Endings That Cheat

Issue 8: July 2013

Endings That Cheat Lose Readers

Have you ever read a book that you enjoyed until you reached the end, and then you felt cheated? In the April issue of The Prodigal’s Daughter, I recommended the book TheHost by Stephenie Meyer. This young adult novel offers an intensified view of inner conflict, through the story of a violent human host, Melanie Stryder, struggling to reassert her will over an invading alien named Wanderer. This conflict paints humans as violent creatures whose anger overrules reason, while at the same time depicting the body-snatching aliens, called “souls”, as benevolent creatures who “improve” the worlds they invade. While we fierce humans can see part of the truth in that scenario, it can also be offensive. Luckily, Meyer balances the negativity by having humans learn to “use their words” instead of their fists and by having aliens learning to love humans. By the time we near the end of the story, Melanie and Wanderer actually become friends. Wanderer feels guilty for hijacking Melanie’s body, so she decides to vacate the premises. After this, the plot leaves the reader feeling cheated.

I know this novel is written for young adults, but teenagers aren’t stupid and, in today’s society, they aren’t naive either. The plot is set up from the beginning as a win-lose situation from the body-snatching aliens versus alien-killing humans to the two men, Jared and Kyle, in love with different women in one body, Melanie’s body. We expect someone to lose and someone to win. We expect someone to be noble and, since “the souls” are the epitome of nobility, we expect it to be them. We also expect either Jared or Kyle to walk away with a broken heart because none of us can have our cake and eat it too. But that’s not the way the story ends and we are left feeling cheated. Cheated from our victory; cheated from our noble self-sacrifice, and cheated from our no-pain, no-gain reality. Now it’s going to be difficult for me to pick up another Stephanie Meyer book.

Since this is not a book review and I’m only talking to a handful of venturing authors, I’ll tell you the ending. Jared, Kyle and others in the friend-of-Wanderer club find her a new body, one that isn’t inhabited by another alien or by a human with long-term residency. No, they find her a beautiful, flawless young thing that is somewhere between fairy princess and Christmas tree angel. A body that almost makes Kyle a pedophile and, in one fell swoop, allows everyone to have the happy ending of their dreams. And that’s just what it is….a dream! Meyer turns a good story with a lot of potential for drama and moral lessons into a story with happily ever after more suitable to grade-school children.

Yes, I’m a disappointed reader, but as authors we should also learn from this writing mistake. Love hurts. Life sucks. At times we win; at times we lose. And an ending that cheats closes the door on readership.

 

Writing Challenge # 8 Write Your Little Hearts Out

Have I been remiss in challenging you to write? Let me remedy that now! Our goal as writers is to get PAID to have our work published. Whether that means submitting to a contest or a paying publisher doesn’t matter. You have to write, improving your work as you go along, and SUBMIT work someplace. Yes, this means chancing rejection. It’s a difficult blow to take, but if you don’t risk it, you’ll never gain the rewards. As I said above in  “Endings That Cheat”, we live in a no pain-no gain society. So get ready to toughen your skin and go for the gains.

Though I’ve been reading at lot and publishing my own work via blogging book reviews and working on my novel, I have also been lazy these past few months about actually submitting my for pay of any kind. That’s about to change because I, too, want the financial gain that publishing can bring. So let’s be specific about that gain. How does $1, 250 for 5,000 words sound? Is that enough to challenge all of us to write and submit a short story? That’s what Tor.com is offering for speculative fiction. They pay 25 cents per word up to 5,000; then they pay 15 cents per word up to 12,000 words. I don’t know about you, but I could put an extra thousand  or so dollars to good use. So I challenge you to write a speculative fiction AND SUBMIT it to Tor.com. Their submission guidelines can be found at: http://www.tor.com/page/submissions-guidelines. And don’t cheat your reader with cheesy endings!

Remember, we’re not competing against one another. We’re competing with every well-written, frequently-published author who has ever made an appearance on Tor Magazine’s website. We can work together, helping each other with honest, constructive criticism of each other’s stories. Remember these are stories that ONLY those who submit to PD Contributors’ Corner will ever read. These stories won’t be published on the Rhodes FitzWilliam FaceBook Page and no one will see them unless they are part of this writers’ group. For this challenge we’re saving ourselves for Tor. So if you don’t submit, you won’t get the critique and you won’t be able to comment on other authors’ works. This is for active writers only. Here’s a reminder of our sharing guideline and our deadlines for drafts and comments.

Sharing Guidelines:

Copy/paste your story into the body of your email with “Writing Challenge 8” in the subject box and send it to:

1^st Draft Due Date: July 26, 2013

To be shared in August Issue of PD Contributors’ Corner. Once I’ve sent out PD Contributors Corner to our writers’ group, each of you should read and make comments/suggestions in an email back to me. These comments will be included with the draft to which they pertain in the next edition of PD Contributors’ Copy.

Comments Due Date: August 23^rd

To be distributed in September.

Final Draft Due Date: September 20^th

To be shared with the group in October. These final drafts should be edited by each author and ready for submission to Tor Magazine. We’ll anxiously wait to see if Tor publishes any of our manuscripts. Be sure to let me know if you get accepted!

By Tor’s own admission, they are slow to respond, so we’ll have to be patient. That means, we’ll occupy our time with Writing Challenge #9 in the November Issue of The Prodigal’s Daughter!

Comment Guidelines:

Remember that the goal of a writers’ group is to help each other improve our writing skills, so focus your comments on what works in the story and what doesn’t. As writers we might know the story we want to tell, but that may not reach our readers.

·       Let the author know what you liked about the story. Did you like the idea? The characters? Did anything touch your heart about the story? Did you laugh, cry or were you unaffected?

·       Tell the author about any places in the story that “tripped” you up as a reader. Is more information needed? Is the wording funny or difficult? Does the story make any point?

·       Do NOT make derogatory comments about the author or his/her intelligence or skill level. Comments that are excessively negative or simply mean spirited WILL GET YOU BUMPED OFF THE NEWSLETTER mailing list.