Conclusions

"My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations." --Augustus Waters The Fault in Our Stars

Here's what I love about this quote: it's a beautifully crafted way of saying "I can't find ways to express something great".You've got the shining image of potential in the stars, then the collaborative and glorifying image of the constellation itself.

We all wish to find expressive ways of conveying good thoughts and intentions. But the problem lies with the scorching potential, the scattered ideas that accidentally find themselves incinerated by their effort to find greatness.

Let's call these constellations conclusions. Whether it be a critical analysis, an argumentative essay, or something creative like a short story, I can never wrap up the points to my stories in clear and concise ways. Anybody else have this problem? Comments from professors range from "too much fluff" to "repeated analysis" to "poorly structured ending". Comments I long to see are "nice focus", "powerful consideration", "clearly defined point", or "Heck--this is just fantastic".

Seriously. Anybody else find themselves grappling for the same feedback?

After the umpteenth attempt at tying up the lose ends of my novel, I found myself on the final pages last week. I remained bogged down by the final pages until last night. Whatever I do, whatever Andrea says or whatever Reese does in response to Meredith's folly, it never seems to be enough in regards to connecting with the reader. So here's what I do: I stop writing. Conscientious of too much fluff, I lean back and breathe, think of how this may be too much and how some things--probably most things--have been mentioned before somewhere in the draft.

The big thing for me is that I want to get my point across, but I also involuntarily want to suffocate readers with words and words of reiteration and emphasis. But in reality, that doesn't have to happen. Readers can be spared of repetition's choke-hold, it's just a matter of knowing which words need to be one-hit wonders and which words hold the importance to entice the reader one more time.

Conclusions don't have to clear things up--they can be a precursor to the following adventures of the characters we fall in love with--but conclusions do need to be snappy to some degree, as I'm learning with each reread and each attempt at revisions.

This site has a great list of inspiring things to remember when concluding a novel. Now that I've read through them, my week-long battle with the end might have sparked a month-long war...