If you could change your current story in any one way, what would you do and why?
For the next eight weeks I will share the guest posts on writing that were part of my Orangeberry book tour. Pandora Poikilos, who runs the tour, creates very interesting topics.
MRS. TUESDAY’S DEPARTURE, my first novel, is set during the
tragic, turbulent years of World War Two. Worse still, it’s set in Budapest,
Hungary, one of the countries directly effected by Nazi Occupation and the
Holocaust. For that reason, it was difficult to write a traditional happy
ending that is so satisfying to most readers, myself included.
How many times have I finished a book and felt disappointed
that the loose story ends weren’t neatly tied up? How could any author allow
their main character to suffer and not receive the happiness she so clearly
earned through her many trials? As an avid reader, one who seeks out happy
endings, rather than the tragic Oprah-style dark novel, I understood completely
when readers of MRS. TUESDAY, gave mixed reviews to the story’s ending.
Since the book is self-published, it would be completely
within my powers to change the ending. I’ve even considered it! How nice it
would be to kill off certain characters or perhaps provided a convenient escape
hatch that would have allowed the good guys to live happily ever after and the
bad guys to meet their just reward post haste. For good measure, I could have thrown
in a romance so we might even enjoy a wedding.
I’ve even composed the changes in my mind. In part because
one of the more consistent comments I’ve received about MRS. TUESDAY, is that
readers felt the book was too short. They wanted to see the story go on, the
characters to live the story more fully. And if there were anything I would
change, lengthening the story would be the greatest temptation. But the ending?
As I did my
research for the novel and read about those war-ravaged years, I found that difficult
decisions were made every day, and while they demonstrated great love and
loyalty, they didn’t always save the hero. Sometimes, terrible sacrifices were
made in the name of love. And sometimes those sacrifices led to unhappy
endings. What about the argument that since this is fiction, I had the choice
to create the ending I wanted, even a happy ending? True. Though as the author,
I also had to create the ending that came about as my characters moved through
the story. And which answered the questions that first inspired the story.
Which is not to say that I dislike the ending of MRS.
TUESDAY. Ultimately, I believe the ending is very satisfying because it
provides a message of hope. And most importantly, it conveys the message of
God’s love and the ultimate sacrifice that He made through his Son, Jesus
Christ. I hope readers will come away from the novel receiving that message and
understanding that even when we go through difficult times, God is always with
us.
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