The Myth of the Finishing Line
Endings are tricky things. As writers, we’re encouraged to think of them in binary terms: the draft is done. You’ve finished editing the manuscript. You’re published! You made a bestseller list. If beginnings are magical things, full of possibility and creativity, endings are the boots on the ground stuff, the practical mechanics of writing. Get it done. Make that ending stick, you’re only as good as your last piece. Get to the next goal post. Oh no, it shifted. Get to that one, then. March on, soldier!
Publishing is fun.*
But the reality is, it’s not so simple, and endings are not always such definitive beasts. A good practical tip for surviving the publishing industry is to learn, as early as possible, to appreciate the myth of the finishing line—to realise that there are no hard finishes. There are an awful lot of soft ones though, and you’ll maintain your sanity better (AKA cry less), if you go in with that in mind.
There are the finishing lines that we have to draw ourselves. Creatively, where is the right place to stop a story? The ending is what stays with people after they read your work, what makes them read your next one. If you write in a genre where sequels and series are common, even expected, finding the balance between a satisfying ending to a novel and one which leaves readers wanting more is critical. What’s even more fun**, is that in traditional publishing you’re rarely in control of the ultimate length of a series—you don’t know if the earlier books will sell well enough for the publisher to want more, and hence you might not know if this is the last thing you’ll write about these characters, or if you need to leave further room in their arcs (as someone currently trying to write a sequel that might be the end or might be the middle, I can tell you it’s not an easy balance to strike). You gotta decide for yourself where that sweet spot lies and, it being a creative judgment, there’s no single right answer.***
And once you’ve found the right spot to end your draft, so begins the editing, and ultimately (unless and until you’re working to someone else’s timeframe) the person who determines when you’ve ‘finished’ is you. There’s no end to the tinkering that writers can do if given free rein, so you must learn that there is no perfect finished product, there is only the product that is good enough in the time you have. No matter how long you work at something, you’ll always find things a year later that you’d change if you could, but the time to stop and back yourself is probably sooner than you think. (Yes, there are writers who send unfinished work off too early, or are brimming with unearned confidence, but it’s doubtful they’re the ones reading writing magazines. They already know everything they need to know, right?)
Then there are the fake endings we trick ourselves into. Initially, there’s a tendency to focus on representation or publication. Surely that’s the end point, right? Well, it is, and it isn’t. You might get an agent, then still need to do significant rewrites. Maybe you sell the book, or maybe the market isn’t right for it right now, or something too similar just came out, or, or … And if you do sell the book, that, at least, is what you were aiming for, right? The end? Hoo-boy. Edits are the least of it. Edits then copyedits then page proofs again and again, and covers and acknowledgments and promotion, promotion, promotion, and did I mention the second book? Let’s start this game all over again, but with less time to do it all in. Oh, wait, how’s the first one selling? Did it get reviewed in the right places? If you could just make this list or sell more copies, and oh, dear, IS IT AWARDS SEASON?
So what can you learn from all this? You can learn to view your career like a long hike through sometimes difficult, sometimes beautiful, terrain. Identify milestones and celebrate them, of course. But recognise them as a viewing platform, a scenic spot, not a destination. There’ll be another spot ahead to look forward to and be encouraged by (or to keep you going through tough sections), but don’t let it spoil your enjoyment of the views along the way. You have to like hiking, guys, cos if everything goes to plan, you’ll be on that trail for good.
* Publishing may not actually be fun.
** Less fun
***Hey, I didn’t promise this article would solve all your problems.
Sam Hawke has wanted to write books since realising as a child that they didn't just breed between themselves in libraries. Having contemplated careers as varied as engineer, tax accountant and zookeeper, Sam eventually settled on the law. After marrying her jujitsu training partner and travelling to as many countries as possible, Sam now resides in Canberra, Australia raising two small ninjas and two idiot dogs. Her debut epic fantasy, City of Lies, came out in 2018 with the sequel, Hollow Empire, due for release in 2019.
samhawkewrites.com
This article was first published in BITE Magazine, Issue 4, 2019.
