The End

Endings are tough to write. They require a delicate balance between providing closure and not saying too much. When tackling endings, I start by writing down everything I want to say, everything I want the reader to understand--this gets it out of my brain and onto the page. Then I delete at least half of it (ideally more!) and try to get out earlier than I think I need to, preferably ending on an image. That's a method many writers use; start looking for it and you'll see it everywhere.

If I were to write an ending to 2020, I would probably conclude with an image of a health care worker getting vaccinated--the needle in her arm, the band-aid then applied. Then I'd show her getting right back to tending the overwhelming number of patients needing immediate care. 

It's hard to write an ending to a story you're still living. It's also hard to write an ending if the middle still needs work. 2020 was a narrative mess--too many random plot points, no discernible arc, and lots of unlikable characters. If we workshopped this year, I would say, I wonder if we could scale it back, focus on just one or two of these storylines? 

But we cannot revise 2020. We can only choose where we end it. I'll be closing 2020 and opening 2021 with a New Year's writing and yoga workshop. New memoir and fiction classes start in January. The nice thing about writing an ending is it means you can move on to other projects. I don't know what 2021 will bring, but I am looking forward to finding out, to writing the story with you all.  

May your endings come easily—
J.