Monday, April 21, 2008

Every Now and Again

Every now and again in a person's life, there comes the unfortunate realization that said person has NO CLUE HOW TO FINISH HER BOOK! For two reasons: a) said person thought she could tidily turn the ending over to her sister/co-author; and b) said person does not know how to write fight scenes. Especially magical ones. So. I started working on the last main letter of the book (letter loosely translates to chapter) and realized that I couldn't turn it over to Kayli to finish without doing something as horrifically awful as Rowlings did with her final fight scene and completely leave in the middle of the action and come back to the action after much dawdling, hemming and hawing, and page wasting as to avoid writing about the fight entirely. One must not recreate the horrible effronteries of other authors. So--I cannot turn the book back over to Kayli. Therefore, the only conclusion I can reach is that I have to learn, pronto, how to masterfully write a fight scene. The climax of the book, if you will. The OK Corral of our novel. The murder and bloodshed and twisting and cleaving and heroics worthy of a Sackett. I'm pretty sure someone needs to hide up behind the brush with three bullet holes in him, near death, only to roll down the hill several hours later and defeat 16 enemies. Kayli said I should reread the last Harry Potter to be reminded what not to do. Maybe I need to turn to good old Louis L'Amour to figure out what TO do. Unfortunately, all guns blazing doesn't help when your opponent is magically inclined. Oh, woe is me. And I have to kill someone off. Every self-respecting novel kills off someone. Who is it going to be?? And that is all I have time for tonight. I am exhausted. Goodbye.

2 comments:

Kami said...

I think you both are ninnies! But then I don't have to write it! :) I just get to tell you that I think it ought to be better, like I did on Kayli's last letter. Good luck. By the way, no one is killed off in the Magical Chocolate Pot.

Andrea said...

The Enchanted Chocolate Pot was a lighthearted magical romp. Our book is not very lighthearted. So you can't compare the two. Also, since you called me a ninny, I might not send you my letter when it is completed. Just because I am only five pages into it and having a mental breakdown doesn't mean it won't ever be finished. If you want to find out what happens . . . be nice!