The end?

The title might frighten some of the readers but this isn't the end of the blog; more an article about novel/script endings. Endings come in all shapes and sizes, from the sugar-sweet fairy tale ending to the mindrape endings that leave you puzzled and confused for days.

A lot of authors tend to write the ending before they actually start on their novel. This allows them to keep the story coherent and build up towards a certain point. A famous example of such author is JK Rowling who wrote her novel series' ending before her first book.

It always is

In my own Otherworld Tales series I've written lay-outs for several endings, both good ones and bad ones, as I'm still unsure about which ending I'll use. The most important reason for this is that a story grows and matures while it is being written and I need to be able to select the ending that will eventually fit the general tone of the novel itself.

But why did I write multiple endings? You ask.
An ending of your novel is not necessarily the end of your novel universe. The characters may live on and their lives are a series of endings. An ending just marks the end of one story and the beginning of the next. Stated as such, endings are not definite things. They have to fit into a whole by themselves and need to make sense. The events building up to it and the events flowing forth from it that aren't described in the novel. The end is at hand! you see the man in the street proclaim and this is true. It always is, because every moment ends with a new one and every moment in your novel is an important one, but more so your last one.

(anti)climax, over the top or not?

I'm nearing the climax of the war now in my novel. The epic moment where everything changes for good. But what are climaxes actually? Do you have to put a climax in your writing and what's an anticlimax then?

So is the certain point in which who we believe to be the big bad is finally defeated and several new problems arise in the wake of the war the climax? Or is it at the end during the final confrontation? That point in your book where everything changes and everyone's at a loss or when everything comes together? I found this neat picture on the net that decides to explain it for you.

Well that makes sense right? Something that looks like it's taken right out of a literary textbook. Apparently, for a climax, tension builds up to the climax and for an anticlimax the story gets duller and duller. Whatever Piramidal is supposed to tell you I don't even know, maybe the fun part is in the middle of the book. What we have here is the stereotyped image of what people believe is the structure of stories. As if tension is something that can be drawn in a curve. Tension is not a subtle play in a person's mind, but a graph...or was it the other way around.

When writing a story, I personally don't experience the urge to build up neatly along a graph and tell my reader when the peak has been reached. Some novels don't even have tension and are still masterpieces of their own. Can someone tell me where the climax of Paradise Lost is? Or are we just reading it for the beautifully constructed narrative? What I'm trying to tell you is that your novel doesn't necessarily need a climax or anticlimax. The story by itself should be compelling enough to keep the reader's attention and it won't get better just because you carefully planned out your tension levels.

The death of Caesar in Shakespeare's play about Caesar is obviously a climax example as wikipedia kindly states, right? (it does look very dramatic, I admit)

About genres and why they're a tad useless

Not too long ago someone asked me "What's your novel about?" and I replied with my usual summary line. "So it's fantasy?" No, not quite. Science Fantasy is a term that's closer to what my novel is about, but I suppose every writer has that feeling a bit. Your novel is more than just those words of the genres. Others should read the book before they could ever possibly understand what it's actually about. Stories are so much more than just what their genre implies. Personally I find this the best approach to novel writing. Write your novel first, then let others fight over what genre it is, because I find writing my novel rewarding enough. If you want to know it, my novel is Science Fantasy, with a bit of alternate history, some snuffs of romance, a good dose of folklore, drama and warfare involved and a tinge of psychological horror. It also has politics, moral, who of you already skipped to the next paragraph?

Genres date from the first written forms in ancient times where Plato and Aristotle classified the written text into three forms (poetry, drama and prose). These three forms became more complex over time and developed into our current system of having a myriad of styles, forms, etcetera as the need arose.
A lot of aspiring authors want to know what genre they write in. Google 'novel genre' and you'll soon find the many websites that 'help' determine which genre you have. Personally, however, I believe it's not the task of the author to determine the genre of your novel; the reader does. The writer who believed his novel to be in the historical fiction department may suddenly find his book in all the romance bookshelves.

So genres aren't solid, not over time nor through your audience. Then what does a writer do at all concerning genres? Nothing. That's right, nothing at all until you're getting published. Then you just ask your proofreaders for help in categorizing your novel so you send your novel to the right publishers. Beyond that the writer's concern is writing.

