Do you know how your story will end before you start writing?

[SimonDoom]

I saw this issue taken up in a thread on a different topic, and I thought it was interesting and deserved its own thread. So here goes.

My answer: always. I have a picture in my mind of the story as a whole, and before I write I draft an outline of all the key events from beginning to end. Then I start writing from the beginning of the story. Often, the story veers away from the outline, but I usually stay true to the ending I've envisioned, and usually, at some point, while I'm drafting, the ending will come to me and I draft the ending paragraphs or page before I've finished the middle part of the story. Then I go back to where I left off and fill in the middle. I don't know if that's strange but that's the way I've drafted most of my stories.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, I always "know" how my story will end before I begin writing--it's one of my requirements for beginning to write it. HOWEVER, I'm sometimes wrong when it's done--but I'm always happy I was wrong.

 

[SamScribble]

I usually think that I know how the story will end. But sometimes I am wrong.

 

[blackmohammed]

For me Not always, When I write a story I like it to grow organically so that I don't add new details to fit the ending or change the settings to much in order to satisfy the vision I have in my head.

However there have been a few stories that I have thought about that came ending first because I wanted the people in the story to live a complicated life and that way I was able to write according to what would make the best conflict and a satisfying resolution that could connect with my ending.

 

[litfan10]

It depends on what motivated me to write the piece in the first place. If I have a story in mind then yes, I have an end in mind.

If I have a sense of an interesting character or a what if type situation then no, I let my characters lead me on where they will.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Always. The end is the punchline.

 

[_Lynn_]

Do you know how your story will end before you start writing?


I rarely know the next sentence in whatever I'm writing. I don't think I ever had an ending planned before I started a piece.

 

[TxRad]

It's all according to what I'm writing. For Lit, I have a general idea of where it will end but sometimes the primes is to good not to make a story out of it and let the chips and the ending fall where they may.

For my mainstream writing, I have the overall arc plotted out, including the ending. Sometimes the arc may change but the beginning and end usually remain intact unless something better for an ending comes along.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Repeated from the other thread:

I nearly always make it up as I go along.

I'm working on a second collaborative piece right now (again taking established characters, writing turn and turn about) - that gets to be fascinating, since neither of us knows where the other one will take the story. Both of us have history on our characters, and that history interacts and supports motive, but the future gets written as we go along.

It's a lot like real life, since both of us are plugging into semi-autobiographical characters and semi-real events.

 

[SamScribble]

Repeated from the other thread:

I nearly always make it up as I go along.

I'm working on a second collaborative piece right now (again taking established characters, writing turn and turn about) - that gets to be fascinating, since neither of us knows where the other one will take the story. Both of us have history on our characters, and that history interacts and supports motive, but the future gets written as we go along.

It's a lot like real life, since both of us are plugging into semi-autobiographical characters and semi-real events.

A long long time ago, a friend and I wrote a comic novel in this way. My friend (another established writer) wrote the first chapter and left it with the protagonist 'in peril'. And so, of course, I returned the favour. And so it went. Eventually, we both got overtaken by other projects. But a year or so later, my friend turned 'our novel' into a play for the BBC, and we split the proceeds.

 

[tomlitilia]

Yes, I always "know" how my story will end before I begin writing--it's one of my requirements for beginning to write it. HOWEVER, I'm sometimes wrong when it's done--but I'm always happy I was wrong.

This is my take as well. It's fine to change the story direction while writing, but I at least need a target to aim for. The details I usually sort out along the way. I won't even publish a chapter of a story before the entire thing is completed now, just to make sure it all holds together.

 

[Kojak01]

I have several story stumps but I don't start writing until I have a rough idea on what will happen and how it will end. I happily deviate from the plan though.

 

[oggbashan]

I always know how a new story will end before I start writing - with one notable exception. That is Christmas Fairy Chapters 01 and 02. I had decided on an ending but the story went wildly off course. Now, short of a deus ex machina ending e.g. 'they dropped dead' I have no plausible solution for the dilemma facing the characters.

Even for part written stories from a decade ago I still know how the story is intended to end despite not having recorded the ending anywhere. I don't have to. Re-reading what I have written so far is enough to remind me of the ending.

