Coming home from work the other night, there was what appeared to be a bright star in the sky. Rather than being a star, I suspected it was Venus.

Later that evening, when I got on the computer, I checked my astronomy program and, sure enough, it was Venus that I saw.

Did you know that when Venus is bright in the sky like that, it is frequently reported as a UFO?

Seriously.

The thing is, it doesn’t move at all. It’s just there. Sure, if you stand there watching it for hours, it will slowly move, but it’s hardly a flying saucer.

I suppose that maybe, if you’re driving through a wooded area or something, you might see a bright light poking through the trunks and leaves here and there, which may give the illusion of movement, but then wouldn’t people be reporting phone towers and the moon too?

Well, they probably do that too.

How should a story end?

The answer is going to depend largely on what type of story it was. In most cases, the end should wrap up the storyline. The exceptions would be if you have a two-part story or a trilogy planned. But, what of the final ending? Whether it’s a single story or a series of stories, how should the last one end?

Here again, you still need to wrap up the storyline. If you have a series of stories or novels with a story arc that spans them all, the last story or book in the series should conclude that arc.

But, what of series with standalone stories? Should you wrap up the main characters’ lives in the last story, or should you leave it open?

A more common example these days–since more people watch TV than read books–would be TV series. When they know the end is coming (as opposed to series that get cancelled before the writers have a chance to wrap up the story), how should it end?

For me, if it’s something that I’ve enjoyed watching, I have a tendency for the non-ending ending. In other words, the main story lines or arcs are wrapped up, but the final fate of the characters isn’t shown. By that I don’t mean that it ends on a cliffhanger, only that it doesn’t conclude with the characters’ funerals; it just ends in their present day, with room for more adventures the next day.

SPOILER WARNING: I am going to discuss the endings of some shows. They are old enough that most people probably already know them, but if you’re just getting started watching them on DVD or something and have not seen them before, you might want to skip ahead. I’ll bold the series’ name so you can skip to the next section if you want.

CHEERS

I think Cheers had a good ending. It wrapped up the some of the dangling storylines for some of the characters, but left things largely to continue on. It ended with a customer trying the locked door, and Sam Malone saying “We’re closed.” Of course, in its fictional world, the bar would be open again the next day, but it was a nice way to close out the show without really making it a finale. The bar didn’t close permanently. All the characters didn’t die. And, in your own imagination, you know that they’ll all be hanging out at Cheers the next day.

On top of that, when you watch reruns, except for unfortunate cases where the actors have passed away, you’re not sitting there thinking “Oh, he was hit by a car and died in the finale” or something.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

Star Trek: The Next Generation had a good ending with “All Good Things.” It concluded with Captain Picard (finally) playing poker with the rest of the crew. It’s unfortunate that the movies sort of undid that kind of camaraderie, but at least it was a good way to close out the series.

THE LONE GUNMEN

I didn’t like the ending to The Lone Gunmen (which wrapped up in an episode of The X-Files, as The Lone Gunmen series was cancelled). At the end, the three main characters–the “Lone Gunmen”–all die. I would have rather imagined them still being out there.

END OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

Another factor is whether a series is ending on a bark or a whimper. If it’s going out good, the ending is much more important to leave the reader or viewer with a positive impression. If it’s going out badly (i.e., Andromeda), it’s a chance to redeem the series somewhat but there’s not as much pressure because few people care at that point. Of course, you’ve got to assume that people are enjoying your work (especially if it’s going to be a single story where you’re not going to have any feedback before the end is nigh) and try to make a strong ending.

So, what are some of your favorite and least favorite endings?

Yesterday, I mentioned trying to fit working on my stories into my schedule–just setting aside so much time each day to work on that.

It’s easier than it sounds!

I’ll briefly go over the story selections mentioned the other day and hopefully show you why it’s so difficult to pick one.

Story #2 “family search”: This one is actually kind of fun. Each “chapter” ends on a cliffhanger of sorts. My initial idea was to make a serialized story, but then I just got so wrapped up in it that it really needs to be novel length. At one point, I thought I could get two novels out of it, but the first novel would end on a cliffhanger, and I’m not sure many readers appreciate that, so it’s probably best just to make it one novel. This story is a little time-sensitive. I started writing it in 2004, and it’s supposed to take place in 2012.

