larger arc make crystal clear from the beginning, then I know what I'm in for. But ending a story and suddenly sticking in a bunch (and I do mean a bunch) of conspiracies and mysteries that need solving? One a time, please. One at a time.

Everything seems to have sequels these days. It seems almost impossible to pick up a book and find it's a stand alone beast and not one of triplets (at the least). That's okay - unless it feels forced. Three stories stretched to breaking point, or one that is complete and whole and satisfying? That's a pretty easy choice.

Two Doors Down (the novel I've nearly nearly finished) seems to have a similar problem. The big climax is done with, and it's a pretty damned action-packed sequence if I do say so myself. There's a few things to wrap up afterwards, but my concern is that it's going to be a bit of a drag after all the fun of the finale. Usually, once I've had my blockbuster end sequence, I tend to wrap up the novel pretty quickly. I mean, I really don't like to hang around. When the story's done, it's done. No hanging about to see how the characters lives turn out after all the hoo-ha. This time, there are events that legitimately have to happen after the adrenaline sequence, there's no avoiding it, no changing stuff around because it simply wouldn't make sense any other way. I feel okay about myself in that way - the writer must always be true to the story, and most importantly true to the characters. All developments must come naturally. A reader will always sense any wrongness, and there's no worse cheat than a fudged ending.

However, things need to be tightened up in Two Doors Down. Remember the famous equation: Second draft = first draft -10%

Basically, fellow writers, rock up at the party, give it some groove, show your trick, then get out while they're still clapping.

I'm reading the sequel to The Diviners now. Honestly, I almost didn't bother because of that whole ending shenanigan - but again, I was struggling for anything else to read. (See how a drawn-out ending can potentially put your reader off coming back for seconds?) Amazingly, it's jam-packed with another one of my bugbears - dream sequences. Even more amazingly, despite all that, I'm still quite enjoying it. Miss Bray really is that good with character and place. (Note: I've read a fair bit more of the book since starting this blog, and I'm not really digging it, even with the focus on dream sequences. It's lost a bit of the party-atmosphere pizzazz of the first novel though.)

And hey, if you fancy checking out how I end a novel, click the pic at the bottom of this post, grab yourself a good horror read - and give me some grief if you don't like the way it all turns out. :)

Laters