Monday, October 18, 2010

Change the Ending?

The last three (non-agent) people to read the full ms for THE EDUCATION OF THIA have all agreed that the ending needs to be changed. I liked the ending. Didn't want to change it.

But my pal Natalie asked me today, "Do you want to leave your readers frustrated?" I had to think about it. She spoke again before I answered, and said, "Just because you're frustrated doesn't mean you should leave your readers frustrated."

Okay. Fair point. But I said to her, ***spoiler alert*** "But the bad guy wasn't caught in real life. Why should he be caught in the book, just to make everyone happy?"

Natalie, my straight talking pal, replied, "Margo, the attack at the end didn't happen in real life either. Why did you write that?"

Finally, I got it. She was right. I added quite a few things to the ms to make it more dramatic (real life can be so stinking boring sometimes). So, if I could do that, I *suppose* I could change the ending to create more resolution for my readers. HOWEVER, if I do that, I am DEFINITELY adding an "Author's Note" to the end of the ms explaining the major things I altered for the novel. Maybe. Probably. Ack.

An agent rejection my query today. I sent her a query letter, fifteen pages, and a synopsis. Her personalized rejection said that THE EDUCATION OF THIA wasn't fresh enough to stand out.

Just keep writing. Just keep writing. Just keep writing.

Do you think books should always have a pretty bow at the end? Why or why not?

1 comment:

  1. Sorry about the rejection. My heart sinks every time I get one. :(

    I know sometimes we want our story to be our way and when a beta comes along and suggests another way it's like... "Hey, this is MY story."
    But ultimately we're writing for our readers, and fiction can be better than real life.

    BTW I left you an award on my blog. :)

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