Story #5 “old conflict new era”: This is actually two stories. In developing the main story, a backstory developed out of it. Now, I could do the main story first, and then do the backstory as a prequel, but I think it makes more sense to start with the prequel first! Otherwise, you know what happens which, in and of itself isn’t necessarily a big deal, as you don’t know how it happens, but, in this case, I think it works best just to not know what happens beforehand. I started this story in 2000 (maybe earlier, but 2000 are the oldest notes I have handy) and some of the things I have in the story have actually happened to an extent in either real life or movies/TV. (And, by the same token, some real life events have helped shape the story too.) So, by the time I finish this, it may look like I copied other ideas, when that’s not actually the case. Yesterday, I also did some 3D modeling for the ship that appears in the story. (It’s easier for me to write sometimes if I can actually see what I’m writing about. I can sometimes see it in my head, but if I can get that onscreen, so much the better.) I had a design for the ship that I did in Adobe Illustrator back in 2000, which are just 2D of course, so I did some work to make 3D models of it. I have one part modeled, and did a test render, and it looks pretty wicked cool.

Story #3 “eclectic explorers”: I think I started this one in 2005 (don’t have my notes handy). It started out being a lot simpler than it has turned out to be. But, once I got into it, I started developing a backstory, an overall plot, all the characters, etc. This was going to be a group project, where other writers would write “episodes” in the story series. The main holdups on this project have been (a) me finishing the initial story to get things moving and (b) having enough funds to pay the writers. And, with the economy in the toilet, (b) is pretty much a stalling point.

So, really, I guess it comes down to Story #2 or Story #5. The logical choice would be Story #2. It’s more time-sensitive and I also have more writing done on it. (10,554 words versus 2,907 words.) Plus, Story #5 has this plot hole I haven’t figured out a way to fix yet. (I need a certain character to live, yet there isn’t a strong enough reason for the villains to let him live and, if he escapes, that pretty much spoils the villains’ plans.)

Yet, Story #5 keeps calling me…

Sunday night, I did some cleaning up on my computer. Still have a mess of stuff on my desktop, but I’ve been working on cleaning that up!

I wanted to post about “The Schedule” but I have been unable to find the piece of paper I wanted to photograph, show you and talk about. So, that’s a post for another day, as soon as I figure out where I put “The Schedule” so that I would be sure not to lose it.

Anyway, I’ve discussed before my problem of having lots of ideas of things I want to work on. I generally think of these things when I cannot do them, such as when I’m at work or in bed trying to fall asleep. Then, when I sit down in front of the computer, my mind goes to mush.

Fortunately (maybe), Sunday night I discovered Stickies. I’ve known of them for many moons, but never realized they were also on my newer computer. I’ve decided to give them a try. I entered four or five things to do. Already on Monday, I knocked that down to three things today. Yeah, not a lot of progress, but (a) these aren’t the only things I had to do–just the things I wanted to remember to do and (b) writing this blog post is one of those three remaining things.

On a related note, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter too. I’m even one of those people with my own personalized Twitter URL. Here’s mine: dcrTweets. Cool, eh? Anyway, much of the time has been learning Twitter, gaining followers, interacting with people and generally getting a feel for how it works. I think I’m nearing the point where I’ll settle into a routine with Twitter, and be able to spend less time on it, but that time would be more productive while I’m using it.

That will free up time for me to work on other projects. My two main projects at the moment are my eBook and my eCommerce site. In fact, the other two items on my Stickies list are a project for each of those projects.

At any rate, none of that is what I really wanted to write about tonight. No, that was all background filler.

You see, what I discovered in cleaning up my computer is all those writing projects I’m always working on. I’m always thinking of them, and working out stories and characters and everything, so it seems I am always working on them. And, I would be remiss in saying that I have not been working on them at all, since I do work on them in non-writing ways. For example, there is one story I would really like to do as animation (actually, film, but unless hundreds of millions of dollars fall land at my door, I don’t see that happening soon), so I would count the modeling, even the learning modeling and animation exercises, that I do as working on them, as it is a form of work on the story.

But, it’s not writing.

You all may remember this post with survey results where I mentioned the stories I was working on. Well, here is my progress, in terms of words written…

• Story #2 “family search” - I have 10,554 words on this story. Last time I wrote anything on it? May 13, 2004
• Unlisted Story - This story wasn’t on that poll, but I have 1,245 words written on it. Last time I wrote anything on it was July 29, 2004. Oops. Scratch that. I have 1,423 words written on it, and the last time I worked on it was August 11, 2008. So, yay! I have done something recently…
• Story #4 “teenage killer” - I have 1,265 words written on this. Last time I worked on it was February 20, 2005.
• Story #5 “old conflict new era” - I have 2,907 words written on this. Last time I wrote anything on it was May 2, 2005.
• Story #3 “eclectic explorers” - I have 1,772 and 771 words written on this. (Two separate stories.) Last time I worked on this was July 23, 2006.

