The ending

"Wasting words are like wasting a meaningful life. It's like a sickness. You fill the words with lies and poison. At the end it just takes away all the meaningful words ."

I know that people often have problems with the ending and all I can say is that it is normal, and that I will tell about how I end my stories.
   A lot of authors actually start with the ending so they know what they are trying to reach. Other people start in the middle. There's no rule that tells you that you need to start from the beginning.
   Personally I actually start my stories at the beginning and continue them from there. Sometimes I write parts that I really want in the story that doesn't really fit right at the moment when I write it. It often ends up with me not using them, just because it doesn't fit in to the story anymore. For each chapter it changes, the story and the storyline. You should almost be worried if it doesn't. Or you have planned the whole book really well.
   When I was around 10/11 or something and started to write I didn't even have chapters. Because, I was so bad at ending them so they just sort of continued for a forever and it was just random stuff all the way. I... I just couldn't write back then. Then I realized that I needed chapters, and an ending to the stories. I couldn't continue on forever with just the most random stuff ever. I needed more structure.

If you are reading this, I'm sure that you have chapters. Or something that reminds you of chapters, at least.

   Anyway, as you know chapters are different in length, like books. Some are long and some are short. As I continued my own writing--journey I started to see a pattern. The best authors (not the best--selling ones now) didn't often write books on 1000 pages. They wrote books on 300-500 pages, give or take some hundred, and filled those pages with all the words we readers come to love. They chose their words thoughtfully. They didn't waste the words and didn't just try to fill the pages with unnecessary words, like beginners do. As I write this I feel like a hypocrite, believe me. Because I still waste the words sometimes. Everyone do once in a while, I would like to believe. Even the best authors we look up to and admire, and want to be exactly like them -- but not, you know? We all want to create something new and something that makes us as special as them. Wasting the words is one of the things all of us need to better, I think, and that's why all authors proofreads before they contact the publishers. We read our books again and again, often after putting them on ice for a while so you can look at it with "new eyes".

   The thing with ending something is that people usually don't like endings. People sometimes waste the words just because they don't want it do end. People don't do it on purpose, it just happens. Personally I really like the endings. It's really fun to end something and then start to read it again after a while and follow the character/s through their/s journey. And, it almost feels like seeing a baby grow. (Probably joking, I don't have children and have never seen a child grow up. I have no idea about how that feels.) The character always changes. They are a different person from who they were at the beginning. They always are. At least in the sort of books I read. I don't know how it works in thriller--books or detective--books, though...

Authors often like to end a chapter/book with a cliffhanger, and that's a really good way, because the reader continues reading the book.
 

   You usually ends the chapter or the book with something that round the whole thing off. If it is more than one book you could end it with a cliffhanger so the reader expects a lot for the next book, or you could end it with something that feels like an ending. With a kiss, smile, promise or something nice that gives the reader an... ending. 

   The last piece I wrote in the first book in the trilogy I have put on ice for now is;
   "I remember the dusk. The dusk I looked at when Victor first arrived. I had asked myself if it was the end, if I would ever get to meet Dominick again. If our little quartet would make it out of this, or if it really was the end for us. I realize now that it was only a beginning, not our end. Our ending is far from near." 
   I chose to end it like that. I have no idea if it was a good ending or not. It's like a little cliffhanger but still a cozy ending that probably could drive some readers crazy. I ended the second book with a cliffhanger, however.
   There's a lot of different sort of endings. Just cut it off where you like it, that's probably the best thing I can say. It's hard to describe an ending, and a lot of people just train and train on cut chapters and end books. After a while you just know where to end something. But, whatever you do: DO NOT END A BOOK TOO ABRUPT! (Cliffhangers are okay, but too abrupt cliffhangers aren't good at all.) Seriously, how fun it may be it's still pretty bad. The readers will probably get a little mad at you and the risk that you lose readers could be big. Not all people read and if you end a book too abrupt it could be a "disappointment".
   How you end a chapter isn't as important as how you end a book, but still important. Chapters are different in length, books too, remember that. Sometimes it's interesting to read a short chapter. And when you read a "short" book you may see that it was better than the one on 800 pages you loved.
   Trust your guts and end the chapter/the book where it feels right. It's often the best way, at least until you start proofreading and maybe come up with a better idea to end the book, which is just great.

Have a great day. I hope it works out well for you, whatever you do! :)

-- Selma

Refuse or give in?

"A moment of silence and truth is more than we can ever get sometimes. Be happy over what you get, even the simplest things. Because, you have something someone else whats."

So, hello, people, I'm back! And this is for all of you who write and have gotten rejected more than once on the book you have been writing and want published.
   During my little vacation on almost-three-weeks I got an answer from the publishers I was waiting an answer from. They said "Thanks, but no, thanks", sort of. I started to get tired of all this rejections. I mean, they have kind of said that I am a good enough author, but that they don't think my book could be published with success -- for them, of course. It would be enough for me just if they published it. Anyway, they didn't want to publish my story this time either. At first I was really mad frustrated and didn't really talk to anyone and just wrote on my other stories because I didn't feel for writing the last book in my trilogy. Then I realized that the problem was that Sweden doesn't really like the new aspect of fantasy I can have in my stories, with my own creatures and beliefs etc. It kind of reminds me of J.K. Rowling when you think about.
   So, I decided to start a new book, an even more risky book, it turned out. I don't really know. I criticize a lot of stuff in society and a lot of people wouldn't be proud of me, the truth is a lot of people would hate me for this book. But, I really want to write this one if I can't publish the story I love. And, I mean, if I get published with this one it would be a lot d*mn easier to publish The Eternal Battle. That was one of the reasons I decided to give up instead of refuse and try again and again. I mean, I'm up in 6 rejections, and I know it isn't that much. But, at the same time, when I started my new book I realized I would be really proud if it got published, more proud than I could ever be with TEB.

What I want to say is that when you give in and let the publishers influence you it isn't always a bad thing. I mean, publishers here in Sweden answers with two sentences. A "thank you for letting us read your manuscript" and then a "But, unfortunately we have decided to thank no" and then they just sign the letter or mail with their name, and that's it. Okay? It isn't much. People can understand them, we can, but it doesn't really feel like anything when you have been writing for a really long while and your stomach almost have struck knots on itself when you send the book to the publishers. It's a really god da** hard work just to send it to them. Give your whole future in the hand of others'. 

   Are you working on something you really want to get published? A text you have been changing all the time just to make it as good as possible? And it still doesn't work? Don't be afraid of changing it. I know I can sound like a hypocrite, especially since i didn't want to change it for a really long while, I mean, I'm at the third book in the trilogy. I am as stubborn as a donkey, to be honest. But even I give in sometimes.

   Changes are good in life. When I started to write it was probably the best decision I have ever made together with signing up on tumblr. And, maybe a change in the story decision is all that's needed to get published? That's at least what I hope for... 

  And, believe me when I say that even if I get hate for the story I'm writing, I am not going to stop, so, if or when I start to write about it here I would recommend you to not give a sh** about what I want to do with my life, even if it is a "sin" or something like that. Because, something made out of pure love could never be a sin.
   So, dear reader, if it feels like something is stopping you, maybe it is you self. I hope I can look back at this and say that I was right, that the only thing that was stopping me from getting published was my own stubbornness.
   I wish you all luck in life!

-- Selma.