Deva Fagan

Three good writing things:

First, I did a Skype visit! I had not done one before, but I certainly hope to do more because it was so fun, and so easy! Author and teacher and generally amazing person Kate Messner invited me to visit her Advanced Writing class to answer questions. And they were some GOOD questions! We talked about beginnings, since all of us were at the start of new projects. You can read Kate’s account here (she also talks about what sounds like a fantastic in-person visit by Newbery-award-wining author Rebecca Stead).

Things I learned about Skype visits:

• Kate is an awesome host. Everything went smoothly, she had the setup ready to go, and she organized her class so that each student came up to introduce herself and ask her question in front of the camera.
• It’s just so cool that I can be talking with students in another state, about books and writing! This kind of thing makes me grateful I live when I do.
• I should try not to wave my hands around like a maniac (I talk with my hands a lot when I get excited, and writing excites me).
• My dog is perplexed when strange voices start emanating from my laptop.

Thank you so much for inviting me, Kate! And thank you to the students as well!

Second good writing thing: After struggling to find my footing in the first draft of the sequel to CIRCUS GALACTICUS (working title: CIRCUS SPECTACULAR) I think I finally found it. Fortunately I have learned to recognize my own patterns, so I know it’s not unusual for me to flail around writing several different first chapters, throw them out, stick them back in, etc before finally finding the right one. It doesn’t make the flailing any more fun, but it makes me a little less prone to despair.

This weekend I had one of those moments I covet when I really fall into the story. I had written a good chunk in my morning session, but when I came home after running errands and walking the dog I didn’t want to just flump down and watch my new netflix video (She-Wolf of London — did anyone but me ever watch that?). No, I wanted to go back to the circus world. I even (shockingly!) ignored my vegetable sushi dinner in order to finish the scene I was on. It was the best feeling! I know there is slog to come, but moments like that are what give me the strength to get through the slog.

Third good writing thing: my new writing office furniture is on the way! Soon my new bookshelves will be in place, and I can put away the piles of books trying to take over the guest room. Even better, I will have a roll-top desk. With cubbyholes! I still don’t know what I will put in the cubbyholes, but I am excited to have them, because I’ve always dreamed of having a cool roll-top desk with cubbyholes, in a room with bright walls lined with books, and sunlight streaming through sheer-curtained windows.

I’m very grateful for all my dreams that have come true.

I can be a wee bit obsessive sometimes. This can be a good thing, sometimes. It’s probably part of what kept me determined to publish, even after hundreds of rejection. But it can also be a bad thing, when I (for example) get obsessed with checking goodreads to see if anyone has marked my books “to-read”. Or when I start stressing out over whether people are blogging about my books. Or when I feel massive guilt for not updating Facebook and twitter often enough. Because while online stuff is useful and cool, I want to do it for FUN, not because of some obligation, or to shove my books in peoples faces saying “look at me!”. I’ve started to think I need a little break.

Then there’s the fact that I’m planning to start seriously working on the Circus Galacticus sequel tomorrow. It’s the first day of the month AND a Monday. It must have good project-starting mojo!

So I’m taking inspiration from author Laurie Halse Anderson and embracing Blog-Free February. No blogging, no twitter, no facebook, no goodreads (other than adding things I read), no google reader. Also, no self-googling and no worldcat stalking. And hey, I don’t have to worry about Amazon ranking anymore!

I haven’t quite worked up the guts to say no livejournal friendslist reading, but I will restrict it to a small subset of close friends so I don’t miss urgent life stuff.

Wish me luck! I’ll be back March 1 (or, um, sooner if I fail to control myself) to blog about how it went, and if I learned anything. And before I ride off into the blogless-sunset, here are some tidbits…

First, I have an essay up in the latest edition of Hunger Mountain (the journal of the Vermont College of Fine Arts) called “Proactive Princess: Re-imagining the Fairy Tale. Stop on over to read it and leave a comment if you like! Then go read Erin Dionne’s companion piece here. There’s a lot of other great stuff in this issue, which is dedicated to the memory of author Norma Fox Mazer. Check it out!

Second, I’ve been in a scifi state of mind lately, and thus was quite excited to see the trailer for this new short (20 min) scifi film by Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu:

Third, here’s a poem that’s inspiring me at the moment:

An Adventure Begins

An adventure begins,
when the one who was grimacing
suddenly grins.

An adventure begins,
when the one who was losing
suddenly wins.

