We’re a week away from the end of Round 4 and the conclusion of the second year of A Round of Words in 80 Days. I’m sure I’ll be gathering my thoughts about that for a post over at the ROW80 blog on Monday. For now, I’m chugging away at the end of DOTH. My word counts haven’t been huge this month, as I’ve been figuring important details out, but I’m hoping to knock out the final battle by the time I leave for my mom’s on Friday (it’s her birthday), then finish up the last scene, one fill in scene, and the epilogue by end of Round next week (if not sooner).
On the Operation GIT front, I have 3 days on calorie budget and with ALL my mini workouts thrown in (at a whopping 600 calories burned a day). I had some days on point last week too in between Christmas parties, and when I weighed this morning, I was under my October 3oth weight. Halleluia. Thanksgiving is undone. If I can keep this up between now and Christmas, I may be able to undo Halloween too, which would make me VERY happy.
So last night hubs and I finally got around to watching the DVRed season finale of Covert Affairs. If you haven’t seen it, big spoiler alert.
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So we love this show. And since the very beginning, we’ve been campaigning for Annie and Auggie to get together. Of course they’ve each gone through their own other relationships. Auggie had that thing with Parker that flopped. Annie had a few non-starters and then that awful thing with Simon frigging DYING. And there’s been all these hints of stuff with Eyal (whom we also really like). And this season there’ve been all these hints that Auggie wants to talk to Annie about his feelings (that whole thing about her nearly DYING really clarified things for him, I think) and FINALLY at the end of the episode he shows up and says “I’ve been wanting to have this talk for a while.” And she’s all “Okay, what do you want to talk about?”
And then…
He kisses her! And she totally kisses him back. And there’s this beat where she’s like, “I’m really glad we had this talk.” And then there’s more kissing.
And I’m totally bouncing in my chair in the living room and squeeing and clapping because OMG FINALLY!
And this, of course, is the end of the show until next summer.
Hubby and I got to talking about it last night, how this was a super satisfying season ender. We know, without a doubt, that they’ll do something to screw things up next season. But for the next six months, our brains can be super happy because the writers gave us something we REALLY REALLY WANTED. You know, instead of like, implying somebody died and leaving it on a cliffhanger for six months like a bunch of sadists.
As I’m sitting here facing the end of this first book of the trilogy, I’ve got this kind of thing on my mind. Because it’s the first third of a much bigger story (not like a lot of the trilogies I like where there’s an overarching story but each book follows a different couple and gives me my romantic happy ending no matter what’s going on in the metaplot) and there is often that sense with first, and especially second, books in trilogies of this utter lack of resolution, which makes it sometimes hard to create a satisfying end for the reader. I find this more of an issue with second books in trilogies, but either way, it’s something to consider–what breadcrumbs of happy are you leaving to sate your readers until the next book comes out?
5 thoughts on “Midweek Check-in #ROW80 and Thoughts on Finales”
Thank you! I needed the “breadcrumbs of happy” reminder as I struggle to finish book 2 of my trilogy. 🙂
I hadn’t really thought about it in those terms, but I really like thinking in terms of crumbs. Let’s see… I’m still in the early bits of my series, but I have two:
Series 1: It’s technically a quartet, but the fourth book will be a prequel, so it can count as a trilogy. Each book is self-contained, with a different narrator, so someone should technically be able to read them out of order, though one book’s events sets up things for the next one, so reading them out of order would give spoilers. In that sense, each one self-resolves—at least for that narrator. 🙂
Series 2: It’s more open-ended than a trilogy. I’m working on book 2, and the planned ending will involve something that’s both good and bad—though the narrator very much didn’t want the good thing to happen, because it brings its own set of problems. (Now that I’m thinking of it, that’s much like the end to book 1.) Hmm… So I guess that doesn’t fit trilogy format, either.
Drat. Oh, well. At least I’ll have this in mind when I move on to working on that serial series idea I have… 🙂
I don’t even know yet whether or not my WIP is a single novel or part of a series, but I will keep in mind regardless that I need to consider a breadcrumb of happy for potential future follow-ups. Really, it’s probably better to end on a high note than a low one, in my case, because I don’t particularly like tragedy for the sake of heartache. hmmm… you’ve give me much to think about here. TY! 🙂
Congratulations on all the progress!
I scrolled past the Covert Affairs stuff in case there was anything I needed to see after that, and I got a hint! Oh my gosh, I need to catch up! This weekend, Covert Affairs marathon at my house. Oh yes.
Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it’s been two years with ROW80! What a fabulous experience it has been for me. You’re doing great on your goals. I need to get some of that exercise mojo! So excited about you getting close to the end of DOTH. Have a terrific last week, Kait!