It's never worked for me, but it might work for you. Every writer is different.
I might not know how a whole series ends while I'm writing the first book, but I do know how that book ends.
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It's never worked for me, but it might work for you. Every writer is different.
I might not know how a whole series ends while I'm writing the first book, but I do know how that book ends.
Oh, yes. All the time. I'll start out with one idea for an ending in mind, then as the plot shifts and turns on the way, I'll one day stumble into a spot ahead or behind my planned ending - and realize 'Oh, this is the ending!'
Writing shorter pieces helped me so much with both endings and beginnings. For me, it was about four dozen pieces of fan fiction over fifteen years, plus five or six original short stories. At the very least, they taught me to pay attention to my habitual 'voice' and writing rhythms, to recognize when I had an opening/ending that worked.
Doing visual arts and intricate crafts pieces over the years helped too, by showing me the moment when 'too little' became 'just enough', or was verging toward 'too much'. I'll sketch pieces out to exactitude, but during the actual build phase I have to be open to different interpretations of the end goal.
Huh. I never really looked at it this way, but my art and writing both benefited from the same training. I had to master basic and tricky structures before I could get down to the embellishments that I really love. Without the structure behind my book arts pieces, all the beadwork, embroidery, carving, etc is just kitsch. Without the embellishments of backstory, subplots, setting details, foreshadowing, and characterization - the structure of my stories is too severe and oblique for most readers to accept.
Writing shorter pieces helped me so much with both endings and beginnings. For me, it was about four dozen pieces of fan fiction over fifteen years, plus five or six original short stories. At the very least, they taught me to pay attention to my habitual 'voice' and writing rhythms, to recognize when I had an opening/ending that worked.
Doing visual arts and intricate crafts pieces over the years helped too, by showing me the moment when 'too little' became 'just enough', or was verging toward 'too much'. I'll sketch pieces out to exactitude, but during the actual build phase I have to be open to different interpretations of the end goal.
Huh. I never really looked at it this way, but my art and writing both benefited from the same training. I had to master basic and tricky structures before I could get down to the embellishments that I really love. Without the structure behind my book arts pieces, all the beadwork, embroidery, carving, etc is just kitsch. Without the embellishments of backstory, subplots, setting details, foreshadowing, and characterization - the structure of my stories is too severe and oblique for most readers to accept.
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The general ending usually remains the same, but I have been known to change a few things up because it feels right in the moment. In my most recent epic fantasy, I actually changed a fair amount toward the end.
That's part of the reason I struggle to plot more than a book ahead. In the actual writing process, a lot can change.
But I still feel I have to have some ending I'm working toward. It's just the way my brain works. However, that's not to say I can't alter that ending as I see fit.
I'm getting the sense that the real problem I'm having is inflexibility. I think I'm so nervous about messing up that I'm smothering my stories before they can grow. But I think it would be easier to clean up a mess than to keep starting over from scratch.
That's the spirit! Messes are fun. Did you ever jump into a pile of leaves or a mud-puddle when you were a kid? Writing half-blind is that kind of exhilarating play. Once you get hooked on it, you'll put up with any number of doubts and insecurities, because you'll be having too much fun yelling at your characters...
The ending sometimes gets deeper, but usually my ending comes from my gut during the planning stage and I've learned it's usually a bad idea to second guess myself in that regard.
I do tend to find that as I write the ending gains more emotional weight. The novel I wrote last summer had a final confrontation between my protagonist and a vengeful ghost. Originally, I'd figured my protag would do some cool magic and send the ghost back to the afterlife. But by the time I got to that scene, I'd realized that my protag was really fed up with conflict and had learned the reason the ghost was so vengeful was due to having literally lost her heart when she died. In order to put her to rest, my protag had to show compassion to the entity that had fueled the murder of four of her brothers.
It was the ending I had planned, but bigger and better. And I wouldn't have figured it out if I hadn't written the book. Nor would the book have been as strong if I hadn't allowed my characters to grow and inform my understanding of their actions over the course of the plot.
This makes a lot of sense. I can see how developing a deeper sense of your characters and their motivations can alter an ending in way that doesn't change the basic outcome--in your case, sending the ghost back to the afterlife--but changes the reason and the means by which it happens.
Yes. I'm open to changing any preconceived idea while I'm writing, if, in the writing, a new and better idea arises. Which it often does.
And I've changed my mind, and gone back to the original idea. You have to be open and flexible.
caw
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Yes, don't be so harsh on yourself! When writing becomes a chore and essentially makes you down about yourself, something is wrong. I believe you have the passion but you're getting mired in the "rules" of it. You have to write for yourself, first and foremost. Writing fiction for anything other than yourself places you in a spiraling road of misery.
