What happens when the voices stop?

 

For most authors, probably all of them, this is our ultimate nightmare, our worst fear, because it would mean the end of our writing career.

 

We often get this scare when we stumble headfirst into writer’s block. Smack-dab-boom, there’s a big ugly wall in front of you, and you can’t figure out how to get past it. You can’t ram yourself through it, it’s too high to climb over and too deeply rooted to burrow under.

 

For a writer it’s staring at a blank screen, the cursor blinking merrily away, basically counting the seconds and minutes and hours, then suddenly, a whole day has snaked past you, and you still sit with a blank page before you. (Sometimes you’re half way through a chapter and still you’ve only written two words, and are stumped stupid as to how to continue the rest of the chapter or the rest of the book.)

 

Scary, I know, even more so when that day turns into two, then a week and then two weeks…

 

My longest writer’s block period lasted two months, but I’m sure there are authors that have far more spine-chilling stories to tell than just two months.

 

But there is another fear, maybe not as powerful as the one when the voices stop.

 

It’s when you, as the author, are halfway through your story and suddenly you have lost interest in the characters you once loved and cared for.

 

Gasp! How dare I say that? How dare I utter those nasty, venomous words? As if one could ever tire of one’s own characters… This is blasphemy!

 

But, little ones, never say never because never is not as long as you think.

 

So there I sat, having planned out an entire series of serials and seasons and BAM, I’m not even done with the first season and I hate these characters. The evil muse laughs from across the room, his dead eyes rake over my skin from tip to toe. “Kill them off, baby. All’s fair in death and carnage…” says Mr. gray

 

Yeah, right! Readers love these men… And it won’t be you they’ll be coming after.

 

Now you’re in a shitstorm battle with yourself because the first part of this story is really good and you have poured blood, sweat and sacrificed your soul to a demon for this, now you just want to kill everyone off.

 

*Pulls open drawer, reaches for duct tape and nylon rope and slaps crop on the table*

“Bad evil muse, baaaad! Go sit in the chair so I can tie you up and glue your lips together.”

 

But let’s get real here for a moment. What do you do then? You know you need to finish this story, pull up all loose ends and, at least, give your readers an HEA or an HFN.

 

It’s simple, actually. It’s something Joss Whedon showed and taught us at every season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

End your story in such a way that readers are left satisfied but at the same time it can be seen as an ending and yet not as an ending.

 

Buffy Season One; Prophecy Girl,

 

Buffy goes to face the Master, he bites and drinks from her, then leaves her to drown in a pool of water, her blood being slayer’s blood grants the Master the freedom from his prison, and sets out to open the Hellmouth. Xander and Angel enter the Master’s lair and Xander gives Buffy CPR and revives her.

 

Yet back at the High school, the Hellmouth opens, a tentacle demon burst through the library’s floor where the Hellmouth is situated below. The remaining scoobies fight the beast while Buffy again confronts the Master on the roof of the school library. That epic quote, “You have fruit-punch mouth!” They fight and Buffy manages to throw the Master through the sunroof, impaling him on a sharp spike, he disintegrates only leaving his skeleton behind, the Hellmouth closes at his death and sucks the demon tentacle monster in with it.

 

Victory, the scoobies rejoice and leaves by going to the Bronze, celebrating because they had just saved the world.

 

An HEA and an HFN packed in one.

 

Two things that play a very important part here is one, Buffy’s mini-death, setting in motion the call for the next slayer, and second, the Master remaining skeleton, he doesn’t dust like normal vamps.

 

(We could add in a third and a fourth, Angel and Buffy’s relationship, and the Hellmouth that was only closed, not destroyed.)

 

Both the first two can be seen as pointing towards another season, or they can just be ignored and taken as part of the plot to bring the story to an end.

 

Joss Whedon originally ended the first season this way because he wasn’t sure whether or not the studio would pick Buffy up for another season.

 

What does this have to do then with us getting tired of our own characters?

 

Everything.

 

Joss also ended the first season in such a way that if the studio did pick Buffy up for a second season, there were already enough plot twists set in motion to be a starting point. It might have been done intentionally, or it might have been done unintentionally. Regardless we can still learn from this.

 

If you are ever in a funk like I was, do not kill off your characters, do not rush the story just to give your readers a happy ever after, if you have planned out an entire saga of seasons for a story, or planned out different books focusing all on a group of MC, don’t just end it and expect you have forever grown tired of them.

 

Never say never because never and ‘forever’ might not be as long as you think.

 

The enthusiasm for those characters might come back, a week from now, a year from now, who knows, and then what? You have twisted yourself into such a slip and now you can’t do anything about it because you killed off some important characters, because you got tired of them.

 

 

Trust me, your readers will thank you for it. Play it safe, kiddos. Give your readers what they want and in the same breath, leave them wanting more.

(And I do by no means, mean a cliff-hanger.)

 

Peace out, time to go torture Daddy Hades.