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iwaspunkrockonce iwaspunkrockonce @kbin.social
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The illusion of moral decline - Nature

  • "The world has grown old, does not enjoy that strength which it formerly enjoyed, and does not flourish with the same vigor and strength with which it formerly prevailed ... The farmer is vanishing and disappearing in the fields, the sailor on the sea, the soldier in the camp, innocence in the marketplace, justice in the courts, harmony among friendships, skill among the arts, discipline in morals."

    -- Cyprian of Carthage, c. 250 CE

    "Same as it ever was"

    -- Talking Heads

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    What's your favorite book(s) of all time?
    • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    • Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
    • The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsay Drager
    • The Book of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell
    • Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
    • The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    • Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
    • Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
    • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
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    As an amateur writer, how do you figure out your endings?

  • A good place to start is to look at stories you love and see how they're structured. I actually find this very useful with movies and some TV shows. Ask yourself how they arrived at that ending, and if it was implied from the beginning. And if it was implied, ask yourself how.

    You can also follow some writing formulas to get a feel for them. A common one is the "try-fail" approach. Your characters are attempting to accomplish something -- have them fail twice, and then finally succeed. The failures themselves can be very interesting. For example, Frodo tries to take the ring to Mount Doom, but runs into the Ring Wraiths. They act as an obstacle, so the path is no longer clear.

    If you take that approach, in my experience the failures will often suggest the successful ending.

    Once you've written the story, go back and read it through. Sometimes endings will feel jarring because there's not enough of a suggestion for them earlier on. You can write in little hints, add a dream sequence, whatever. Over time as you practice with this, you'll develop some mastery and be able to write subtler and more mind-blowing endings.

    Hope that helps.