Let go of your fears and anxieties. You write for you. I enjoy reading and taking notes from writing books and the like, but when it comes down to it, it's you and the paper/screen. That's the pinnacle of writing. I know you have that passion too. Don't worry about the "rules and regs." Just write. Let your ideas and characters free.
Bingo. Especially that last part. Stories will always take on a life of their own. You've got to flow with it, not stifle it. Else (as you've discovered), you'll never get anywhere. No wonder you were so discouraged.
This is a breakthrough. I'm excited for you.
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I'm really glad you've figured out what's going on and are feeling able to move forward. I agree with the others about stop being hard on yourself, letting go of anxieties and just enjoying the process. Let your stories grow organically and let the characters be themselves and if that changes the story, let it.
Also, don't be scared of messing up. There's no such thing as messing up in writing. The fear of doing so ends up stifling your story, and it becomes a vicious cycle, because you get stuck, then feel you've messed up so you get upset and anxious about it and question your own ability, rather than just getting on and fixing it. Try to enjoy the whole process, including fixing what's turned out not to fit with the characters, whether or not that involves a rewrite. Rewriting is still writing, and writing is fun. Or at least it should be, otherwise why do it? (If you feel more recently that you haven't enjoyed writing as much as you used to, it's probably because of the anxiety of messing up interfering with the process... do like the song my daughters won't stop singing and let it go... there's no such thing as messing up. Even if you end up abandoning a project altogether, the experience you've gained in writing it and trying to fix it will make your next project better.)
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It would be nice to actually enjoy writing again, and not merely feel compelled to do it. Thanks, guys! All of this may have seemed obvious to all of you, but it's stuff I've lost sight of. Flexibility, patience, and the willingness to accept mistakes--I'll keep all of that in mind going forward.
The opposite of frustrated, in fact. I'd feel stupid if I didn't feel so relieved. It's like I've been beating my head against a brick wall and there's been a door all along. 
I'm bookmarking this thread.
I'm bookmarking this thread.
The opposite of frustrated, in fact. I'd feel stupid if I didn't feel so relieved. It's like I've been beating my head against a brick wall and there's been a door all along.
I'm delighted that you've found your way through all the frustration and know how to move forwards.
(I also discovered where all the different smileys on this forum are
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I'm not going to do ALL the smilies, but 
This was a triumph.
Really, though. Congrats. I think you're in a really good place now and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Enjoy the relief.
This was a triumph.
Really, though. Congrats. I think you're in a really good place now and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Enjoy the relief.
I've had some of the same issues as you've had lizo27. What's helped me is getting to know my characters more. Their goals and inherent conflicts came easy to me, but something was lacking in the story, and that turned out to be motivation. Once I explored their motivation in depth, some of the plot stickiness smoothed out. Motivation gave the characters that emotional oomph to drive the story forward.
Glad things are looking up for ya!
Glad things are looking up for ya!
Huzzah!
*throws confetti*
Re endings changing -- I find I have to have something to aim for. I keep it pretty vague (and then she kills him and everything explodes) because I know it will change as I learn more about the characters.
*throws confetti*
Re endings changing -- I find I have to have something to aim for. I keep it pretty vague (and then she kills him and everything explodes) because I know it will change as I learn more about the characters.
Gosh, this thread is a lesson in character development in itself. Conflict, backtracking, darkest moment, individual growth... I had no idea how it would end, but I'm glad it was a happy one!
Well done everyone!!
Well done everyone!!
Lizo - I have an example from my own work that might help you as I always write with an ending in place.
Now, a word of warning. I am a panster and write the story my characters show me as they deal with their issues. My end, as I refer to it, is the climax of the book, the paramount scene where they either rise to the occasion or fail to achieve their goal. There are some pages after that point, resolving the minor snares resulting from what happened, closing the work, but by and large I consider that climactic scene the end when I start.
When I begin I have only my beginning point and my ending point (and the beginning is extremely flexible because I haven't gotten a feel for the story yet). At the beginning, I know exactly how I want the book to end, I know how it's going to happen, but I have no steps in between.
Sometimes, my characters lead me in directions I wasn't expecting. Sometimes, they do things I never saw coming, show me sides of themselves I didn't intend them to have (and some are not very good). I go with it, let them keep those traits and move toward their goal and the end I set up before hand and when I reach that point.
