In a post on the Killzone blog, James Scott Bell says you need to put as much thought into your endings as your beginnings. “I can write opening chapters all day long,” Bell says. “But to stick a novel after it, keep readers turning pages, and then wrap it up in such a way that it leaves them so supremely satisfied they go out looking for more of my books…that’s the hard part.”
Bell says he’s recently learned the value of brooding–time to ponder, create, and devise. While he’s had the ending for his latest novel in mind from the start, once he reached that point in the draft process, he took time away from the keyboard to really ponder the climax. “I’ve spent a good deal of time on Google Maps to get the broad lay of the land” for the setting, he says. “I’ve driven to the location, taken pictures, and revised some details. I know exactly what I want to happen, and it’s starting to excite me.”
That excitement is the key. If you aren’t excited as the writer, your reader won’t be either.
“Brooding lets the Boys in the Basement do their work,” Bell says. “I’ll be going about my non-writing business, even just sitting in a chair reading a book, when the Boys send up a note with an insight or a possibility.”
Brooding can also help you find the right resonance – the last emotion or mood you want to leave for your reader. “Like the perfect ending to a Beethoven symphony, it lingers with you long after the concert is over,” Bell says. “That’s why the last page of my novel is always the one I work on most.”