This was all somewhat shocking to me. I think about it so much that it just feels like it hasn’t been that long since I wrote anything on them.

I’ve just spent so much time working on things to try to earn money, as I’m sure many people are doing these days. But, I’ve got to figure out a way to work some writing into my schedule so I can get these things done.

Of course, I also admit that I’ve been a bit torn as well. I mean, I’d really rather see these things on-screen rather than in book form. And, while writing can get me a book, getting something on-screen requires either a boatload of money, or me figuring out how to do all the animation on my own. And, thus my efforts have largely been spent on trying to make boatloads of money rather than working on the writing of these stories.

Commenting on last Sunday’s post, Awake in Rochester commented: “You’ve mentioned Sci - Fi I like it too. My favorite is Star Trek the original, the 2nd generation is good too. Anyways…Do you have a Sci - Fi blog? Maybe have a Sci - Fi store in the blog? The economy sucks so I would keep the price of the merchandise low. But it’s a good nitch!”

I did (do) have a SciFi site. It’s one that’s been long-neglected. I ran it pretty full steam ahead for about a year, and it’s been on life-support for about two years now. I keep hoping to get back to it at some point and give it another go, but things that pay the bills–or have a higher likelihood to do so–are the ones that take priority.

Without looking up any actual figures, I spent at least several hundred dollars on the site (probably more), as well as a lot of time. I put a good amount of effort into promoting the site, and even set up a MySpace page for myself where I tried to steer SciFi fans toward my SciFi site, inasmuch as you could on MySpace at the time. I got a fair amount of traffic from all sources, but that was generally not traffic that converted into anything.

I had ads from Google AdSense on the site, but never got much out of that. I ran affiliate programs for related merchandise, but no sales at all from there. I did direct some traffic to my rubber stamps site where I have some SciFi related stamps. Had a few sales, but cannot be sure how much of that were a direct result of people coming in from the SciFi site, as I didn’t have sophisticated tracking running on the site. I had some items on CafePress, from which I “earned” $3.98, which is still sitting in the CafePress account because it doesn’t meet the payout minimum.

So, that was my attempt at earning something from SciFi.

Today, on GateWorld, I read their interview with Michelle Morgan, who guest starred in a couple episodes of Stargate: Atlantis.

You know what impressed me?

The lack of cursing.

Seriously, I’ve read a number of different interviews, and it just seems these days as though everyone throws the f-word around. It just slips in, as though it’s just another word to be used in your everyday vocabulary. F-this, f-that. Are you upset? F-yes. Are you happy? F-yes. Are you sad? F-yes. It just gets tossed around often for no reason whatsoever.

It’s become that word that can mean anything. As a result, it really means nothing anymore. It’s as though you don’t have the vocabulary to express what you really feel, so you just f-it.

And, it’s not just men. Used to be that it was always the men that swore, and women would just mutter under their breath if they did something like hit their fingernail with a hammer. But, nowadays, everyone seems to be eager to toss around the f-word like they were tossing a salad. And, it’s not limited to times when you’ve hurt yourself or when you’re angry. Nope, it can be used in any circumstance.

It wouldn’t be difficult to believe that a couple, or multiple couples, have gotten married to the declaration of “F— yes!” rather than “I do.” Such is the state of things these days.

So, it’s impressive when you see someone that isn’t dropping the word every time you turn around.

And, that’s sad.

Sometimes, I just take pictures of fluffy white clouds.

For more photos, visit Wordless Wednesday.

While Mike is sworn to secrecy (still) on my not as secretive project, I am not sworn to secrecy on his project. Probably because his isn’t a secret anymore, if it ever was.

But, in any case, his project, The Mysterious Minute-Men Omnibus, is now published and available for purchase.

Since my project is still “under development,” as they say, pop on over and get a copy of his book. That ought to tide you over until my project is ready to be released. And, if you like his work, you’ll also like my project because–so long as he is still willing and able when I’m set–he’ll be doing some work for my project too.

And, if you don’t like his stuff, well, you’ll still like my project because he’s not the only one on board.

Haven’t posted a weird head in a while, so I figured I was past due.

Sadly, it doesn’t look as good as previous tries (1, 2, 3, 4). Maybe because this one started off as a rocket ship. Sigh.

I don’t think Pixar will be looking for me anytime soon.