An adventure begins,
when the one who acts saintly
suddenly sins.

When the smooth surface pops up with circling fins,
when soft drums surrender to bold violins,
when the light of the moon starts to shine on our skins,

an adventure begins.

~by JonArno Lawson, from Black Stars in a White Night Sky

And now I’m going to take inspiration from my goofy dog and go sit in the sun and just enjoy being.

I sat down to try to write about having fun while writing, but much of what I have to say on this topic has already been said quite well in these two posts that I will direct you to:

Author Stephanie Burgis talks about following the fun in writing in a guest post on the blog of Margie Gelbwasser.

Author Laini Taylor writes an inspiring post about the discipline of fun.

My own experience is very similar to Stephanie’s: of all that I had written, the book that finally got accepted for publication (Fortune’s Folly) was the one I wrote “for fun”. I had been struggling with this big epic serious dark fantasy for over a year. It was the kind of book I thought I should write. It was the kind of book I enjoyed reading. But I wasn’t enjoying writing it, most of the time. Then in November of 2003 one of my friends asked me to join a group doing NaNoWriMo. I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, so I picked an idea I’d had on the back burner, something light and entertaining that I thought would be fun to work on. And it was! Sure, there were still days when the writing dragged and the motivation ebbed. But most days I sat down eager to see what would happen next. My main character came alive the way no other character had for me previously. I was working with fairy tales, one of my favorite things. I was entertaining myself. I was in the moment.

And that’s the book that finally sold. It wasn’t the book I thought I SHOULD write. It was the book I WANTED to write.

More recently, I had this idea that I kept coming back to, about an intergalactic circus. And honestly, I was a little uncertain about whether I should pursue it. Science fiction (especially non-dystopian sf) isn’t the hottest genre right now in YA/MG. But what I wanted to create was the kind of science fiction I love best: something that excites and inspires a dream of discovery, something that takes you to fantastic new worlds but remains grounded in honest emotion. So that’s what I set out to do. And I had so much fun doing it. I think it was the first time I can honestly say that when I finished the draft, my own enjoyment and love of the book outweighed my dreams of getting it published. I was just so happy to have had the chance to write the story, even if it didn’t sell.

But it did sell. Better yet, people I trust have read it and liked it.

So I’m going to try to keep paying attention to what’s fun, and write what I want to write, not what I think I ought to write.

I have a strong suspicion that I will not actually have 50K written for NaNoWriMo at the end of the month. But that’s okay with me. NaNoWriMo is fabulous for some books (it really helped me get the first draft of Fortune’s Folly written) but sometimes pushing to writewritewrite for wordcount isn’t the best thing for a book. I am finding that for the current project, my pattern is to work on one particular scene for a day or two, then take a day to mull it over, revise, and dream about the next scene until I am excited to write it. I am having a lot of fun and feel good about the book. But my wordcount isn’t NaNoWriMo-level by any means. I will be lucky if I get 30K. So maybe I won’t “win” the marathon, but I will (hopefully) have the start of a novel I can keep working on and feel good about.

I fully admit that I am also feeling a tiny bit lazy — and also a tiny bit nervous about getting the house cleaned and prepped (I need to paint the living room trim, eek!) for my parents’ Thanksgiving visit. Not to mention a number of other mundane-life things that were stressing me out to be putting off. And the soulful, neglected looks the dog keeps giving me.

So I may not be going full-tilt for 50K, but I am still trying my best to write 1K per day. And I’m definitely cheering the rest of you on toward meeting whatever November goals you have set!

In other non-guilty-admission news, I wanted to spread the word to any librarians out there about a big contest we are holding over at the Debs of 2009 community. We’re giving away 46 (!) of our novels to one winning library (public OR school). Details on how to enter are in this entry. Please pass it on to any librarians you know who might be interested!

And a few miscellaneous fun links:

I am coveting these Star Wars Trash Compactor bookends! (Thanks to Pinot and Prose for the link)

Did you know a baby echidna is called a puggle?

I’ll admit it: sometimes writing isn’t entirely fun. Sometimes it is hard work. Sometimes it is painful, when the words I am wrestling with on the page are unmalleable, ugly, colorless clay compared to the perfect story in my mind. [Of course this isn't always the case. There is plenty of fun during the actual writing too, though I am always looking for ways to improve my level of fun. The brilliant Laini Taylor wrote an inspiring post about this recently in her blog. Her book Lips Touch: Three Times was also just nominated for the National Book Award! Congratulations, Laini!]

