I finished another story this week, and I always find it strange how difficult it is to switch from one work to the next. I had this problem when I finished my novel, after spending three years writing that story and living with those characters. I can’t say it surprised me that it was hard to figure out where to go next. I missed being with those characters; it was hard to let go of them and move on to the next thing.

It’s been most surprising that it’s almost as difficult to move on from a short story. I spend so much less time in those places. The characters have shorter tales to tell, and the glimpses into their worlds are brief and self contained. You’d think it would be easier to move on from them.

I’m finding it’s almost the complete opposite. It often feels like the windows into their worlds are too small, and I feel compelled to try to open them further, to make sure that I’m really seeing all they had to offer. Their stories leave me with questions that couldn’t be answered in the brief time I had with them. Self-doubt makes me wonder if I’ve given them their full due or if they needed more space.

It’s not a lack of ideas – I always have something else rattling around in my head, waiting to be written. It feels more like a symptom of that larger human problem of endings being hard. I finish a story and I peer at it from every angle saying “Is this it? Is this really where it stops?” The story I just finished left me very full of doubt that I’d come to the proper end of it (thankfully, feedback from my writing group has agreed with me that it’s complete). In contrast, looking further at the story I finished for the Legacy collection has me thinking there is much more to say there, to the point that I might have two more books to write when I finish the current trilogy I’m working on.

The other thing I’m trying to remember in this finnicky business of making worlds is that much like the real world, there will always be another story. Places can be revisited, characters can be met again. The end of the story can be a farewell, not a goodbye. It makes it a little easier knowing that I can always come back to them if I change my mind later. For now though, it’s time to figure out which world to visit next.