Happy Endings:
I am a sucker for a happy ending, but in novels, movies and
shows it is a difficult balancing act to write an ending that is both happy and
realistic. When I was writing the Elven Quest series I had a vague idea of how
I wanted the story to end. That is, I could imagine what Isobel and Mauve and
the others would be like when they were older long after the conflict with
Madeara had ended. But, I did not necessarily know how I was going to reach
that ending. The ending came along on its own as the story developed. However,
I knew that the Afterward was a happy one, but I also knew that in life, things
do not always turn out the way you want them to and they do not always turn out
happy.
Being a huge Potterhead (aka Harry Potter fan), I was of
course devastated when major characters in the Harry Potter stories died,
(spoiler alert), like Dumbledore, Lupin, Fred, Sirius, Snape, even Hedwig’s
passing made me cry but did that make me put down the books and stop reading?
No, of course not because I held faith that the book would end happily and JK
Rowling didn’t disappoint.
Keeping all of this in mind, I was torn at times with what would be too cheesy or unbelievable to put in the book and what would be
believable to add. So, I guess in terms of advice I have to be vague here and
say that it would depend on the author, the story, and the writing style
whether or not the book that the author is writing should have a happy ending.
My advice would be not to over think it too much. Let the story and the
characters talk to you and tell you what they want their ending to be. I know
this might sound crazy but for me at least, this is the way it is writing a
novel. The characters literally talk to me. They are like real people and as I
type, their story just comes out. I hardly have to think about it at all.
My biggest issue with writing stories is not so much trying
to write the story but more what to edit out after it is written. That for me
was very difficult. When I originally finished the first novel it was over 480
pages and I knew that it was way too long. So the question then became what do
I cut that would not hurt the integrity of the story? I started with repetition
anything that I thought had been said before that really did not need to be
reiterated I cut out. Then I went through it again and tried to decide what
else was necessary. I also asked advice from family and friends that had read
the book. I spent over a year editing the book. Some of you may think, “Isn’t
that what an editor is for?” and yes, to some degree that is true. But the
business of being published is an extremely competitive one so before you even
begin to send out query letters to agents or publishers you want to make sure
that your manuscript is the best you think it can be. An agent and/or publisher
can tell just by the first 20 or 30 pages whether you have done any editing
work and if they receive something that is full of mistakes or has too much
content or will be too much work to edit they will most likely pass. I know this
because when I first started sending out my book I had not edited much other
than running spell check over it. I received quite a lot of rejections, fifteen
in fact and more no answers.
When the no’s poured in I knew it was just a part of the
process, but I also wondered if that meant that I needed to do some work on the
beginning chapters so I edited them some more. By the time my book was accepted
by my publisher and went through the actual editing process, the time it took
the editors to go through it was fairly short in comparison to other authors I
have heard of. One author wrote on his blog that his manuscript took three
years to be completely finished with the editing process after it was accepted
and he had signed the contract. My book was edited and set up for E-book format
within three months, quite a big difference for wait time. Whether that was due
to my previous editing or whether that is due to my publisher’s style and
standards of operation I do not know, maybe it was a bit of both. But I do know
that it never hurts to make sure your manuscript is in the best shape it can be
when you are trying to get it published. Don’t just rely on others to do the
editing work for you, that is lazy, take some responsibility yourself. When you
do, your characters will have a happy ending and hopefully you will have a happy
ending too and become a published author. Until next time remember,
writing=happiness ;).
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