I have only written notes of what the ending will be for one incomplete story - Fiona. I had to amend part two to get the plot to stay on target for the ending so I noted details of the final scene in the so far incomplete draft of part 3.

When I start to write I have been considering the story in my head for a few days. I have the premise and the ending established before I type a single word. Character names? Characteristics? They are unimportant in the planning at the early stages. Names can change as the characters develop. That is a cause for my worst fault as an author. I change names and sometimes I don't get the changes consistent so a character can suddenly get another name part way through a story. Find/Replace isn't always reliable. In one story I made a minor change making a minor character Reshad instead of Reshed. One word 'threshed' became 'thReshad'.

I don't have recorded plotlines or character sheets. Everything is in my head even when writing multiple stories at a time. While that still works I'll keep doing it. If I start slipping then I might write very simple aidememoirs just to prompt me. But I can't see me ever forgetting the intended endings. They are critical for my whole writing process.

 

[Handley_Page]

Do you know how your story will end before you start writing?

I rarely know the next sentence in whatever I'm writing. I don't think I ever had an ending planned before I started a piece.

Yes, Madam, but YOU know how you write; and right well, too.

 

[latecomer91364]

99% of the time.

 

[Privates1stClass]

Do you know how your story will end before you start writing?

Most of the time, yes. However, during the writing of a couple stories, I came up with better endings than I'd originally planned. Sometimes when the plot gets away from you, you have to let the characters lead the way, and you're just a reporter of events at that point.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Maybe half the time. Sometimes I just get an idea for a character or a situation, and run with it, making it up as I go along, and yes I've sometimes posted chapter 1 with no idea how chapter 2 will go. I wrote Chosen that way and I think it's the best I've done here (albeit least erotic). (On the other hand I wrote Toymaker that way and it's without doubt my worst.)

Writing, or at least planning, everything in advance makes it easy. But it doesn't hold my interest as well. I always have better ideas half way through (and after posting, and six months later...) and sticking to a prearranged script just isn't as fun.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Most of the time, yes. However, during the writing of a couple stories, I came up with better endings than I'd originally planned. Sometimes when the plot gets away from you, you have to let the characters lead the way, and you're just a reporter of events at that point.

Sure. I just wrote a story with rape in it, but Laurel don't like rape so I had to make the sex consensual with the same outcome and end.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

In most cases yes...in some though it's more of a free style writing to the ending. Then, it may not end at all and becomes a series of adventures to the end.

But most of the time I have worked out the beginning and the ending before I start writing. It's the middle I don't know about.

 

[SimonDoom]

and sticking to a prearranged script just isn't as fun.

I always have a script, but I agree that one of the pleasures of writing is suddenly being inspired to go off-script, finding a better way to navigate a scene, or a better or more interesting choice for a character to make. But, for me at least, these deviations usually happen in the middle of the script, and typically I find my way back to the ending I wanted all along. I write with an ending in mind, and the creative challenge for me is to get to it the best way I can.

 

[Hypoxia]

Often yes, sometimes no. I've mentioned (but not lately) my three main storytelling approaches:

1) I know the whole story ahead of time (like it's from a journal) and need merely trim, embellish, trim again, etc. So yes, the end is known.
2) I start with the ending. Visualize a last scene, then write to story to reach that finale.
3) I create a setting, add characters, throw in some plot points for them to hit, and set them loose to reach whatever finale they want. The end may surprise me.

Every tale worth telling has its own dynamic. Evey author has their own approaches. Have fun.

 

[jehoram]

I have a pretty good idea of how the story ends when I start it, although I may change a detail or two.

But when it comes to story series, that's different. When I write chapter one, I have no idea what's going to be in chapter two or three or four, beyond some vague idea of what might happen. "A Very Private Beach" was written like that (and it probably shows). It was almost like the characters telling me what was going to happen next.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm more unclear about the middle than the opening or closing when I write a story. I always have a hook in mind before I consider it a story to write, though.

 

[Nathan_Brazil]

Always

Every last time.

 

[Voboy]

Vaguely.

I don’t think I write stories, I write characters. If I can make those characters interesting, I think it’s a good story. What they do? That’s not always something I know in advance, and only VERY occasionally do I have a specific ending in mind.

As I write, the characters tell me how they’d like it to end. Usually very quickly.