There is, however, one part of the process that is almost always composed of untarnished fun and excitement: the pre-writing, the brainstorming, when ideas and images are flickering around my brain and I am free to cast my net of dreams out into the sea of ideas and see what I catch. I haven’t committed to anything, so anything is possible.

That’s where I am right now. I had been waffling between two ideas for my next project, which I will be writing for NaNoWriMo. I very much want to do a sequel for my space circus, because that world and those characters are enormously fun to write about and I care about them quite a lot and want to find out the rest of their story. But there’s another idea that’s been drifting around the edges of my mind, looking all shiny and bewitching. It’s a very different sort of book: darker and more romantic. And I think it wants to be written in third person, with a somewhat more lush storytelling voice. My last three books have all been first-person, so the thought of third is a bit scary. I’ve written plenty of third-person novels, but they are all unpublished. I am not entirely sure I can pull off third-person successfully. But one of the things I want to do as a writer is to try new things, and to challenge myself. NaNoWriMo seems like a perfect time for that. I’ll be writing so fast hopefully I won’t have time to be scared!

So here’s what I’ve got:

• A new inspirational desktop image (of the historical site of Bam, Iran).
• A new inspirational playlist (lots of Dead Can Dance, and a bunch of new discoveries courtesy of Last.fm: Irfan, Azam Ali, Vas, L’Ham de Foc, Stellamara).
• My two main characters and their emotional baggage.
• A bunch of world-building/cosmology/secondary characters stolen from a trunked novel (Obsidian Shield, for those of you who have known me long enough).
• The opening scene.
• A very rough outline, and a couple of pivotal scenes from the rest of the story that I am really looking forward to writing — I am going to try to firm these up and identify a few more to serve as “carrots” to tempt me forward through the drafting process.
• Lots of excitement (and a tiny bit of fear)!

What is your favorite part of starting a new project? Any other suggestions for keeping the fun alive during the drafting process?

For my generalized gushing and introduction to the Betsy-Tacy series, go to this post.

Heaven to Betsy introduces us to Betsy just before she begins her freshman year of high school, and takes us through the ups and downs of that first year. This is one of my two favorites of the entire series (the other being Betsy and the Great World). If I start listing everything I love about this book you’re going to get something like “Miss Mix creates stylish new outfits and Mr Ray makes onion sandwiches and there are picnics and the Crowd and Halloween and Carney and Tony and JOE!” and then I will collapse in a pile of swoony fangirlishness. So instead I’m going to focus my discussion on two things that make this book stand out.

First is a general quality of the entire series, which I find particularly noticeable starting with the high school books. When I read these books, I feel a basic underlying optimism about life, that loved ones will support you, that there is always beauty and hope in the world. Some people might say that these are “nice” books. But I am not sure that word captures what I’m talking about. Perhaps this is because of early exposure to the musical Into the Woods, which leaves me silently singing the witch’s song anytime I hear the word “nice”: You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice.

The Betsy books are “nice”, but that doesn’t mean they don’t contain the good and the bad as well. Betsy has a loving family, but it’s all (to me, at least) entirely real and believable. These aren’t cardboard Mom and Dad cut-outs with smiles painted on. They are real people complete with faults and virtues. Betsy gets her heart broken, she makes mistakes, she hurts other people. And yet I never feel a lasting bitterness. Pain and regret, yes, but there’s a peace to it. A feeling that Betsy (or perhaps Maud, since these are semi-autobiographical) can look back and come to terms with her life. It’s a different feeling than what I get reading the Little House Books, where I do perceive a bitterness, a self-censoring by the author that makes the books more distant. It’s also a different feeling than what I get reading the Anne books, which have an almost fairy-tale like quality to me — they describe a golden-hued beautiful world I love visiting, but it’s not quite as down-to-earth as Betsy’s world. There’s a place for all these types of books, of course. But if you are looking for a book that is old-timey and sweet and nice, but also very grounded and real, you might find it here.

