Rewriting the Ending

Last night I finished the first phase of revising Dragon.  The first part is the fun part – that’s when I get to re-read the book and mark it up with comments like “awkward phrasing” and “do I like this word?” and “clarify this.”  Now I get to start the second phase.  That would be when I go through and actually address all the changes that I marked.

There are several areas where this is going to be more than simply reworking a sentence or adding a bit of description.  I’ve mentioned before that there are a few larger challenges that my First Readers presented, mainly dealing with the context of the gates and the world.  Some of this I’ve already started drafting, and I found some good places to expand and explain this concept, as well as address a few others.

Last night I discovered a big one: I need to totally rewrite the ending.

I’m not changing the ending, although I know it will disappoint one of my First Readers.  (She was really upset with me over a choice that I had to make.)  Rather, I need to find a new way to approach the ending.  I’ve already started playing with some possibilities.  In order to be perfect it needs to fit with the story, stay true to the characters, and be satisfying to the reader.  It’s a tall order, but I think I’m up to the challenge.