I rarely know the endings to my stories. I'm currently 2/3 of the way through the first draft of a book, which is separated into three parts. There are several characters whose origin and purpose in the story are still completely unclear, and the conclusion is totally unknown to me. The only way I'll ever find out is as I write, and this is true of almost everything I've written so far. Quite often I'm not even sure if what I'm writing even has a point, but some people have found meaning in my pointless stories. So I just trust my gut.
I have two book endings finished in my head, but if I know the ending to my series? No...hahaha, it makes me a little sad, I hate not knowing stuff, and when it is my own....well. I know a few characters that will make it to the end, but nothing more.
Yes, I know the ending before I begin writing a project (short story or novel). Sometimes things change a bit, but never has the ending shifted much beyond what I had planned.
I've known a fair number of successful writers and the majority claimed that they plotted. Certainly, it keeps you from writing yourself into a corner and having to toss scenes and start over. You titled this with a question about knowing the ending. Here's something to think about: When you go on a trip it's always a good idea to know your destination so you can pick the route that most fits your needs and resources. Any novel consists of units of tension called scenes. And each scene begins with both greater risk for the protagonist and fewer options. The reason for that is that if the level of tension remained constant the reader would become bored. Think of a sword fight in which no one was hurt, and the level of intensity remained constant for an hour. Long before the end of the hour the reader would be skimming ahead looking for something that wasn't more of same. That's why simply following our character around with a camera, so to speak, tends not to produce an edciting read. Given that, we need to direct the action toward the climax. But if we don't know what that climax will be... A second thing to take into account is that every story has a point, the thing the story is about. It might be growing up, be careful what you wish for, learning to trust, finding love etc. To manage the growth of the theme it helps to know where we're going. Something that many people don't take into account is that the type of writer you are determines how much detail you need in advance. If you're the kind of writer who carries the entire story in your head you can more easily write on the fly, because if you need to change some characteristic of your protagonist at one point you will know where you have to go back and modify a scene to conform with the change. You can write on the fly more easily, too, if you happen to have the kind of unconscious mind that does a lot of the fitting and planning for you (lucky bastards). If you're not like that, and need something to refer to if you need make a change that influences already written prose, you need to plot in detail.
That's why I prefer the term misty, with the details coming to the writer out of the mists of the creative mind. Same deal but it sound a bit less shocking to the non writing community. I mean, who can say, "I'm a pantzer" at a party with a straight face? But you can carry a lilly, place a mildly constipated expression on your face and say, "Yes, my dear, I am a misty," and sound so, so intellectual (though possibly a bit gay).
Here's another thing to think about: If you know your destination, and preplan the route to fit your needs and resources, you won't make any new discoveries. You're unlikely to dazzle yourself, and are therefore unlikely to dazzle your readers. You won't discover the Grand Canyon, for example, or the Amazon River, or Ayers Rock. If you know your destination and have preplanned your route, you're likely to give your reader a sense of been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. This is not necessarily a bad thing; many readers want the comfortable and familiar. There's a big market for it, and some writers get rich satisfying that market. Good for them. But they don't discover the Grand Canyon. That's about as far as I want to push the travel analogy - it falls apart pretty easily if you lean on it.
I didn't plot mine. That said, mine's a memoir set in fiction, with major parts being true to life and most of the episodes between the major sections being fiction. I knew in which order the major parts would happen and wrote from there. I somewhat knew the ending - I knew what the final major part would be (and no longer is as I'm writing another part after it). But there was still something like 5,000 words following that part to actually get to the end.
I like the travel analogies. Type 1: Entire trip is planned - destination, times, routes, etc. They will get exactly where they intended exactly how they intended and when, and they're happier than hell when they're done. Type 2: Destination, routes, etc are planned - but plenty of time left open for 'side trips', and they're happier than hell when they're done. Type 3: "I want to see some mountains." Off they go in the general direction of mountains. They may or may not actually get there, but they're happier than hell when they're done. Notice the common denominator?