The second thing about Heaven to Betsy in particular that I think makes it worth reading, especially for anyone who is a writer or dreams of being one, is the depiction of Betsy as a budding writer. On the brink of high-school, and having just moved in to a new house, Betsy begins the book feeling that there isn’t a place for writing in her new life. In earlier books, Betsy uses a beloved old trunk as her desk to write poems, but it somehow doesn’t belong in the new room, and Betsy herself suggests it be moved to the attic. And yet:

Sometimes she climbed into the attic and stuffed smudged, scribbled papers furtively into the trunk, standing forlorn in a dark corner. On such occasions she often cried a little, never much, for it always occurred to her how romantic it was to be crying about her trunk, and then she stopped, and couldn’t start again.

Betsy quickly gets whisked away by all sorts of other diversions: meeting new high school chums, making fudge, picnics, singalongs, parties, and falling hard for the new boy Tony. It is exhilarating and breathless and FUN but yet there’s something more. By winter time we find:

The snow which all day long had sparkled in the sunshine looked pale. Walking homeward, looking up at the sky, and around her at the wan landscape, she felt an inexplicable yearning. It was mixed up with Tony, but it was more than Tony. It was growing up; it was leaving Hill Street and having someone else light a lamp in the beloved yellow cottage. She felt like crying, and yet there was nothing to cry about.

That passage in particular still really hits me — capturing a feeling I have experienced many times myself, especially as a teen. And like me, Betsy seeks refuge in her writing. Yet she still hides it away. The other girls don’t write, and the boys tease her about being a Little Poetess. She recognizes that she wants to be a writer some day, and even that her older sister Julia (who wants to be an opera singer and “never cared what people thought”) would never have put that trunk in the attic and “buried her poems in a handkerchief box”.

But while Betsy recognizes this, she doesn’t change her ways. When she’s chosen to participate in the annual school essay contest (competing against handsome but perplexing Joe Willard) she is thrilled, yet still doesn’t manage to handle it the way she might wish. But she does learn from the experience:

She looked back over the crowded winter. She did not regret it. But she should not have let its fun, its troubles, its excitements squeeze her writing out.

The thought appalled her. What would life be like without her writing? Writing filled her life with beauty and mystery, gave it purpose… and promise.

When Betsy finally acts on that realization I am cheering for her! And even now, it never fails to remind me, as a writer, that I have to make room for writing in my life.

There’s so much more I could talk about: the thoughtful portrayal of religion, the way Lovelace captures the exquisite ache of a first (unrequited) crush, all the wonderful period details, Betsy’s steadfast friendship with Tacy. But I’ll leave you all to find out about that if you read this book for yourself. I don’t expect everyone will love it as much as I, but if you do give it a try and do enjoy it, please let me know. And if you are already a fan, feel free to share your thoughts on the book! I’d love to hear them!

Circus Galacticus is now out of my hands and off in the big world (good luck, little book!), but the universe and the characters are still very much on my brain. What is interesting to me is that I don’t think I’ve ever felt this kind of burning desperation to get to the end in my writing. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed writing my other books– I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t love all these stories and characters. But just as I love reading different books for different reasons, I am discovering that I love writing different stories for different reasons. I’ve been trying to explain this to myself in terms of the journey and the destination.

There are some books I love to read because of the journey. They have marvelous characters I just plain enjoy hanging out with, and detailed worlds I can sink into and enjoy. I don’t want to race through these books to find out what happens. There may be overarching plots and usually the main characters do undergo some sort of character development, but that’s not the main reason I am reading the book. I read them because I want to linger in the world, with these characters. Some of the books that fall into this category for me are: the Anne books (L. M. Montgomery), Dragonsinger (Anne McCaffrey), the various Georgette Heyer books I’ve read so far, the Betsy-Tacy books (Maud Hart Lovelace), Howl’s Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones), Flora Segunda (Ysabeau Wilce), the Beezus and Ramona books (Beverly Cleary), Dairy Queen (Catherine Gilbert Murdock). Just because I didn’t feel compelled to stay up all night finishing these books doesn’t mean I think they are inferior by any means. In fact, several of the above books are on my all-time, take-to-a-desert-isle list.

Then there are books that I read (and do not necessarily enjoy) because of the destination. I race through to get to the end to find out what happens, even if I don’t particularly care about the characters or the world. I just want to KNOW HOW IT ENDS. Most of the time I don’t even really remember these books after I read them (and sometimes, I admit, I do skip to the end) so I don’t have a lot of examples fresh in mind, except for The DaVinci Code. I read it, even as I was frustrated by it in many ways, because I was compelled to find out how it ended. They’re like popcorn or mindless action movies. I can’t stop consuming them once I start, but they don’t really satisfy.

