How do you go about endings?

[redzinger]

I have NO fucking idea what I'm doing.

I often feel like this.

Most of my novels have begun with a scene, then the story builds around that. I'll usually write the end when it comes to me, about a third of the way through, then I just have to fill the bits in between.

My writing methods are totally haphazard or instinctive though. If I don't feel a scene, I'll move to somewhere else or something else.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I often feel like this.

Most of my novels have begun with a scene, then the story builds around that. I'll usually write the end when it comes to me, about a third of the way through, then I just have to fill the bits in between.

My writing methods are totally haphazard or instinctive though. If I don't feel a scene, I'll move to somewhere else or something else.

Virtually all are raised on stories and know its form, from start to end.

 

[Athalia]

I always know the ending BEFORE I know the start point.

But my characters sometimes don't agree and the originally designed ending becomes impossible/unlikely.

That. Exactly.

Every once in a while, I finish a story, re-read it, and a little voice says "That's not the way it ends." I then drink a glass of wine and do something else. When I come back to the story, I can usually find out where the story went off the track, and fix it.

 

[Savage_Henry]

Try and end it with the reader wanting to know more. Hungry for more is a good way to describe it.

Or horny for more might be better.

 

[sr71plt]

Try and end it with the reader wanting to know more. Hungry for more is a good way to describe it.

Or horny for more might be better.

This is a good place to write those. The story could have all of the characters lying around dead at the end that there still would be commenters who told you it was a good beginning and they were looking forward to reading the rest of the story.

 

[sr71plt]

Virtually all are raised on stories and know its form, from start to end.

I suspect this is true--that, by the time you've gotten around to writing yourself, who've absorbed enough from what you've read to have internalized standard structure.

 

[SecondCircle]

Before I start writing, I usually have some ideal of the ending or where I want to go. This does NOT mean that's where it will definitely end. It's like drawing a picture for me. You can see it in your head and you know how you want it to look. Usually you can get it pretty close to what you envisioned. But usually it never is exactly as you first pictured. Along the way I might draw it differently, or even better than I envisioned it. So I guess in a way I start with a "concept art" of what I want to do. And as I write, the world and characters are literally coming to life. They flesh themselves out, and often the actual ending the story needs becomes apparent.

I can say enjoy reading and writing endings that sort of leave you thinking. Not necessarily always "open" endings, but ones that feel like the characters and their world still go on operating sonewhere in imagination land even after the final word of the story. I like to wonder, because that means I'm immersed and affected by that story... and even forgot it was "just a story".

 

[SamScribble]

Although, in another life, I have recently 'killed off' a couple of my central characters - well, perhaps not exactly killed off, but they died on my watch - I usually steer the story towards an open-ended ending.

I like the idea of the reader getting to the end and saying to herself 'Gosh, I wonder what will happen next.' 'Will he or won't he?' 'Is that really the end? Or will they get back together?' 'I know he said no, but did he really mean no?'

Possibly because of this approach, I tend to get a bit of mail from readers telling me how much they are looking forward to 'the next chapter'. This is when I look at the screen and say: There is no next chapter. It's a short story - not a long-running soap!

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I suspect this is true--that, by the time you've gotten around to writing yourself, who've absorbed enough from what you've read to have internalized standard structure.

We internalize many many rituals. No one reads a book or story and becomes thunderstruck when they see THE END, tho a few of us wish THE END came closer to the beginning.

 

[PervOtaku]

I always know the ending before I start writing.

That doesn't mean the ending was conceptualized first. Sometimes it is, sometimes not. Sometimes you have to conceptualize the entire story before you figure out the ending. Sometimes you conceptualize the beginning, or the cast of characters, then the ending comes to you, and then you get to fill in the middle.

And sometimes it's just a quick fuck story with a minimal set-up, and it ends when the sex finishes.

 

[Darkniciad]

I always know the beginning and the ending. It's between those two points where the characters take control, and often don't get to the ending in the way I expected.

A lot of beginnings have changed, but very few of my endings have morphed from the original concept. Most that don't lead toward my planned conclusion end up in the "half-baked" folder.