Tuesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

14 POINTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU WRITE THE ENDING

By: Mia Botha

The end is near...

Ending your story is often harder than starting it. You’ve made plenty of promises you have to keep. Let’s be honest. The most annoying / irritating / brilliant / devastating / terrifying / awesome thing about fiction is that anything, yes ANYTHING, can happen. I am a great advocate of ‘know your ending’, but keeping in mind that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. Here are some points to consider when you are planning the end:

1. Don’t screw it up. Ha-ha. Yes, it is an actual rule. There is nothing worse than spending 300 pages with an author only to feel robbed.  We tend to spend hours, days, even months constructing the first part of our novel, but we tend to rush the ending. We want to ‘get it done’ or our deadline catches up with us then some of the careful planning gets lost.
2. Do not introduce a convenient clue at the last minute. Set it up properly by going back to the beginning. If you can’t introduce the saving element sooner, can it. You need to find something that is already in the story to make it work.  
3. Your hero needs to be the hero. This is actually an important rule for writing kids' books. Do not let an adult save the kid. The kid must save himself. The same goes for adult stories. Do not introduce some magic new character ¾ in to your story to save your hero. Once again, go back to the beginning. Your protagonist must get him/herself out of trouble.
4. Theme and symbology. 

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

• Distance Running Events and Life Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study http://ow.ly/SbF2i
• 7 Things I’ve Learned So Far (About Being a Scientist-Writer), by Michael Ransom | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/SbFM3
• Looking for Truth in Time of Hype http://ow.ly/SbG5O ‘There’s Never Been a Better Time To Be A Writer’
• 14 Points To Consider Before You Write The Ending - Writers Write http://ow.ly/SbGwV
• STEER CLEAR OF THESE WRITING MISTAKES http://ow.ly/SbHw4
• Why Scene Making is a Great Idea | Linda S. Clare http://ow.ly/SbHRb
• Author 101: The Harsh Truth Behind Print Sales – LG O'Connor http://ow.ly/SbHWW
• Four Reasons Readers don't buy Your Books http://ow.ly/SbI7B
• Fiction University: Your Book-Signing Cheat Sheet (or: How To Stay Sane While Everyone Seems To Ignore You) http://ow.ly/SbL84
• Anne R. Allen's Blog: Does an Author Really Need a Blog? 10 Reasons a Blog May Help Your Career http://ow.ly/SbLfx
• 15 Blab Tips for Marketers: Ultimate Guide to Blab.im By Kristi Hines http://ow.ly/SbLEP
• The Unfair Truth About How Creative People Really Succeed — Hackerpreneur magazine — Medium http://ow.ly/SbTiV
• Dear Self-Published Author: Do NOT Write Four Books a Year | Lorraine Devon Wilke http://ow.ly/ScYD1

Happy writing and running, Kathy