restructuring the second half of my novel (spoilers)

[Xelyn_Craft]

So, I finished the second draft of my book, got some beta readers to give feedback, and took some notes on things to change. The major thing I need to do is restructure the second half of my book. And by that, I mean, basically, I need to find a different way to end it. I feel like the first half of the book is really good, but once it reaches it’s conclusion, I need to move on to the second half of the book, and that needs a climax as well, something even more high stakes than the first half of the book. Right now, as it is written, the second half kind of falls short and seems boring in comparison. It’s reactionary. I need it to be more active instead of passive, so it lives up to the first half of the book. While I think the time for reaction and cool down is good, It needs to build up to something again instead of just ending there.

I’m going to put it into spoilers just in case anyone here ever does actually want to read the book or beta read the third draft, but I am going to lay out the basic structure I had for my book before and ask for insights on directions I could take the second half of the book. Keep in mind this is just the very most basic bare bones of the concepts for the book.

First half: The MC is a synthetic human. He comes online for the first time and tries to navigate the world as something that is supposed to only be a machine, subservient to humans, but has thoughts and feelings just like any other person. One of his creators tries to find out how he is capable of having these emotions and sentience by basically putting him through a torturous process to find answers.

Second half: After nearly being destroyed in the process of being experimented on to see how he is capable of sentience, the MC is rescued and repaired by the other scientist that helped to create him. This less cruel creator accepts that the MC is a person worthy of rights and basic human decency. In an effort to help him find his place in the world, she offers to let him choose how he wants to live his life. He settles on a project that is trying to save the human race by sending colonizers into space to other planets. He wants to help humans survive the dying world they’ve created by getting them a new start on a new world and hopes that in the process, they will learn how to be less cruel and destructive. After joining this project, he meets other people who are also on the project and they start the journey into space. It leaves off there for the second book.

As you can see, while all the second half of the book is necessary, I think it needs more in order to build to a climax that makes for a more interesting ending. I don’t want it to be too much of a cliffhanger, just enough that it sets up the next book, but I do want it to have some more oomph and keep the readers invested. Ideally, it will answer one big question that the story poses, while leaving several other smaller questions unanswered for the next book. Or, in other terms, it will have one big solution while presenting other problems to be solved in the next book.

I already have an idea of what I want the next book to look like, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas that might work for the short term, to keep the first book interesting and give it a new ending, while still leaving at least part of the journey for the second book (where they are in space and heading towards the new world to colonize) unwritten. Does anyone have any ideas that might help me out?

[Akje]

I don’t think I can help, because I honestly don’t see what’s wrong with the second half of the book. Readers want a satisfying ending, and that sounds like a great one. You might want to add obstacles so that it doesn’t happen easily, like maybe add a new villain who wants to prevent the colonies in space or destroy the MC for personal reasons or something. But otherwise it sounds just fine to me. (*＾-‘) 乃

[J.L.O]

Ok. Some options:

Personal interest:

Via Savior:

Scientist that saves them has…not necessarily a disability that we have now, but something that is dependent in getting people like them off-world, into a cleaner environment or their life is shorter. It would likely be something you set up in the 1st half, on why they allowed the other person to have more control over the project, and then was forced to step in and save them. Fuel the personal interest as in, “I was almost lost because of your limitations, so I want to fix that, for you, so you are no longer held back.”

Via Torturer:

If they were interested in transferring a mind, like the person who saves your AI character, so they wanted to study this real personality or “soul” to see how to reprogram it and give longer life to the eventual savior, so everyone could stay, housed in a more eternal being, making AI people a lot like brood mares.

Using one or both of these would invest your character in opening up new avenues for humanity, to make them not the sole options.

Another option is lean into PTSD and dying for a new environment far away. This would probably take a lot less restructuring.

But I really do see a need for the stakes to be very blatantly personal for your character, otherwise they become an “insert a savior”, and that may be the biggest factor to feeling "flat’. Or at least “like every other super-savior story”.

[Xelyn_Craft]

These are all insightful options. I’ll definitely consider them and how to make them work in the best way for my story.

[J.L.O]

I’m sure there’s more places to make it personal in your story, especially as you look at the details in the first half, so you will probably find more options than just this, with a reread. The more things tie around them, the better the latter part of the story will orbit them.

Just remember that if you find those ties in something small, that has barely a mention, you may have to trigger remembering that thing, whether it was a phrase, a flower, a pet, a couple of times for it to feel like it’s all woven in. I try for at least 3 points: 1st instigation, 2nd sustained in the middle as a reminder, 3rd make sure it pays off in the end. Bigger story arcs come up as often as needed, which plot pushes.