I've tried writing in the past without any planning and have come away feeling quite negative about the result. I find getting "inspiration" to write a story and jumping right into it leads to a couple good first pages but becomes a difficult slog as I try to come up with what happens next. I become bogged down with trying to figure out what happens next which pulls all the fun out of the writing. I also don't particularly like the result, using a metaphor if a good book were like a modern tower with a great foundation and structure the results of inspired writing is a tower made out of spaghetti. It is not cohesive with itself and even a critical glance causes it to crumble in on itself. I much prefer these days to use my energies to do world building and design trying to make a story that follows its own logic instead of inventing it as it goes along. Planning also allows me to to weave the themes and the larger picture through the story, I have a penchant for trying to be profound (even if I mostly fail). In answer to your question, yes I know the ending.
Yes, I know how my story ends. I know how all three stories end (trilogy). I have the majority of plot points, immoral acts, etc all set down in an outline. Much of my problem is squeezing it into 120 pages or less.
I personally like to act out my stories before I start. I found that if I can not act out what I want to be crucial moments, or a climax of a plot line I wont enjoy writing it. Further more people will find it dull. But before I get to that stage I like to plan the start and end, then while running around my flat I develop the middle. The action of acting out scenes can be quite refreshing, when I get writers block I will act out the scene and see how I flow past what I have written. Sometimes you just need to experience the scene before you can continue it. \||/
The last story I wrote behaved strangely. I intended it as a short story and it ended at around 16,000 words which is fine, but when I started it, I didn't know how it was to end, and in fact, I got all these ideas about the ending as I wrote on, but somehow the characters kept changing it, the bastards came up with all kinds of ways to wriggle out of the traps I had set up for them, and the ending surprised me a bit. It was an interesting experience. Granted, I still don't know what the last paragraph will be about. I have to say something meaningful there, try to close the circle, but so far I've come up with just one offensive sentence. The last words are always the hardest to me.
The climax for my novel, War Beast, is going to be an epic battle between my hero and his nemesis inside a volcano. That is the only spoiler I am posting here. If you want to know who will win, read my novel when it comes out.
The way ideas for a story come to me is pretty much like this, 1. Random dialogues/characters/scenes of interest. 2. How it all ends. 3. How it starts. So I always know how things end long before I even consider writing the story. I always know my destination before making my journey. The rest is just finding my way to landmarks in between.
I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. For most of my stories I only have a vague idea of where I want them to end up, at best. Every once in a while though, an idea comes along and the plot just seems to lay itself out before me and I know exactly where I want to go. These are rare for me though, I think maybe twice I’ve known exactly how my story will end as soon as I’ve started writing.
I'm writing a fantasy trilogy/series and I know how book one will end but how the whole thing wraps up, I don't know. I have a vague idea of what I would like to occur and where I want the story to go, mostly I've just thought of some significant events leading to the unknown conclusion or important character interactions I'd like to occur. I actually find that if I think too far ahead it gives me major writers block. In the last month, I've stopped thinking too far ahead and managed to write first drafts of several chapters so far.
I have a pretty vague idea. I know it's going to be a positive ending, cuz I think positive emotion always triumphs over negative emotion. Unless your goal is to shock or to be purposely unique as possible.
I'm an outliner, but I don't wait until I've finished the outline before I start the novel. I know how it's going to end, but I've learned by now that the path the story takes may be much different than I had intended--even in places where I have outlined. When I started my current WIP, the entire last half was completely blank on my outline--and it stayed that way for a long time. But, it developed as I worked.
Usually, I don't plan the ending - I occasionally skip forward a few chapters if I have an idea, but that's the maximum - but in this current project, the beginning of which is currently in the workshop here, I have the ending done and dusted, so it's just a case of getting there, and closing any plot holes that pop up along the way.
I have a rare happening where I am doodling away on something and actually have a fairly clear idea how it could end. I feel this one is progressing further than others precisely because I will know when the end has been reached. However I wouldn't call myself a writer.
