Our teacher had previously instructed us that our last assignment was to write the last chapter of our novels. I was fine with that, because I have something of an outline, but on the other hand my ending is so far afield from Jerry’s ending that I had to make it up out of whole cloth, like an actual author instead of a plagiarist.
I relied a lot on dialog, but given that Jerry’s book is full of five-page blocks of description, if I wanted any consistency I did have to make up some visuals. I took his first description of the town and reversed it, so all the noise and motion became silence and stillness. And I left the romantic triangle unresolved but hinted at.
As the teacher initially said, we don’t have to use it, we just need a place to aim for.
I think next I need to plan some more plotting so I can string together the good parts. I have transcribed one or two of his best scenes, and I have some scenes I thought of myself, stemming from my new theme. For example, his hero needs to die. (Sorry, that’s what happens Jerry, you made me into a cruel hard woman.) After there’s a plan I can weave in his best scenes. I think after that I’ll end up with a framework.
I have an extra forty minutes a day I don’t spend driving in to work now, anyway.