Mythological creatures: Bestiarum vocabulum meets Linnaeus

While designing the Otherworld Tales, I suddenly found myself with a menagerie of mythological creatures, plants, half-breeds and things. The necessity arose to get some order in all that and good thing I remembered  the categorisation from biology class and the bestiaries from history. The system developed by natural scientist Linnaeus was a good way of categorising biological entities but it wasn't designed in the perspective of including mythology. The Bestiarum vocabulum from the medieval time on the other hand wasn't orderly enough to be practical. I had to find a bit of a middle way so I took a more scientific approach to the animals, trying to imagine what science would do if things were real (no I didn't dissect a unicorn to see how its insides look). I know others have done this before me (for example the Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges) but where's the fun in using that. So I'm just going to show you a creature from my private wikipedia and what better example than the unicorn? (mlp fans start cheering)

The hunt of the Equus Ferus Cornicae

"The unicorn or Equus Ferus Cornicae is a magical horse breed from many legends such as the several hunts of the unicorn (see tapestry image).
Related to the common horse breeds, a unicorn is slightly larger than the horse, has split hooves and a spiralling horn like a Narwhal on its head. It is extremely fast, strong and untameable except by virgin maidens and people of pure intentions.
By grinding the horn, alicorn is won, a powder which can cure most poisons and can also detect them. Alchemists will pay a great price for alicorn as it's a powerful magical component.
Because it is so difficult to trap and tame a unicorn, they are often seen as prized steeds. One who rides a unicorn must be great indeed."

-The Otherworld Tales private wiki
(when quoting please make reference to this blog)

Every creature in my wiki has a Latin name that either fits perfectly or would seemingly fit in the lists of Linnaeus. I also spend adequate time on the differences that make it a different species compared to others (in this case, the common horse) and I offer a surplus of scientific information that is considered part of the original legend (alicorn and virgin maidens). Sometimes I add "fictional" scientific information to this that isn't part of the lore and of course sometimes a plant or animal is entirely fictional, so there's no lore to go on.

Order and precision VS Chaos and sloppiness

Magnum Chaos, eats your writings while you sleep

So how do you do it? You see that stack of paper in your writing chamber growing larger and larger; your mother, girlfriend, room mate has given you lectures about how you should keep things orderly once again. How do you keep your writings orderly and consistent?
Everyone has his/her own ways for sure. Some have lines of files along the walls with paperwork, others have their computers bursting with information.
What are the benefits of maintaining order in your writings? Well, obviously it keeps you from forgetting things, especially when you have a thousand characters and locations. More important though, is to keep Chaos (as depicted here) from destroying your writings. Nothing is as frustrating as having to start all over because you lost your files in the mess you created, having to lose time searching for that one character description that is hidden inside a million sub-folders.
My personal efforts to maintain order in my writings have led me to explore the benefits of several tools, from foreign hosting to wikifying. I'll list some possibilities here for you.

1) Your head

There's nothing as secure and insecure as your own head. You invented it so it's already in there. It's unlikely that someone is going to pry open your head to see what's inside. Your information is directly available to you. The downside, however, is that your head is only as good a storage as how good your memory is. Magnum Chaos knows where to feast.

2) Paper

The storage medium of the past millennia, paper is versatile and in low quantity stores easily. In large quantity  it tends to overflow, however, and it's very fragile and dusty. It requires good order and maintenance to keep it in good quality. Paper in combination with your head is the best back-up for digital files.

3) Digital data on your own computer

3.1 Files and folders

I don't advise making one big document containing everything. Make A separate document for characters, locations and so on. Use folders to divide these. Keep back-ups because file corruption and disc wipes can cause serious problems.

3.2 Offline Wiki

Offline Wiki's are great. Almost exactly like online wiki's but stored in the safe haven of your computer. They're easy to set up and easy to use. There are many variants but this is one I used for a long time: http://www.tiddlywiki.com/

Easy categorization, easy search function. Just keep a back-up just in case.
3.3 Writing Programs
Some programs help you keep things in order for you as you write. This is a  free-to-use example called yWriter: http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html

4) Digital data on foreign servers

The solution against data corruption on your computer. Using a foreign server has both its benefits and its downsides. Data hosts like google sites and blogger make for a good way to keep your writing in order. They even have wiki functions. The Otherworld Tales itself makes use of these foreign servers now to keep things neat and clean.


Obviously, these aren't all the possibilities for data storage. A myriad of these are available over the web and in life. The article you just read is only about the ones I have personally used for my Otherworld Tales Project and if you wish to add to this article, do not hesitate to place a comment under this post.