 Mystery: March 02, 2011 Issue [#4268] |
  Mystery
This week: A-HA! Moments Edited by: Fyn  
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“What is heard has to be pondered over. What is pondered over has to be put into practice. It is only when all three are accomplished that the realization of Bliss can be attained.”~~Sri Sathya Sai Baba
“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.”~~Earl Nightingale
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An aha(!) moment:
Main Entry: aha moment
Part of Speech: n
Definition: a sudden understanding, recognition, or resolution; also called [ aha reaction ]
Example: Once she had that aha moment, she knew how to proceed.
Etymology:1939 1
The 'a-ha!' moment: that time when your character, after pages and pages of 'not getting it' finally figures everything out, or realizes they have what it takes to bring down the bad guy, or fight the final battle or solve the mystery.
I recently edited a book that took 250 pages to get to that point. The final battle for 'all the marbles' to 'save the world' and to have the main character believe he could do all this by himself . . . took three (!) paragraphs. The entire book ended three paragraphs after that.
The reader was cheated out of reading, experiencing and following that important battle scene. From what we saw in that scene, the character could have accomplished that five pages into the book. What is the point of the lessons learned along the way, without seeing them being used?
The reader, having slogged through the entire book, would have been cheated out of the celebration for success, the following understandings, euphoria and the 'what happened to all the other characters' during said battle to end all battles. Obviously, the book went back for some healthy revisions, additions and author-editing.
The point is, do not let yourself get to that point and fall into that black-hole of , "OK, I got to that big scene, I did it, I'm done." No, you probably aren't.
Does that scene following the 'grand a-ha!' do justice to the rest of the book and your readers? Will it satisfy their need for having picked it up in the first place? Are the loose ends tied up in some fashion? Is there resolution? Does the character have some time to react, reflect and review the actions he has taken?
If not, then you still have work to do! The end of the book (story, etc) is every bit as important as the beginning. It is the ending folks will remember (or not) rather than the beginning. It is the ending that has the ability to compel a reader to want to read more by the same author. Your ending (happy, sad, tragic, fulfilling) is the point they read the book in the first place. Do not let yourself gloss over the details, the descriptions, the feelings, the reactions in a burst of premature 'it is done-i-tus.' It isn't finished until it has been revised, re-revised, proofed, spell-checked, revised, risen (as in letting it have time to rise (as in dough) and give you time away from it to then reread it with fresh eyes, to read it out loud, (if you stumble over words--so too, will your reader)and then revise again. Then, maybe, possibly it 'might' be finished.
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The Quill Awards were on Saturday. Below is a selection of winners, honorable mentions, finalists and nominees. They are truly among some of the very best writing on WDC!
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This item number is not valid.
#1696025 by Not Available. |
| |  | Necklace (18+)
Experimental short story. WARNING: Do not read if easily offended about religious matters.
#1717592 by emerin-liseli  |
| | --- (E)
Some days written through music, a short piece of prose.
#1648074 by Jaywalker |
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This item number is not valid.
#1649834 by Not Available. |
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| It's been a long time since I guest edited for the Mystery newsletter, but it was fun to be back for the week! |
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Footnotes
(n.d.). Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. Retrieved February 28, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aha moment This printed copy is for your personal use only. Reproduction
of this work in any other form is not allowed and does violate its copyright. |
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