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(especially if I manage any level of success as a writer)
Oh, I like her fiction too, but I'm finding her Beginnings, Middles & Ends invaluable. She seems to have anticipated all of my questions. Also, the text is appropriately chunked for dumpster diving. (I actually read the book a while ago, but it's turned out also to be a great reference.)
I have this tendency to write these rather ambiguous endings. (No, it's not the people who critiqued "Lying in Wait" telling me this. I totally see this.) Most of the time, it's because my main character is in some situation that can't possibly be resolved in a short story. (Usually, I try to make sure there's something containable which I can resolve in the short story though. e.g., the story is merely one battle in an overall war.) I mean, I got a crit (via Critters) which compared my "Running and Falling" to Hemingway's "A Clean Well-Lighted Place." (Unfortunately, the critic didn't like Hemingway.)
Nancy Kress articulates cleanly what it takes to make the "contempory, literary fiction" ambiguous ending work as well as what it takes to make "traditionally plotted fiction" conclusive ending work. So with that in mind, I can go figure out how "Lying in Wait" is supposed to end. Personally, I'm wondering if there is a hybrid ending. I mean "Lying in Wait" is not "contemporary, literary fiction" by any stretch. OTOH, the situation the characters are up against is really too big to set up and resolve in a short story. On the third hand, my intent, at least by my 2nd draft, was to resolve something local and containable with the global situation as a backdrop.
(Actually, that makes me sound more structured and planned than I actually am. "Lying in Wait" was an exercise in positional plotting. I note, with a certain amount of amusement, that the interesting position into which I had placed my characters, and inspired the story, no longer exists in the story. And the story is better for it.)
Oh well, at least I know what possibilities exist and how I might get there. Besides, there are a few more people whose opinions I also really value who've just gotten "Lying in Wait." Also, I should give "Detours on the Journey Home" one more read through before I finally send it off to F&SF.
(Oh yes, and if I meet Nancy Kress and Ted Chiang at the same time, all bets are off. I'm very careful to stay away from Ted Chiang whenever I see him at ReaderCon, so he doesn't think there is a mad, jibbering idiot stalking him. I think I'm better off merely speaking of him in hushed, reverent tones rather than actually meeting him.)
Oh, I like her fiction too, but I'm finding her Beginnings, Middles & Ends invaluable. She seems to have anticipated all of my questions. Also, the text is appropriately chunked for dumpster diving. (I actually read the book a while ago, but it's turned out also to be a great reference.)
I have this tendency to write these rather ambiguous endings. (No, it's not the people who critiqued "Lying in Wait" telling me this. I totally see this.) Most of the time, it's because my main character is in some situation that can't possibly be resolved in a short story. (Usually, I try to make sure there's something containable which I can resolve in the short story though. e.g., the story is merely one battle in an overall war.) I mean, I got a crit (via Critters) which compared my "Running and Falling" to Hemingway's "A Clean Well-Lighted Place." (Unfortunately, the critic didn't like Hemingway.)
Nancy Kress articulates cleanly what it takes to make the "contempory, literary fiction" ambiguous ending work as well as what it takes to make "traditionally plotted fiction" conclusive ending work. So with that in mind, I can go figure out how "Lying in Wait" is supposed to end. Personally, I'm wondering if there is a hybrid ending. I mean "Lying in Wait" is not "contemporary, literary fiction" by any stretch. OTOH, the situation the characters are up against is really too big to set up and resolve in a short story. On the third hand, my intent, at least by my 2nd draft, was to resolve something local and containable with the global situation as a backdrop.
(Actually, that makes me sound more structured and planned than I actually am. "Lying in Wait" was an exercise in positional plotting. I note, with a certain amount of amusement, that the interesting position into which I had placed my characters, and inspired the story, no longer exists in the story. And the story is better for it.)
Oh well, at least I know what possibilities exist and how I might get there. Besides, there are a few more people whose opinions I also really value who've just gotten "Lying in Wait." Also, I should give "Detours on the Journey Home" one more read through before I finally send it off to F&SF.
(Oh yes, and if I meet Nancy Kress and Ted Chiang at the same time, all bets are off. I'm very careful to stay away from Ted Chiang whenever I see him at ReaderCon, so he doesn't think there is a mad, jibbering idiot stalking him. I think I'm better off merely speaking of him in hushed, reverent tones rather than actually meeting him.)
