Previously: An Isolated Incident IIIIII The First Seal is Broken IIIIII, IV, V The Second Seal is Broken Part I, II, III.

Epilogue

Well, shit.  Frank’s last pronouncement was the death knell for the story.

I find I am unable to drive the story forward. Partly I didn’t have enough structure (in my head) and some certain parts I probably should’ve amplified, to form more coherent arcs to carry things along, and I didn’t. I let the story find its own way a little too much and that has limited me such that trying to force that in now doesn’t really seem to work. I guess maybe that goes with the approach (writing in series rather than to the end) or at least without a firm enough grasp on how it should progress.

I had roughly planned to push CNO to a degree of victory – this is where I failed to elaborate on how they were received by the public, and that they had created a wave of support which would be essential to that end. That element was tricky anyway because as someone made a mention about suspension of disbelief, I simply couldn’t now find a way to craft this in.  Particularly it got harder to move the story in a way that would end up more fantastic, given the realism I kept veering toward.  Early on there was a comment about magical realism, and maybe there was a path there, but I couldn’t find it. The victory was to have been bittersweet, in that the final act of accountability was to be self-imposed and they would commit mass suicide (as there was no way they could just simply melt back into society). That also was going to be tricky as that is almost a bit more Japanese than American as a sense of honor.  Alternatively, I couldn’t write toward an end where they failed – that was even more grim.  Rock, meet hard place.

I thank you all for being a kind and generous audience as I experimented with this; I’m glad I’ve entertained you, and I wish I could have brought this to a more satisfying conclusion. Perhaps everyone can imagine a better ending.

Editor’s Note: Glibs truly appreciates the contributions of Juris Imprudent, and all our other writers. Series are hard to write. Some drag on forever, or fizzle out unfinished (mea culpa). Glibs is a sandbox where aspiring (and experienced) writers can try things out. The best advice I can give to writers is to write, or at least plot, the whole thing out first. A series is basically a novel published one chapter at a time. Commenters may consider this an open thread. -T