Help with endings . . .

[JD65]

First - let me tell you how I think. I'm a mental flow-chart kind of guy. I can play the "what if" game in real life situations as well as with a few characters I've come up with for my "soon to be a WIP" (never mind the rhyme there). If this happens, then these other options are there, but if that happens . . . etc. I've read several "How to write a novel" type books and perused the heck out of AW.

I'm gearing up to write a mystery, my little pea-brain gets stuck on where I'm eventually headed. I have snippets of dialogue jotted down, character sketches, scenarios and several miscellaneous notes of (to me) great little scenes. In my mind, I've changed around the underlying crime, how/why it was done, how it gets discovered... on and on.

I just can never seem to have an ending in mind so I can work towards it. So the question is, my learned colleagues - do I need to have an actual resolution in mind before I start or do you think it will come to me eventually as whatever I begin plays out on paper? I'm sure it would involve an extensive rewrite to put in appropriate foreshadowing, clues and the like. I know most people ask, "Where do you get ideas?" Mine is: Where do you get ideas for endings?

Thanks for any thoughts, suggestions or references. Heck, at this point, I'll take ridicule if it'll help! :Headbang:

[Anya Smith]

Hm, that's an odd question. I always know the ending of my stories before I begin to write, before I even know how they'll accomplish the end. Of course, all my stories have happy endings, so that makes it easier.


My suggestion is to start writing and the end will come.

[Amythest]

My problem is the exact opposite...where to start? For me, the ending usually comes right after the idea. The solution? Don't think. I had no idea where a book was going. I stopped thinking and the idea came to me. I believe that statistics show that inspiration comes when you are not working. So chill a bit and the write. A problem may me that you are writting the book. Your brain..not your characters or creative side are working. Maybe...I don't know what I'm talking about. I just know what works for me and that is, let the characters tell the story. You are nothing but the guy who knows how to type.

-Coolness

[Soccer Mom]

I have written both ways. I'm an obessive outliner--except occasionally I just wing it and see where I go. Both can work. Usually, I write my mysteries backwards. I know how it ends and I work my way to the beginning. But my current WIP is just the opposite. I was over 10K into it before I decided whodunnit. And it's been lots of fun. Do what works for you. If you can't find the end, start writing and see where it leads you. You might be surprised.

[Jamesaritchie]

I never, ever know how something I write is going to end until I reach the end. If I knew how it was going to end, why bother writing it?

I also don't like forced endings, and this is just what an awful lot of ending known in advance writing reads like to me. Forced and predictable.

Just write the story and allow it to lead you to teh ending it deserves.

[cree]

I never, ever know how something I write is going to end until I reach the end. If I knew how it was going to end, why bother writing it?

I also don't like forced endings, and this is just what an awful lot of ending known in advance writing reads like to me. Forced and predictable.

Just write the story and allow it to lead you to teh ending it deserves.

Exactly.

[ChaosTitan]

If I knew how it was going to end, why bother writing it?


For the journey.

It's the same reason people who have to know if it has a happy ending will still read a book after they know how it ends.

I may know my MC ends up at Point Z, but the fun part is figuring out how the h&ll they got there.

[Mod35tBabe]

I wrote my I spose thriller, had no idea where the story would go, no outlines. It came to me as I wrote, half way thru I thought I should have a story line and ended up deviating right away from it anyway.

[gp101]

As you see in this thread, you find lots of people who know the ending up front, and a lot who discover it as they write. I personally prefer to know where I'm going, so I usually have a general idea how it's going to end--but quite often, another, more suitable ending comes to mind during the course of the writing. Don't be afraid to write towards one end, only to have your ultimate ending differ significantly. Sounds to me like you need to write this one blindly and discover the ending simultaneously as your characters do. I think it makes for much tighter writing if you know the ending up-front, but it is more fun to discover things on the fly. Good luck.

[Tracy]

As my esteemed colleagues have said, many people write without knowing the ending. The ending naturally evolves out of what happens in the story. I do it myself - I did it with my most recent book. I had NO idea how the story resolution would work, but it did, and in an extremely satisfying way. It's scary, but it's kinda fun too.

The ending you're looking for is one which the reader never anticipated, but which makes them go, "Of course! It couldn't have been any other way. If they go, "Yeah, yeah, saw that coming ages ago", then you've failed. On the other hand, if they go, "Yeah, like that's ever going to happen!" then you've failed too.

On another note, don't worry about rewriting in order to put in your foreshadowing. Rewriting's part of teh gig. Even extensive rewriting. Goes with the process. It's gonna happen anyway, so incorporate your foreshadowing into that, I'd suggest.

[Selcaby]

I think as long as you know the answer to the mystery and that your characters will eventually work it out, that's probably enough to be going on with.

[NeuroFizz]

I never, ever know how something I write is going to end until I reach the end. If I knew how it was going to end, why bother writing it?

I also don't like forced endings, and this is just what an awful lot of ending known in advance writing reads like to me. Forced and predictable.

Just write the story and allow it to lead you to teh ending it deserves.
I agree with James, to an extent, but remember...he is a writer of great experience. His vision in storytelling is probably much more keen than that of a beginner, or even a journeyman writer. The value of his technique is obvious, and joyful. The danger, in the wrong hands, is the possibility that a writer will flounder, building words without making thrifty progress to a conclusion. Waffling or wandering around in plot land will kill the value of a story fast, so some direction (some writing discipline, really) is needed. This is something James possesses. For a beginning writer, it may well be better to have an ending in mind, or at least a couple of possible endings to make sure the writing between the opening and the conclusion doesn't get too serpentine. Even in this case, though the writer should never be overly faithful to a projected ending. Oscillations in the story path are beneficial, if handled well.

