that was close.
And I mean, really, really close.
I'm writing the final page of my book, and I almost completely changed the ending.
'What?' you ask? I almost made the main character's best friend... the bad guy! Change his loyalty at the last second, kill her, and take all the magical power for himself.
Actually, and in all honesty... I'm still toying with the idea. I could make it work, adding some scenes and a line here and there. He used the magic earlier in the book for its healing powers, and the two were warned that the magic could start to eat away at him and make him power hungry... But the question is: do I want to? Would it make the book better?
Answer? I really don't know.
Generally, I don't like books like that. With a tragic ending the reader really didn't see coming. But I've read a couple of those recently, so maybe thats why I'm thinking about it so much.
What kind of view does that give? That the good guys don't always win, that the bag guys could be your best friend. Do I want to portray that??
You're not attached to the characters I wrote... so what do you think? Because, the only thing holding me back is that I don't know if I could do that to Marie and Jesse...
3 comments:
you could always write a sequel where he sees the error of his ways. :)
seriously, most of the time our characters know more about themselves than we do. if jesse suddenly does something you didn't expect, but looking back over the story, you see things leading up to the action, things you didn't plant, but now you see could have double meanings, don't be too in love with him to keep him the good guy. l'engle once had a character completely change on her, he was murdered and she had to rewrite the entire book to make the other characters fit in with the way this guy suddenly startled her, the author. and you know what twain/faulkner said. kill your darlings. :) at least, don't love them too much to keep them from being who they really are, not just who you want them/have planned them to be.
I always think that toying with the darkside is fun and necessary, although it can also be very sad and difficult it is also more rewarding. I think that the more interesting way would be, as was already suggested, make him the traitor and then take it to the next level in the next book. Things aren't always cut-and-dried black-and-white in life, and books should be the same way. Do you forgive the person who killed a friend? Do you go after them and try to save them? I would really, really love to read that third novel!!
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