I absolutely hate writing the last page and paragraph of a manuscript. For me, ending a story is the hardest thing to do.
For others just sitting down to write is the hardest. Either from not having the time or from fear of what others will think of their efforts.
Now I will admit that I did suffer from the second reason. But through age and sheer Australian ‘pig headedness’, I am now no longer scared about bad opinions of my work. If it is constructive criticism, I can use it to improve my writing. And if it is just meanness for meanness sake? I just put it aside and let the bad karma fairy sort them out.
The main thing is, if you want to write, then write. It doesn’t matter if it is a recipe, biography, journaling your repressed feelings about the kid who picked on you at school, or writing the epic story that has been sitting inside you for years. The thing that matters most is that you are WRITING. Every time you put anything down on paper (or on a keyboard) is taking you that one step closer to completing whatever writing goal you had set out to do.
Also, making a point to write something every day will help to form the ‘habit’ of writing. Just like making yourself jog everyday gets you into the ‘habit’ of exercising.
Even if you can only snatch ten minutes in a day to write, that will get you ten minutes closer to finishing than you would have been the day before.
After all of this writing, you get to the ‘Tale End’ of the story. The Finishing! I hate this part of writing for the following reason. You’ve just finished writing the epic scene where all your important story threads for the book get tied up nicely in a neat packaged, exciting finale… Then you have to write the section where you see how this dramatic scene has affected your characters in a neat and tidy wrap up. Every time I write one it feels like a bit of a let down. But it is needed to give your readers a chance to come down from your exciting finale and to see what ‘settled’ life is like for your characters.
So, all of my above ramblings beg the question.
Writers, what part of writing is the hardest for you?
And readers, what do you prefer in an ending – finishing at the height of excitement? Or spending a little relaxing time with the characters before taking your leave?
Share your thoughts with me in the Comments. I would like to know what people think 🙂
-HMC