Sometimes, the end I originally planned and knew to the smallest detail, can no longer be written the way I wanted, whether it be because my characters changed enough on their journey to do what I intended, whether it be because a sub plot that appeared twenty five percent of the way in makes that end no longer . . . perfect, but the bones of that ending are strong, and I can use those to craft a new one that better fits the book I wrote.
Using my first completed novel as an example, I had my antagonist get out fought and killed by my protagonist using the last ounce of his strength. When I went back to revise, I said, how can I make this better, stronger, more gripping (ie, how can I raise the stakes) and I looked at the bones of my ending (good guy kills bad guy, good guy's in pretty bad shape but alive), and altered the path of the ending.
It no longer made sense for my protagonist to out fight my antagonist (I'd built a villian too dangerous and hero with not nearly enough training to match him toe to toe), but I'd also built a hero who was gritty, and determined, and willing to drag himself over broken glass to reach his goals.
Now, my hero is outfought (almost tragically so) and only that grit he gained through his trials up to this point keeps him alive beyond the first minute. He is battered and broken and bloodied by the villian to the point where hope is nothing more than a candle flickering in a hurricane . . . and he finds a way to win using the qualities he revealed to me.
In the end, my hero wins and my villian dies, they fight in the same location, with the same tools they had in my original end, but there is little about their fight that matches. The bones were strong though, and I achieved the end I set out to (hero victorious, villian dead) but the writing of the two endings are vastly different.
Now, a word of warning. I am a panster and write the story my characters show me as they deal with their issues. My end, as I refer to it, is the climax of the book, the paramount scene where they either rise to the occasion or fail to achieve their goal. There are some pages after that point, resolving the minor snares resulting from what happened, closing the work, but by and large I consider that climactic scene the end when I start.
When I begin I have only my beginning point and my ending point (and the beginning is extremely flexible because I haven't gotten a feel for the story yet). At the beginning, I know exactly how I want the book to end, I know how it's going to happen, but I have no steps in between.
Sometimes, my characters lead me in directions I wasn't expecting. Sometimes, they do things I never saw coming, show me sides of themselves I didn't intend them to have (and some are not very good). I go with it, let them keep those traits and move toward their goal and the end I set up before hand and when I reach that point.
Sometimes, the end I originally planned and knew to the smallest detail, can no longer be written the way I wanted, whether it be because my characters changed enough on their journey to do what I intended, whether it be because a sub plot that appeared twenty five percent of the way in makes that end no longer . . . perfect, but the bones of that ending are strong, and I can use those to craft a new one that better fits the book I wrote.
Using my first completed novel as an example, I had my antagonist get out fought and killed by my protagonist using the last ounce of his strength. When I went back to revise, I said, how can I make this better, stronger, more gripping (ie, how can I raise the stakes) and I looked at the bones of my ending (good guy kills bad guy, good guy's in pretty bad shape but alive), and altered the path of the ending.
It no longer made sense for my protagonist to out fight my antagonist (I'd built a villian too dangerous and hero with not nearly enough training to match him toe to toe), but I'd also built a hero who was gritty, and determined, and willing to drag himself over broken glass to reach his goals.
Now, my hero is outfought (almost tragically so) and only that grit he gained through his trials up to this point keeps him alive beyond the first minute. He is battered and broken and bloodied by the villian to the point where hope is nothing more than a candle flickering in a hurricane . . . and he finds a way to win using the qualities he revealed to me.
In the end, my hero wins and my villian dies, they fight in the same location, with the same tools they had in my original end, but there is little about their fight that matches. The bones were strong though, and I achieved the end I set out to (hero victorious, villian dead) but the writing of the two endings are vastly different.
Glad to see you're feeling better and giving your stories a chance. I'm a pantser so I don't do any outlining, and I was totally shocked by a plot twist in my recent ms that I was so excited about. Never saw it coming! You have to let your characters play.
I also wanted to reiterate that it's not wasting time. You're always learning even if you scrap it. I have a ms that I deleted 30k words in one fell swoop and probably deleted tens of thousands more in the process of revision. None of it was wasted. I learned and made the story stronger.
Terry Pratchett said the first draft was just you telling yourself the story. So tell yourself the story, then go back and polish it up to tell to other people. Good luck.
You have to let your characters play. I also wanted to reiterate that it's not wasting time. You're always learning even if you scrap it. I have a ms that I deleted 30k words in one fell swoop and probably deleted tens of thousands more in the process of revision. None of it was wasted. I learned and made the story stronger.
Terry Pratchett said the first draft was just you telling yourself the story. So tell yourself the story, then go back and polish it up to tell to other people. Good luck.
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