gkmoberg1 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:22 pm
I'm not sure I should list some of my thoughts just yet and should wait until we get to end. There's time yet where you might fill in some gaps on character backstories that have me curious and wanting to know more.
Now that we’ve finished, I’m eager to hear your thoughts!
And perhaps I ought to offer a few of my own...for anyone who hasn’t yet read the final chapter, I would suggest not reading further yet. Fair warning!
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Writing this ending was difficult for me, on several different levels. There was the melancholy of saying farewell to a tale I’d dedicated significant parts of a year to, the characters and ideas to which I’d grown so attached. And of course the anxiety that in the final lap I would trip and land on my face, invalidating all the efforts that had come before. But the hardest thing was letting events proceed as they would, to their truest conclusion. Many of the untimely deaths that occurred, I didn’t want. But in writing a story it often becomes less about what is wanted as a writer (or even a reader) and instead about listening to what the narrative is telling you.
Still, it was hard outlining and filling in the details of such a bittersweet (some might see it as only bitter) conclusion to a tale built on hope, trust, and the idea that it’s okay to want something more. Something better. The reason I can live with it is because, to my eye, this is the happiest end that could be found without straying into wish fulfillment or sacrificing the dignity of the characters. We all knew that the blood drive was never going to be sustainable long term. Levi’s monthly curse was never going to be cured. All families are eventually parted. In the end, the joy and hope of the story was temporary - but that doesn’t make it meaningless. Far from it, I feel. Life is defined by finding happiness and recalling it even after it has gone, and those moments drive us forward to search for that feeling again and again. The pursuit of happiness and hope is the only reason any of us are alive.
But because of their pain and sacrifice, many lives were saved. A monster was slain. And something happened that even years of happiness and peace would never have brought: Levi discovered what it felt like to feel alive again, in the moments before his death. He died full of peace and purpose, finally freed from the pain and turmoil that had consumed nearly half his life. And he left behind two friends who will carry his memory into the future with him.
In a way, Oskar and Elias are left where we last saw them: on a path set toward an uncertain future with nothing but each other. But things have changed now - Elias has grown closer to humanity thanks to his time as part of the Matthews family, reclaiming once and for all his identity as Elias rather than Eli. Oskar has grown darker, embracing the parts of himself he feared and redefining his morality to suit a new life as a vampire - he’s taken several steps toward becoming the Oskar we glimpse in LtODD. In a way they have switched roles. Their experiences have changed them.
A goal when I was writing LtLNE was to furnish a story that I could feel better justified a future in which Oskar became a vampire, something I think the original novel didn’t quite reach given LtODD’s reveal. So I went with the idea that the blood mixing didn’t actually work out, and that Oskar had second thoughts afterward about giving up mortal (and moral) life. I wanted to have him grow a bit more, experience more through his relationships with Levi and Milton, and ultimately come to a point where his decision is somewhat more understandable and less condemning of his character than LtODD: he is turned unwillingly, as Eli was, and chooses life (and friendship) over death, in doing so provoking an internal shift where he becomes comfortable with killing to survive as long as he and his loved ones persist. It was an inevitable sacrifice if he didn’t want his time with Elias to end. Sacrificing for love is a persistent character motivation throughout the story.
In hindsight, I made some missteps that I may correct someday with a second draft rewrite. I introduced the characters of Damien, Carmen, Abraham, and Abby at about the halfway point when I might’ve been better served giving them at least a smaller appearance earlier in the story. Abby I feel I never quite gave the same level of purpose and characterization I did to the others, and her exit from the story is rather abrupt. And there are some narrative false leads leftover from changes in the plot; the absence of the blood moon being one of them, which was originally going to play a role in Levi’s ability to (barely) direct himself in his hybrid wolf-man state for the climax. I had more scenes planned for all the characters that sadly never made it off the cutting room floor for pacing purposes, as the narrative rapidly raced past my expectations to a sooner than anticipated end (yet somehow ended up longer than expected).
And who knows? Maybe that rewrite will conclude with a slightly “happier” ending for my readers. But in the meantime...we must let the curtains fall.
"The dark is patient, and it always wins. But its weakness lies in its strength: a single candle is enough to hold it at bay. Love is more than a candle. Love can ignite the stars." - Matthew Stover