Lastly, there are books that I read for both journey and destination — I want to linger with the characters and explore the world, but at the same time I have to find out how it ends. Will the characters I love be okay? Will the things I am hoping for happen? Will character X end up with character Y? I only had to read the first chapter of The Hunger Games online to become obsessed with finding out what would become of Katniss and her loved ones. When I finally got a copy I tried to slow down, to make the most of the reading experience, but it was very very difficult. If I could have gotten my hands on Catching Fire last fall, I would have read it at once to find out what happened next. Likewise as each new Harry Potter book was released, the only thing that kept me from devouring them whole was that my husband and I were listening to the audio versions together. And even so, there were many nights we didn’t do anything but sit there listening to find out what was going to happen. As much as I loved the details of the wizarding world and the wonderful cast of characters, I also wanted desperately to find out how it would all end. More recently, I listened to the audio book of Tamora Pierce’s Beka Cooper: Terrier, and even before I was on the last disk I went to check out book 2 from the library, because I was obsessed with finding out if certain things were going to happen (and alas, it looks like I am going to have to wait for book 3 to find them out!).

For me, writing has most often been more about the journey. I am not sure if that’s because my books themselves are more journey-books than destination-books, or just a feature of my practice of writing from an outline. CIRCUS, however, has been a different sort of beast. I did very much love the journey of writing the first book, and I believe it ends with the characters reaching a satisfying destination. But more than ever before, I want to know where these characters are going to go next. Will character X end up with character Y? What tragedies and joys will they experience? How will it all end?

At first I thought maybe I could quiet those clamoring voices by outlining the rest of the series I envision, and perhaps writing the last few chapters (the big climactic ending) of the final book. But what I’ve realized is that I really do need the journey too. If it were enough to simply find out what happens, this would just be one of those forgettable type 2 books as described above. So, since I’ve finished my writing goal for the year in completing Circus Galacticus and sending it off, so now I will take some time this fall to play, and indulge my own passion to find out not only the destination my characters are headed for, but what sort of journey is going to get them there. I am looking forward to it!

Fellow outliners — what is your experience with the journey versus the destination, given that you may have a pretty detailed map? And those of you who are more seat-of-your-pants writers, do you feel this sort of driving passion to find out what happens in your books, since you may be finding it out at the same time as your characters? Or is your writing experience more about the journey?

Finally, here’s some other tidbits:

• I feel very fortunate right now to have such excellent friends and family. Like my college friend Tara, who went out and got a copy of Fortune’s Folly, sent me a sweet note about it, then also forwarded me happy little notes from her own relations who she passed it along to. And my uncle Eric (who always sent me the best books for my birthday when I was a kid!) just forwarded a lovely little review from a friend of his at work (thank you, Bob!).
• I’ve got four library visits and one bookstore signing scheduled for this fall, whee! I am looking forward to getting out and meeting more book-loving people. I will be updating my website with more details once they are fixed.
• I’m also going to be attending the Bar Harbor Book Festival on September 12 and 13. There will be panels and readings and Real Author Stuff. Plus it’s in an absolutely gorgeous location. I am really looking forward to meeting some of the wonderful writers I know online in person for the first time, like my fellow deb Erin Dionne, and the event organizer, the fabulous Carrie Jones. And even though we’ve already met in person several times, it will be great to see my other fellow deb-from-Maine, Megan Frazer.

There are times when I forget why I write, times when I doubt myself and wonder if I’m just writing because of some misguided fantasy about “being an author”. And to be honest, there’s a part of me that does fantasize about it: the little writing cottage, the awards, the fan mail, meeting other authors and being one of the cool kids. But that’s not why I write. And I don’t do it for the money either (though money is nice!).

This is why I write:

• Because my mind is a net collecting weird, sparkly, magical stuff, and I need to do something with all of it.
• Because I woke up this morning with a twist for the end of the CIRCUS books that fit so perfectly I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before this. It’s those moments when the story suddenly feels real. It’s not just a spattering of words flung out of your fingertips. It’s alive. It knows what it wants to be.
• Because when I finished my newest revision of CIRCUS last night, I still loved the book. I loved writing it, I loved meeting those characters and exploring their world. Sure, I hope readers will get to see it someday and that they will love it too. But right at this moment, when it’s still (mostly) my book alone, I am content. Whatever else happens, I am so glad I had the chance to write this book. For me.

