Looking at Life like a Novel
I am at that point in my novel where I am asking my characters, ok now what is it that you want? All conflicts have been laid out, I hope I have kept the reader riveted, and I now have to resolve all of these conflicts and ready the reader for the end. This disturbs me a little bit because life isn't really like that. If you look at your life up until now as a novel - title it whatever you wish, give yourself a chapter, say for each year of your life, and you follow writing guideslines, such as the first four chapters lay out the premise, introduce all the relevant characters, describe their problems, etc. Then you reach the middle and all conflicts are laid out - now wait a minute I am sorry but that is not like life.
New conflicts with lovers, family and friends can erupt at any time because hopefully we change and grow and if we do not stay the same, the people around appear differently to us and hopefully they can change with us. All characters just like all people do not necessarily evolve. It is a fact of life. And, who says everything gets resolved in the end. Is life like that? Did you get the chance to say goodbye to someone who dies suddenly, or what about someone who died a slow death? Were you able to tell them everything you needed to say, or better yet resolve the conflicts between you both? Sometime we just can't work things out with another person so we resolve them within ourselves. As writers we must write an ending that makes sense - yeah, I understand that but how much of our lives do not make sense? Have you ever lost some to a death so senseless that 30 years later you still don't understand the why of it? I have and if you are honest with yourself, things have happened that are forever disturbing, baffling and sad.
Sometimes there is no resolution, only acceptance.
Anyway, no matter what formulas we follow our novels can't be like real life - it just doesn't work out so neat and tidy. Maybe that is why I am struggling to write something vital and realistic yet not too formulaic. Ah, the life of a writer.
New conflicts with lovers, family and friends can erupt at any time because hopefully we change and grow and if we do not stay the same, the people around appear differently to us and hopefully they can change with us. All characters just like all people do not necessarily evolve. It is a fact of life. And, who says everything gets resolved in the end. Is life like that? Did you get the chance to say goodbye to someone who dies suddenly, or what about someone who died a slow death? Were you able to tell them everything you needed to say, or better yet resolve the conflicts between you both? Sometime we just can't work things out with another person so we resolve them within ourselves. As writers we must write an ending that makes sense - yeah, I understand that but how much of our lives do not make sense? Have you ever lost some to a death so senseless that 30 years later you still don't understand the why of it? I have and if you are honest with yourself, things have happened that are forever disturbing, baffling and sad.
Sometimes there is no resolution, only acceptance.
Anyway, no matter what formulas we follow our novels can't be like real life - it just doesn't work out so neat and tidy. Maybe that is why I am struggling to write something vital and realistic yet not too formulaic. Ah, the life of a writer.
posted by Denise K. Rago at 6:34 PM
2 Comments:
Great post. I agree with everything you said.
As for endings, I have trouble with the happy-ever-after, because as we know, life isn't like that. But then again, we must ask ourselves, what does a reader expect? I don't mind if there is no happy ending in a book that I am reading. I prefer to have some questions unanswered. This is what I hope with my writing too. But it all depends on what kind of fiction we are writing.
Deep Thinker - I was compelled by your question - but what does a reader expet? I would like to think that a reader wants a believeable ending more than anything else, an ending that makes sense and does not insult their intelligence.
Right now, my novel ends on a startling note, with Christian having to make a choice which will change his life forever. Will he make that decision or not? So much for conflict resolution!
Stay tuned
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