The Open Casting Call and the Epiphany

I know how to end the book.

I've had a plan for the last chapter for almost eight years, actually. But I've had some reservations about it, too. The original ending, which I'll tell you about some other time, was (depending how you look at it) so pitch black and bleak that I've never been sure that it's the right way to go. Some elements of that last chapter are still going to happen--it was planned to be a six scene chapter, with each scene wrapping up the stories of several major characters--but the last scene is going to be different now. And I'll tell you how I got there.

With the shocking conclusion of Season Two all wrapped up and finished, it's time to concentrate on the as yet unfinished Season Three, in which everything gets a whole lot worse for everybody. I stranded the season in the middle of Chapter 18 some time back, and that's where I'm headed to in the coming months. A lot of the things set up in Chapter 13 start to bear poisonous fruit all through Season Three, and a few key things come to a head near the end of Chapter 17, and then Chapter 18 is a huge confrontation between two of the Big 7, which then results in a scene narrated by someone other than Kelly, which hasn't been finished. The reason for that is it's pretty heavy, and once I go there ... there's no going back from it. And I haven't quite ever figured out how to deal with all of the implications that erupt from that chapter. But I'm not afraid. I'll figure it out.

Season Three also introduces new and interesting characters. One of them appears in the very next chapter -- someone who's been mentioned all along -- and I'll just leave him for your own discovery. We also meet the character of Beth in one particularly insane scene. She's based on Shannon, and in my portrayal of the character here she's probably more Shannon than Shannon, if that makes any sense. There's also the introduction of Natasha, who acts as as an antagonist/arch-nemesis for Kelly. The character is based on an amalgamation of two people I don't bear any particular malice towards (Becky and Larissa), but I have a great time writing their adversarial relationship the same way I enjoy each and every time Gwen and Willow share a scene.

In that same scene we meet another friend of Kelly and Ben: Cooter. Now in the draft I'm rewriting, the guy is actually called Hooter, and we actually knew a kid who went by the name Hooter that I used for this scene. But as that was so long ago and I only kinda knew him, I don't remember Hooter all that well and in fact don't even remember what he looks like. The substitution here just seems like kismet to me.

A little later on we meet two other girls named Lindsey and Kelsie, based on Jacquie and Casey. But for the needs of the story I've split them up. Kelsie works at the Diner as perhaps the most hapless waitress possible. Lindsey joins the hospital crew, and in her six or seven lines of dialogue it's immediately clear that she totally has Kelly's number. That establishing scene pretty much defines how their relationship is going to go, even though her role in the story isn't exactly what you might think it's going to be.

And I haven't done it yet in any scene I've written, but somewhere in Season Three I need to lay the groundwork for another character, one whom is going to be absolutely critical in the later seasons. I stole Chrissy to use as Sylja, the friendly stripper of Chapter One, but for Amy I saved the one role she was *literally* born to play: Gwen's little sister Quinn. I knew I was going to use her, but it was always a vague "Quinn shows up to talk to Kelly about what's happening to Gwen" kind of idea. It wasn't until today that I figured her character and her role in the book all the way out. And she's essential enough to turn the "Big 7" into a "Big 8", probably by the end of Season Five. (In case you're wondering, I think it's going to take six seasons, plus an epilogue, to get where I need to get to)

I was thinking it through today while at work, what I could do with Quinn, and it struck me that if I added a small shade of what happened recently with Amy to the character that all sorts of new dimensions would open up that I could work with and exploit. It isn't an odd mixture either. I first met Samantha when I was dating her sister. She was like 12 at the time, and she developed something of a puppy dog crush on me, something that paid off seven years later when she spotted me in the UMass library and came over to talk to me. It never occured to me before today, when I thought of splicing some Amy into there, that this element could be added to Quinn and it would totally work. I started to play out the scene in my mind, how it might go, what kind of relationship the two of them would have with each other, and it snowballed into a really nice scene I can't wait to write. And I figured out, based on where I know Gwen's story is headed, that Quinn would have some issues of her own, and I thought about how much I really did enjoy having Amy stay over on my couch (even if it was just for a night), and the idea hit me that Kelly might have a temporary roommate for a little while in those later chapters. I could almost write a whole 'nother book just based out of the Kelly and Quinn brainstorming I did this afternoon. As I envision it, the two of them have a very sweet relationship.

In the book Quinn needs to be 16, because she needs to get to Kelly's apartment under her own power, and besides it just works better that way. It sets up a few complications with Kelly and Gwen that I've been trying to figure out for years, and generally helps fill out a part of the book that I really hadn't gotten my head around at all. I kept the ball rolling in my head, with different characters crashing into each other, and what would happen if some other stuff collided, too, and then my head just exploded ... because I then figured out a better ending for the book. My god, you wouldn't believe how excited I was when that happened. I finally know where it's all going. It isn't just a general plan where I have to figure out how to settle 452 different subplots when I get there anymore.

I figued it out.

And in retrospect, it seems so frikking obvious that it's been staring me right in the face for practically forever.

So that was quite the epiphany. Thinking about it further caused a second one. I do a lot of talking about the Wheel of Destiny and where the Nice Lady is leading me and my ultimate destiny and so forth, and it became clear to me that I'm exactly where I need to be. Everything pulled me here, and because I'm here I had the epiphany that will allow me to finish this book. It couldn't have come before now. I wasn't just floundering in the wilderness all those years after all, but was being put into position where all the pieces would start to connect like inevitable clockwork. Because I'm here, because I was moved to Rugers, because I met Cooter and Amy, because I let that nice girl sleep on my couch, that gave me the idea that led to me connecting all the other dots. The test I was put through last week (and passed) wasn't just the universe screwing with me at all. It was divine inspiration. Without that experience last week it is conceivable that I might never have figured out how to end this book.

I feel about 100% better. About everything.

The Nice Lady knew what she was doing all along.

And thanks, Amy. You're a peach.