Tuesday, May 5, 2009

As a Reader...

I have a confession to make. I’ve pretty much done this all my reading life and I can’t seem to stop myself. It’s rather embarrassing really.

I read the ending of a book first. There I said it. If the ending isn’t happy I have trouble convincing myself to read the book. Likely it is the romantic in me who insists there has to be some sort of happy resolution before I will invest my time in it. After all I do write romance so really it isn’t surprising.

Obviously this doesn’t apply to a non-fiction book, but every other type of book I have read I read the ending first. Even horror books, while obviously don't always end happily, it still has to have an ending I am comfortable with before I will read the book.

I’m enjoying a series, for instance, about two gay detectives written by Victor J. Banis. Best described as the “Deadly” series. I read the first two (and yes I read the endings first) so when the third came out yesterday, Deadly Dreams, you bet the first thing I did was buy it for my Kindle. And yes, I read the end first. Now I can read the whole book with a clear conscience.

I can’t be alone in my reading the ending of books first. Please tell me I’m not just a little off my rocker about this.

8 comments:

  1. I'm not a right-out-of-the-bag back end reader, but I do understand the appeal. I only do that if the story isn't off to a great start and I want to know if it will finish strong so I know it's worth my time. Hmmm, or if I really fall in love with a character and he/her fate seems dicey. Or if I accidently hit "end" instead of "page down", lol. :) Appreciate the confession!! So here's a follow up question, do you know the ending of your stories before you sit down and write them, or do they unfold as you go??

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  2. I’m actually going to give one of those vague annoying “it depends” answers, lol. For example my current wip which is almost done, Beyond the Norm, I did plan out how I wanted it to end. Not on paper or in a file or anything, I hardly ever do that (Ava March plans her stories meticulously), but in my head I knew or know how I wanted Beyond the Norm to end. Now, with the next story after this one, Ticket to Ride, I have no clue how ANY of the story will go. It’s part of a theme of song titles for Amber Quill and I like the song so I chose it, but really I have no idea what will happen or even who my main character will end up with. Each book is different for me, some planned, some not. For example I didn’t know when I started Perfect Man that Craig would be suicidal, he took me there. As I said, Ava plans her stories out in a file and notes and won’t even start the story until she knows exactly what will happen. I just can’t write like that.

    How about you, Stacey?

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  3. I seem to have a beginning to end style of writing. It can be a lot of fun, because the story literally hits me as I type. Each scene just leads into the next, and can go off in directions that I never planned. I start with a couple protags and a story idea, but the scenes, backstories, and even the ending just come to me as I go. Sometimes I find my secondary characters take on a life of their own. The rewrite that I'm working on started off as a stand-alone story, but two of the secondary characters really asserted themselves. I had to wrestle them back into place with the promise of their own story in the future. :) I have the sense that I'll write related stories or series. I love finding out what comes after the story ends.

    Thanks for the answer, it wasn't annoying at all! Enlightening! And Ava, I admire your method, but I have tried to write a planned-out story, and it bogged down on me, and then spun off merrily in a random direction.

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  4. Stacey - you hint on why I plan everything out. I'm afraid a book will spin off into some other direction if I don't plan it. Plus, since I have a limited time to write each day, I try to minimize rewrites/revisions. For me, the fun is in mulling over a new book concept, letting it flow through my head. And once it's all there, then I outline, tweak, mull some more, tweak the outline, then write. I've also now sell most of my books on blurb/short synopsis alone, so before I propose something, I want to make sure I have enough plot or a short enough plot (in the case of a novella), before I send an idea to an editor. I don't have Shawn's confidence that it will come together as I write. What if I write myself into a corner? She's also written a lot more books than me, so she has more experience.

    As for peeking at the last chapter of a book - yep, I do that. A lot. :)

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  5. Shawn, I just discovered your blog when I looked for you after reading a few of your stories. No, you're not alone. I don't usually read the end first, but if while reading I start to worry about a character and want to make sure I like how he ends up, I will check out the ending first. If it turns out it is not good, I'll continue reading but will be prepared (and unhappy).

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  6. Thanks, Rikki, glad you liked the books you read enough to search for me.

    I've tried to break myself of the habit of reading the ending first and sometimes I am even semi-successful, but with the Deadly series I read by Victor J. Banis I had heard the latest one might make me cry and since I had already invested myself with the characters in the first two books I was quite concerned, :-)

    I really have to force myself NOT to read the ending of books first though. It's quite terrible of me, lol.

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  7. We have read the ending sometimes first too. Not all the time. It depends on the author, or if we have read a review and they stated it ended well or not. There is nothing wrong with making sure you want to invest your time in a book that ends well. I hate ending a book on an unhappy note.
    Kieran Kelly wrote a book that had the hero die at the end. We both had a WTF moment. I still hate that book, it was horrible.
    If we had known that to begin with, we wouldn't have read it to begin with.
    So, I say YOU GO GIRL! Read what you want to read, and how you want to read it!

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  8. The hero died? Yeah, I would not have liked that. I read a book back in the 70s as a child (yes I am that old) where the hero was hanged for a murder he did not commit. I am STILL haunted by that book. Terrible.

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