I got two thirds of the way done with a novel I'm very excited about. But then I read the last third in this editing pass... and I was underwhelmed. I mean, I knew I was going to have to do some re-writes, but it's really probably better if I start fresh.
Unfortunately, knowing this, doesn't seem to be helping me with actually doing it. SO I have a few questions for this community, because endings aren't really my strength.
1) My story is a sort of spy novel, with a rat in the gears being a big part of the MCs' paranoia and decision-making. How important do you deem that conclusion is? My reason for asking (embarrassingly enough) is that I planned to have the rat meet their end through their own organization's betrayal. Does that sound wholly dissatisfying?
2) There were a few sort of "could this be love, developing" relationships throughout the story. I was going to kill off two people, one to crush my MC who chose to be selfish and endanger someone she loves, and the other to wreck another MC who will fall apart when this person she loves is killed young. Does that sound rather weak? I'm shooting for a crushing blow, but the reasoning behind the deaths would be because I can't see those relationships continuing. I feel like I'm cheating in a way. How do you decide who to kill and who to let live?
3) The main bad guy isn't a monster... well literally. He's a pretty bad person, though. His plans were to betray his friends, commit treason and murder, and get away completely free because he's untouchable by the law. Well, my MC's are fighting to get those laws changed and in the end, I see their "victory" as the moment when they expose the bad guy's plotting and he's arrested, after a failed assassination attempt on his boss (the pope). Is an arrest satisfying for the reader? DO I need to be more bloody than that? Because the novel is gritty in tone and there was no shortage f blood... I'm worried an arrest won't feel like "closure". However, that was the MC's goals the whole time. He wanted to enact social reform, when they could have killed the bad guy the whole time. They didn't want him dead and allow another corrupt person to fill his spot. They wanted to reform the law so that corruption like that wasn't possible again. It was the reason people lost their lives. Am I way off base?
Okay... Thank you so much for your advice. I'm really struggling with these concepts and I just can't write anymore while I'm second-guessing my own story-telling concepts here.
Unfortunately, knowing this, doesn't seem to be helping me with actually doing it. SO I have a few questions for this community, because endings aren't really my strength.
1) My story is a sort of spy novel, with a rat in the gears being a big part of the MCs' paranoia and decision-making. How important do you deem that conclusion is? My reason for asking (embarrassingly enough) is that I planned to have the rat meet their end through their own organization's betrayal. Does that sound wholly dissatisfying?
2) There were a few sort of "could this be love, developing" relationships throughout the story. I was going to kill off two people, one to crush my MC who chose to be selfish and endanger someone she loves, and the other to wreck another MC who will fall apart when this person she loves is killed young. Does that sound rather weak? I'm shooting for a crushing blow, but the reasoning behind the deaths would be because I can't see those relationships continuing. I feel like I'm cheating in a way. How do you decide who to kill and who to let live?
3) The main bad guy isn't a monster... well literally. He's a pretty bad person, though. His plans were to betray his friends, commit treason and murder, and get away completely free because he's untouchable by the law. Well, my MC's are fighting to get those laws changed and in the end, I see their "victory" as the moment when they expose the bad guy's plotting and he's arrested, after a failed assassination attempt on his boss (the pope). Is an arrest satisfying for the reader? DO I need to be more bloody than that? Because the novel is gritty in tone and there was no shortage f blood... I'm worried an arrest won't feel like "closure". However, that was the MC's goals the whole time. He wanted to enact social reform, when they could have killed the bad guy the whole time. They didn't want him dead and allow another corrupt person to fill his spot. They wanted to reform the law so that corruption like that wasn't possible again. It was the reason people lost their lives. Am I way off base?
Okay... Thank you so much for your advice. I'm really struggling with these concepts and I just can't write anymore while I'm second-guessing my own story-telling concepts here.