Cliffhanging

So I had a mild epiphany this weekend.

Book 2 requires a cliffhanger.

Not that that was something I actually planned on. I can even dig up my outline that I turned into my editor a few months ago. There’s an actual ending there. It’s sort of neatly wrapped up, even.One of the glories of being a panster, I guess – tangents can wind you around and take you some where entirely different.

But the last week or so, (after discussing it with several other writer friends), I’ve come to realize that part of what’s been making me drag my feet a bit is that it’s just too much. Too much story to wrap up in 10k – not neatly, anyway. And I feel like I would be doing the story a disservice to rush it – plus I’ve got enough potential material to take me 1/3 of the way into the 3rd book.

Sooo…I’m not going to wrap it up at all.

And strangely enough, things have opened up word-wise. Maybe it’s the sudden lack of pressure, or maybe it’s because I’m not trying to force things where they didn’t want to go and letting them just unfold to where they want to be.

At this point, I’m just working on the big battle/finale of the moment and trying to segue-way into a good place to end it (hopefully without pissing anyone off.) Of course, it’s a bit hard to have a *true* cliffhanger since the first chapter of the 3rd book will be included in there as a teaser, but I’ll see what I can do.