Torn

The "finale" of my novel had to be written sooner or later, and surprisingly to me, it came sooner. Yes, I'd planned on a trial separation between the story and me, but it was an itch I couldn't keep from scratching.

Don't get me wrong; it's a rough draft only, but it's a blueprint. My conflict is whether to end the story on the high note of my main character finally achieving the thing she's hoped for, or to add a "mini-epilogue". Shoot, I'm so torn I actually posed the question on Reddit, and I never initiate a discussion there.

While I began writing an epilogue, it's not terribly interesting (so far), and I'm worried that it will dilute the ending's impact. Perhaps I should just leave what happens next to the reader's imagination.

There's also the supporting characters to consider in all this. Yes, it's true I don't want to let these characters slip away, but should I include a follow-up to their stories, too?

And I want to avoid an ending that's too cutesy. I've leaned on that too much in my other books (because endings are hard), but if I want this novel to be taken seriously, the ending shouldn't be flippant. I could just as well write, "They lived happily ever after." 

That's only Part 1 of my current dilemma. I had to write another song for the MC to sing at the end, and it reeks. When I was doing actual songwriting, I'd hone my songs until they were perfect. Here, I tried dashing off some lyrics for a song that everyone in the story is claiming is glorious, out of this world, one of a kind. Well, it's not. Maybe all the supporting characters just have bad taste. Part of my problem was trying to write to a title. The song's title became sort of a character all its own in the story, as many times as it was mentioned, and it's a good title that matches the story's arc. I just have no decent lyrics to go with it. I'm not about to pull out my guitar and make a serious attempt at writing it. That would be a bridge too far, but I'll need to do better than what I've done. (Good of me to set myself up for failure.) 🙄 

One might think I'd be ecstatic for finally reaching the end (so to speak), but, oh no, not so fast! Next I'll need to tackle the entire first half of the story and essentially rewrite it. Guess how much I'm not looking forward to that. Here I've got a changed main character and I'll need to write her as if I don't know her at all. Pretend I don't know all the things that have happened to her. Describe her falling in love with the first guy, who isn't even the right guy in the end. Am I supposed to tout all his good qualities? Yet, I have to do all that. 

I've said it before ~ I like writing; I hate rewriting. And it's my own stupid fault. It was supposed to be a light little novella, not a heavy novel, so I tripped through it gaily; did lots of time jumps, omitted detail; barely developed the characters. So instead of my novel being finished, it's really only half-finished. 

I must look on the bright side. I made it this far; I can do it. I can start over.