#my history in scriptwriting has benefitted me way more for serials like this

[not-poignant]

Pia I'm curious, FFS feels so unlike a traditional story, sure it's got it's arcs and ups and downs but it feels like we're just following alone in someones life. How do you wrap up a story like that? Or do you plan on just continuing it until it stops working for you or a natural conclusion presents itself?

Hi hi!

(Just a heads up there's some spoilers for future plot points in this).

The story is actually slowly already starting to wrap up. While I don't have a concrete final chapter in mind, I do know that we have very few beats left to hit basically before the end.

I always knew this story would end around the point where readers could feel like Efnisien had grown enough to basically keep growing in the 'right direction.' I.e. We can trust that he's reaching out to his support network, he's better at communicating, he has a positive hospital experience which sets him up if he needs future ones, he gains not only one therapist and another partner, but friends (and groups) he likes outside of that.

Because this story is ending on a hopeful ending, it's important to me to end where basically it's possible to feel like Arden and Efnisien have a handle on things.

So the few beats we have left to hit are things like - I'd like Efnisien to visit Professor Adayemi, he needs to have his talk with Gwyn (in fact this was probably one of the biggest signs that FFS is ending sooner rather than later - we came full circle on something introduced in chapter one as an open and unresolved plot point, that is now approaching its resolution), there needs to be at least one more scene with Arden, and there needs to be a couple of specific conversations with Dr Gary. And then... well, that's it! (That's not the order, they're just the beats I'm looking for before the end).

Idk how many chapters that will take, but I do know we're very much heading towards the end now. That's why the tone of the chapters recently have been a little different, even when things are stressful. There's always support there, things are working out, even when Efnisien is crying or upset, someone is caring for him, slowly but surely, we're seeing that Efnisien's life has kind of radically changed from where he was at in the beginning. He's safer, he's more resilient, he's more emotionally authentic, he doesn't shame or hate himself in the same way for crying anymore, he admitted he's a person, he's admitted he doesn't want to be abused or treated badly by Gwyn anymore.

A lot of my stories - both those with traditional and non-traditional structures - always tend to end around the point where my MCs are mature enough that once they get their hopeful or happy ending, you can generally trust they're going to keep going in the right direction. So even if everything isn't resolved it's like 'oh that's okay, they've got this, I believe in them.'

As a result, I've actually been getting a lot of comments from people along the lines of: 'I feel like this is going to end soon' or 'I feel like this story is winding down' and that's exactly what I'm going for. It is winding down, Efnisien is not the same person he was, and he's got a pretty clear road towards becoming a much more comfortable and self-accepting person, slowly, and with time. He'll never completely heal, so that was never my aim. I just wanted to get to a point where we could all have some faith in him and his support network, and then...shore that up a little.

Once Falling Falling Stars is over (which I suspect will be around the 150-160 chapter mark, which sounds like a ton of chapters, but really isn't in the grand scheme of FFS), I've definitely left myself open to writing kink oneshots and more for this story! It's such an open and expansive story I don't plan on 'leaving it for good' (though I absolutely am not writing a sequel), I think there's a lot of potential to explore Efnisien/Arden's kink life, for example, that might weight down FFS itself, but might be really fun to read anyway.

So yeah! That's basically it! I do kind of know how I'll wrap it up because I'm doing it. FFS gets a long, comfortable denouement with some angsty and hurt/comfort moments. There's going to be nothing as painful as the bridge/hospital breakdown coming up, we hit the most painful part of the story, the one that really tested Efnisien to make a choice between life and Dr Gary, or death and Crielle.

A few more beats to go, and then the story will reach its own natural conclusion. :D

(ETA: I should probably add that I write more like someone writing a TV drama than a novelist. So I actually am following a pretty traditional structure in terms of serial TV storytelling with A/B/C storylines! It's probably important to mention here that if you think I'm writing like a novelist, when I'm not writing novels, and I'm writing serials, you'll come up against a 'how is this working.' It makes way more sense if you look at it like a TV show broken down into seasons and episodes - and then in that sense, I do actually follow quite a few structural rules).