Of course, part of the reason I am posting this is so I can look back at it later if I fall into the depths of despair and remind myself of what is really important. Because it is SO easy to get lost in the sea of amazon rankings and sales and reviews and web presence. But none of that is worth anything without a story you love, a story you have to tell.

On a tangential but important note, anyone interested in promoting a love of reading might be interested in this posting at The Reading Zone, which in turn is about this post at Musings of a Book Addict. I am grateful to all the teachers and librarians out there who are working so hard to try to help kids see reading as something that can be fun and rewarding, not just rote, unpleasant busywork.

A while back I presented a talk about writing, and to prepare myself I sat down and tried to come up with a list of writing advice that has worked for me. I thought it might be of interest to other folks so here it is:

Five things I recommend most highly:

READ: This is, in my opinion, THE most important thing to do if you want to write. Read books. And I mean all kind of books, not just the type or genre you like best. When you read, think about your reactions. What is it about your favorite books that makes them so good? What things don’t work so well?

OBSERVE: Good writing feels real (even fantasy!). Reality is based on strong grounding details. One of the most important things you can do as a writer is to learn to really observe the world around you. Pay attention to smells, colors, textures, sounds, and take notice of the different ways people talk and walk, and how it feels physically when you are sad or happy. Think about what details define a physical place or an experience. If you make a habit of this, you can store up a treasure-trove of details to use in your writing. (Observing is also a great place to get story ideas!).

WRITE: Most people can’t pick up a violin, step onstage and play a concerto. Likewise most writers are not going to sell the first thing they write. The important thing to remember is that nothing you write is truly wasted. It’s all part of the learning process. So keep writing!

STAY DETERMINED: That learning process might take a long time. And it’s tough. A lot of writers end up tossing away whole novels. And even when you finally write something you believe in, the process of submitting to literary agents or editors usually involves a lot of rejections. I received over a hundred rejections before I finally found my agent and editor. It is hard to get your book or story published. But it’s impossible if you give up. So stay determined!

FIND OTHERS: Staying determined can be a lot easier if you have the company of other people who will understand your frustrations and cheer you onward. It’s also really helpful to find other people who are willing to read your work and offer feedback. These people might be a local writing group, or members of one of the many online critique groups out there.

And here are six things that can stand in your way:
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There’s an interesting discussion going on over at The Five Randoms on book endings.

Some of my (quite random) thoughts, reposted here:

I do think good endings are very important — a good beginning will make me keep reading a book, but a bad ending will definitely spoil my experience of an otherwise good book, like a terrible dessert at the end of a delicious dinner.

I am a sap so I do enjoy a good, well-deserved happy ending. But I don’t need one to be satisfied by a book – I loved the ending of THE TIME-TRAVELER’S WIFE (it made me cry, one of only three books to do so that don’t feature sad things happening to dogs). I particularly love it when the main character doesn’t get exactly what she/he started the book wanting, but realizes that what they do end up with is better, even if it’s bittersweet.

There’s also the issue of unresolved plot threads, whether in a series, or not. I know some folks have been less than thrilled with the ending to THE HUNGER GAMES due to certain aspects of the story being unresolved, but I actually quite liked it. I felt the issues I cared most about were resolved, and the other issues were left in a state that felt fair to me, given the actions and nature of the main character. But as in much about writing, it really does vary from book to book and reader to reader.

One type of ending that I encounter regularly in my favorite genre (fantasy) that I think is often mishandled is “the big magical shebang” where some giant spell goes off, or some portal opens, or some otherwise large-scale magical event occurs and everything gets resolved against a fantastical lightshow backdrop. These can be well-done (and I must admit I have one of these at the end of my second book) but a lot of the time I feel sort of like the author got too overwhelmed and just decided to throw in a bunch of FX to distract the reader from the actual plot resolution.

I am a sucker for books where the ending somehow reflects or resonates with the beginning, either physically (characters return to the same location) or thematically (the questions/issues posed in the opening paragraph) or both. So that you could hold up the first paragraph, and the last paragraph, and sort of see the entire book captured there. This is something I aim for in my own books.

And lastly, one thing that will make me want to throw a book across the room is when a character is killed off at the end and I feel like it’s only being done because the author wants to show the reader that “things are serious” (this rule applies to TV and movies too, Joss Whedon). I can understand that desire, but it generally just feels like cheating to me.

What about you guys? How do you feel about endings? What do you look for, and what turns you off? What are some of your favorite endings?