It has been said that one of the hardest things about writing fiction is that, unlike reality, everything has to make sense.
There are many things in real life that don’t make sense. Random things that just happen. Like me falling down my stairs Sunday. There was no narrative reason for that to have happened, and yet it did. If I were to write a story where somebody “just happened” to fall down stairs, nobody would buy it. There has to be a justification, a deeper meaning, behind anything you include.
This brings me to my current issue with the novel I’m writing. The ending is rapidly approaching, but I have several loose threads that I can’t leave loose. They need to have a reason for why they were in the story, and that means making sure that everything (or almost everything) is tied up, and the stuff that’s not tied up has a reason to not be tied up.
This is tricky stuff! Lots of backtracking and editing and writing in previous chapters. And then making sure I didn’t already say the things I’m saying in those edits later on (like, describing a room the party walks into to only have described it a paragraph later or whatever). Lots of jumping back and forth through the story.
I think today, however, my goal is to ignore all the backstory-filling I need to do, and just write out the final confrontation as best I can, and then focus on “fixing” it after the thing is done. I don’t mind filling in detail, honestly, but it’s easier if I know why I have to fill in specific details, or not.
That’s the plan for today, then!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!