Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Schrodinger's Cat

Last post for bit, I promise. Just let me get this thought out and I'll go right back to work.

I both love and hate finishing a story. On the one hand, it's done. Yay! On the other hand, the story is then fixed. Boo! Scenes you've imagined that have no place in the final draft have to go in the dustbin. Things that contradict the continuity must likewise be discarded. It doesn't matter how much you like a particular scene, character, turn of phrase or outcome. If it doesn't serve the story, it's got to go. Unless you want the story to suffer, which is - let's face facts - just plain sadistic. Or is that masochistic? After all, bad editing decisions tend to hurt the author more than anyone else.

I hate having two good endings. I've made my decision about which one I've chosen, but for now, as long as the ending remains unwritten, both of them still exist as possibilities. Like Schrodinger's Cat, they are, for the moment, still both alive.

But one of these cats must die. Observation requires an outcome.

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