Hello ,

Aristotle had some funny ideas. Many of them were good. Some of them were ...weird. Take the idea he had that a drama has to happen within 48 hours. That's it. 48 hours.

An Audience with the King happens in 48 hours, but Stepping Across the Desert and Coffee Stains take much longer than 48 hours. I guess I would have failed in Aristotle's eyes. Although, since I'm a girl, he wouldn't have bothered to teach me anyway. Ha!

How do you like your stories? Do you ever think about the timeline of a book? The only time I can remember thinking about this was watching the last Lord of the Rings movies (I never bothered to read the books. They were 'boy' books in my sexist opinion as a child and teenager. Now I just don't...care to read them). I remember thinking during that ending of the movie, "Geez, they couldn't have ended it like six times by now and it would have been fine. Enough already!"

But no, they had to get one more close up of Elijah Wood in. And, if I'm being honest, I could have done with fewer close ups of Frodo.

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The Elephant

Anonymous

An elephant slept in his bunk,

And in slumber his chest rose and sunk.

But he snored — how he snored!

All the other beasts roared,

So his wife tied a knot in his trunk.

Interestingly, though this limerick may be a bit silly, it gets across the story and the ah-ha moment of drama. Unless you're just uninterested in everything, during the first few lines of the poem, your mind is thinking: where is this going? Since we try to anticipate the endings in everything (because we think we're smarter than the storyteller), I was anticipating this being about him falling through the bunk. Because, really, how is an elephant on a bed and not crushing it?

The best ending is the one you didn't anticipate, which happens with this little limerick. Aristotle says that the reader (or viewer in his days) should feel awe at the end. Meaning, that the reader should be surprised about what happens. Exactly what this limerick does, or a good joke.

I think we can take this to writing as well. You don't want a book where you completely anticipate the ending, do you? We do anticipate it a bit, such as knowing that the couple will get together in the end in a romance or that the hero will overcome the evil judge or alien, etc, or that the detective will figure out the crime. But how they get to the end and the final scene should be the place where the writer shines. It should AWE the reader. Or at least leave them feeling satisfied as they set the book down.

I struggle with endings that aren't corny or cringe (in other words, endings that the reader anticipates). I find endings HARD. I work on my endings for weeks, sometimes months. I envy the writer who knows exactly what needs to be said to finish out the book. Maybe because I love endings, I'm hard on myself about them. There's nothing worse than a terrible ending.

One of the worst endings I ever read was in a book about a woman who cheats on her husband, gets pregnant, then has to tell everyone it's someone else's baby, separates from her husband, doesn't pursue the young, hot, sexy father of the baby.... ALL THIS DRAMA happens.... and then at the end they are all barbecuing together. She got back with her husband, the sexy young guy is dating another woman (and the main character is fine with it), and THE HUSBAND and SEXY GUY are friends! It was such an infuriating ending because it was so DUMB. So non-humanlike! I keep that book around just to remind me to throw out the first dozen endings.

What's the worst ending you ever read or saw?

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In other news, Coffee Stains is ready for pre-order! Before you buy it you can listen to me read the first chapter this week over at my podcast , Pencils&Lipstick. I'm not a professional reader, but it's listenable! I wanted a way for people to know if it's a book for them or not and thought it was a fun way to do that.

If you like what you hear, click the button below to pre-order. Also, please share it with anyone else you think will like it. Paperback preorder will be up soon.

Pre-Order Here!

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My FREE Writing Sprint Mini Course is still rolling. In the course you'll be sent five videos, one each day for five days, with a prompt that you can use for fiction or non-fiction. Then on Friday the 10th I will invite everyone who signs up for a free live writing sprint!

It should be lots of fun. Sprints are a great way to start writing again or get your toes wet. The prompts help you overcome writer's block and the limited time helps psychologically with waiting to do it until you have a 'day to write'. In just 30 minutes you'll have some writing done!

Free Writing Sprint Course

You can sign up for it here----^^^^^^

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Until next time,

Kat

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