I literally have one last episode to finish of my novel, ‘Raddy and Syl’ and then it is done! My main character Thomas has solved the mystery of the Moroccan who the old lady brought home from her cruise to North Africa, and he has found the woman who went missing a year ago. I have set the scene for the final revelation about who attacked Raddy, Thomas’s grandfather, an attack which changed his character and personality, and explain what happened to Sylvia – ‘Syl’ which so damaged her that she sunk into alcoholism. The roots of both their problems go back to the first World War, and Thomas unravels the complicated story… in the final scene which I now have to write!
Tying up the ends satisfactorily is tricky… I want the reader to believe what happens and in order to do that they must have been given sufficient clues and pieces of information for it all to make sense. I don’t want to give great chunks of information, but I want to give sufficient each time for them to remember it and then to understand at the end what has happened and why. Having done that the ending has got to be properly paced; it’s no good virtually listing all the tie-ups, they have to be as carefully explained and written as all the rest… otherwise the reader will finish the story and think ‘is that it? what? say that again? is that the end?’
So… on to the final part… and then… and then the editing begins!!!
Lois Elsden 