As with most advice on writing, there is no right answer, except a person should do what works best for him/her. If one is writing a first novel, however, it may help to err on the side of a little organization. With that said, there will be individuals who are so savvy right out of the gate they can jump in and let the story pull itself to The End. I doubt most inexperienced writers are in this class, however. I'm not, but I see the benefit of my paultry experience--pulling me in James' direction.

[stormie]

I'm with Jamesaritchie on this one. Several years ago, when I was just beginning to seriously put fingers to keyboard to write, I had no idea where my stories were going. My first short story was published within six months by a magazine that paid. Not much money, but it was a print mag and a good start.

Maybe it was luck, maybe not. But this is the way I write my novels, my short stories, and my essays. If I get stuck, I move on to something else (in writing) for a week, then go back it. It doesn't work for everyone; you just have to find what works for you.

[citymouse]

When I begin a story I write the first chapter and I write at lease two final chapters. With my first novel I wrote 4 distinct endings. When I came to the end I discarded all ot them and wrote a different one. Now this may seem wasteful but I ended up using one of my discards as the first chapter to the sequel.

Why do I do it this way? Personally I need a terminus. It gives me direction. I know where I am and where I'm headed. This frees me to write the body of the story.
It works for me but I don't know many writers who do this.

[Marlowe]

I always liked the way Stephen King put it- he said he started off with a vauge idea of the ending, but the odds of actually hitting the ending were the odds of hitting a target with your crappy bottle rocket halfway around the globe.

Whenever I start anything, I have to know it has an ending. I'm not sure if that's "forced" or not, because it isn't a matter of me pushing the story in that direction- it's more that if I don't know if an idea has a conclusion, than I can't really write it. But I'm always wrong on the specifics, and sometimes even on the big stuff, and that's part of the joy of writing for me, having my brain do weird things I wasn't entirely prepared for.

[pianoman5]

Different strokes... as always in this peculiar writing game.

Writing novel-length fiction is like a long-distance journey, and just like the road kind, different people approach it in different ways. Some like to wing it, open to seduction by the byways that present themselves along the highway, with the attitude that 'to travel hopefully is better than to arrive'. Others won't leave home without a fully detailed route map, and may even pre-plan their rest and refreshment stops to the minute.

I suspect that most people should write like they travel - it's an indication of basic character type, and doing the opposite may take you out of your comfort zone. That said, since your creativity may benefit from being jolted out of its set ways, it's worth at least trying an alternative method occasionally to see if it works better for you.

With regard to endings, it's worth considering at a reasonably early stage what you're trying to achieve in a piece, which may be dictated to some extent by the expectations of the genre. Many readers do demand a satisfying conclusion, e.g. -

1. Guy gets girl, eventually. (Sometimes known as the delayed f**k.)
2. Mystery solved, with the culprit being the second-most-unlikely person.
3. Hero emerges bloodied but unbowed and possibly changed after being tested to the limit, and the bad guys get theirs.
4. Population-preserving quest is successful after protag overcomes almost impossible odds and setbacks.

Literary works often are less conclusive and finish on an ambiguous note -- because the journey, the examination of the human condition, may be more important than a pat ending.

If you write with a theme in mind, or if one manifests itself in the process of writing, it's not a bad idea to write towards a QED, avoiding any hectoring didacticism or flatulent and thinly disguised statements of the bleeding obvious.

The key thing to remember, I think, is that 'Character is plot'. Until your key characters have become fully formed, with traits that they inherit from your imagination along the way despite your conscious mind's best efforts to mould them in its own image, it's usually not a good idea to force a plot and conclusion onto them. After all, it's their story, not yours, and you have to let them be true to themselves right up to the end.

[Nakhlasmoke]

I can't write with a specific ending in mind, although I do have a vague idea of where iIm headed, but having said that, I don't write mysteries. I would assume that with a mystery you as the writer better know whodunnit.

But I could very well be wrong. Don't let the lack of an ending stop you. Just write, you may be surprised at what turns the plot takes, and the perfect ending may very well present itself.

Then you'll have to go back and foreshadow. yay!

[JD65]

All points well taken. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What's the worst that happens? It goes wandering off like a hyperactive bloodhound on a walk in a strange neighborhood, but it eventually finds its target. . . I hope.

Or my bloodhound has hay fever and we just wander along, but we both get some exercise. Should be a hoot either way.

Thanks again, everybody. :Thumbs:

[PeeDee]

I almost always have an ending in mind when I set out to write a story. It can be just a scene floating in my head, or a snippet of dialogue, or an image. I usually have something (though not always).

I never, ever demand that my characters and my story go to the same ending that my brain has, and they rarely do. Usually, where they go is someplace much better, and I'm all the happier for it. I had my ending planned for my last novel, all the way up to about twenty pages away from it when I sat back in shock and suddenly realized what was actually going to happen (and it was far away from what I intended). I think that's a wonderful thing.

Just write. Write what you've got ready to write, fill in the rest, and eventually it'll end. Everything comes out somewhere. Why worry about it? Just write, and then worry about the details afterward. During the writing process, Frankie says relax.

[brendao]

In my first novel (I just started my second) I had a vague ending in mind but was thrilled when a better one emerged. I use the word "emerged," because that's what happened. I never believed it when I used to read interviews with authors who said things happened in their novels that they didn't plan. Then it happened to me and it felt like magic.

Start writing!