Epiphany!

/ Tracy Abell

                 

While on the plane flying to Hawaii, I jotted notes for a new project as I reread highlighted bits from
EMOTIONAL STRUCTURE: CREATING THE STORY BENEATH THE PLOT by Peter Dunne.

And I finally, finally understood what writers mean when they say they have to know the ending
before they can write the story.
I always thought knowing the ending meant I had to know the "plot" ending, the action ending,
and I never understood how writers already knew whether their books would end with a car chase or picnic in the park.

 
But what knowing the ending really means is to know the "story" ending, the book’s emotional ending.
 
As Peter Dunne says:  
The whole idea of beginning at the end is to create a target at which you aim all your action and emotion."
 
I get it now!
 
If I map out the emotional terrain ahead of time, I’ve mapped out the heart of my story,
and the action is just there to support those emotions, whether it’s a chase scene or picnic.
 
Emotions rule!
 
                

22 thoughts on “Epiphany!”

  1. As a writer that writes everything from emotion. I always outline characters from their emotions. Fro me has always been important which was going to be the emotional endind to be able to write, is easier for me that way.

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    • You’re a smart writer, Anabel. I’ve always been about the characters and their emotions, too, but never put together the pieces about the emotional ending. I kind of, sort of knew how my characters felt at the end of my books, but I didn’t realize the importance of writing toward that ending.

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    • I was hesitant to broadcast my ignorance of all this but thought maybe it might help someone else have an AHA moment. Something tells me you’ve had that emotional ending stuff figured out for a very long time, Jeannine.

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    • It’s an epiphany for me but something many writers already knew. Sometimes it takes a while for all those little pieces to wiggle into place in my brain; they were there all along but I wasn’t absolutely sure of their significance.

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  4. Yay for epiphanies and new projects…especially on the plane to Hawaii! (And there I was on my flight to Hawaii doing crossword puzzles.) :-p

    It sounds like an interesting book too.

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    • Crossword puzzles are great plane fare. It was unusual that I was able to focus and accomplish that kind of work on a plane, so I knew to grab it while I could!

      It’s a very good book, I think. Helped me shift around some puzzle pieces that’d been floating around my head all disconnected.

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    • I knew it, too, on some level. But in reading the book I experienced a shift and I totally understood how vital it is to the whole process knowing those emotions before I start writing. I guess I wasn’t putting enough importance on where the emotions are at the start and where the emotions end. I always had a kind of nebulous grasp of it.

      Sometimes I require a smack upside the head……….

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  6. Whooohooo! YAY! Epiphany. You may have been the reason I felt like eating a celebratory piece of cake today. I was in the store and I just knew I had something to celebrate. I left the cake behind…but felt sad. I shall go back tomorrow and eat it. Hurrah! Epiphanies rock! Emotions rock!

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  9. The sky isn’t quite as blue here, but at least nothing cold and wet is falling from it. I’m with you. Feeling positive and tacking revision. Go, Tracy!

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