I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles with this. I've got the idea and a great premise. I've got strong characters ready to take control. I've got something of a villain. It's just... I don't have a good idea where the story should end up. In other words, I don't have an ending.

1. Is not having an ending a crippling blow to the story? Must we have at least a generally compelling ending in mind before writing?

2. Has anyone tried writing the ending first or early on in the draft? If so, how did it go? If not, how did you wrap up your story?

Any and all feedback welcome!

Wait... Most people have an ending before they start writing?! Oh my! I've been doing everything wrong all these years! * cue hyperventilation sequence *

* cough *

In all seriousness (not that I'm ever serious ), I hardly ever know how my book is going to end before I write it. Usually I'll have an idea of the climax, characters, are main idea of the book.

Example:

A trilogy I'm planning on writing right now, which is actually rather over-developed for my style of writing. All I know is that there are two main characters - Jordan and Charis - and I know there are four worlds - Earth, Chevl'Set, Kochav, and Lowinta - and four trees and the four trees enable traveling between the four worlds.

And as far as the storyline goes, I know that a guy kills another guy and the guy that kills the other guy travels through the four worlds with this girl and I know the climax is the girl finding out that the guy is a * whispers * murderer...

But I don't know how it ends. I probably won't for awhile... Least not until I write it. And I like writing that way. Because, otherwise, I get bored and I don't write anything. Not knowing the ending to my books though is yet to cripple my writing in any way, from my perspective, anyhow, and it's a far more enjoyable way for me to write.

On the other hand, there are some people that cannot write a book unless they outline everything from beginning to end. That's okay too. But if you can write without knowing the ending and, if you find that it's easy for you, then I wouldn't worry about it. Writing isn't really about sitting down and plotting a story, what matters most is the actual story. Forget the details until you have to revise.

Bethany Faith

I have a foggy notion of how most of mine will end, the heroes will succeed. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea how mine end.

I either go into it the same way as Bethy, with no idea whatsoever of my ending, or I write my ending before I start Chapter 1. Usually my ending changes anyway, though.

But I do think I write better when I have the ending at least sort of planned out; even if I panst the rest of the story, I like knowing where it's heading. It gives me more motivation, I think, to get to the end, when I know what it is, versus rambling aimlessly while I debate how to resolve all my plot threads.

It's only a crippling blow for writers who need to have a specific ending to write towards. Some writers can come up with endings on the spot by deciding how to close all that's come before.


I haven't had any success with writing the ending first. I've tried writing without a clear ending, and that book ended up rambly. I tend to write better with a clear ending. Like Princess Abby said:

I agree with Jonathan in that my book tends to be rambly without a clear ending (Case in point: I'm drastically editing unneeded portions out of my book this very moment ). What I plan on doing in future drafts is setting an ending that I understand to be fluid. Basically, that ending can still change in the future if the plot takes me there, but I still have at least a somewhat defined goal to work towards.

eru

Hmm... See, I normally have a general ending in mind. I mean, not an exact ending, but the basics "I want to end the book here, figure out what scene to do that in".

I recently finished the ending to my second book in my trilogy. I didn't end it the way I originally though I probably would, but I still have the basic cut off point in mind.

I also had an end for my first book, in that I knew it would end with Tierin heading off to begin training. I didn't know how I would end up there, or what he might do in that scene, but I knew that was my cut off point.

So, I suppose I find it helpful to know where I want to cut things off, but I never have the ending, per say.

That felt very unhelpful….

Not having an ending is a crippling blow to a story if you think the story's done , but not if this is all before you get there. Not knowing where you're going makes getting there harder, but certainly not impossible. (For example, one of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold, said that in writing her first novel, she "overshot" the ending---she suddenly realized that she'd had a pretty good ending and then she'd started introducing new characters and places. So she cut it off at the reasonable stopping place, and the rest of what she'd written became the beginning of the sequel.)

I've never tried writing the ending first. In the only piece of any real length that I've finished that I consider really in the least presentable, I had a vague idea of what events I would end it with, but not a good idea of how I would get there---and so my plotting is somewhat haphazard, and it shows. I'm in the middle of revising it. Of my various WIPs, I have a vague sense of where it's going for some, and no idea for others. On the one hand, this introduces problems; on the other hand, these problems are not insurmountable, and in any case can be fixed in revision (as by then I'll of course know where the story's going and how it ends); but on the gripping hand it's better to get it right the first time than to write something that has to be fixed in revision.

Estar! I know exactly where're your at in your question because I've been there myself many a times!

I've been writing since I was 11 and it wasn't until I was 14 that I wrote and finished a short story I knew the ending to. (Well, I sort of made the ending up as I went.) None of the other stories I had come up wtih are finished because I didn't sit down and toss some ideas around.

Writing without an ending in mind can be done, but it just poses a bit tricker with work with. Some people are great at whipping out an ending on the spot. Others need time to premeditate it.

I'm not much of an outliner, but I find drawing a horizontal line across a sheet of paper a good place to start. I put a dot at the beginning and end and go from there.

Now you just need to ask yourself where are they beginning in their story and where do you want them to go?

I'm making it sound a lot easier than it sounds I'm sure, but I was doing the same thing today for my NaNo story.

I hope that made sense. I'm incredibly tired right now, but this topic interested me so I wanted to reply.

~Calen