I know how my story ends, as well as numerous details in between. The current challenge I'm facing is filling in the gaps. That's where the "make it up as you go along" part of my writing comes in.
I always try and plan my ending first, with everything I write. If you have the end it makes it easier to work backwards and build up to it because as you're writing you always know where it's heading. It makes it easier in my opinion, to add subtle hints and such as you go along.
Ending is literally the second thing I'll plan (after beginning). I wanna know just where this story and every event will lead up to so I know how to work every happening toward that eventual goal
In my current project, I knew the ending almost as soon as I knew I was going to write the novel. Owing to the nature of the project, I would say there is almost no chance of that ending changing much by the time I get there. My first two projects were started without a clue of anything other than a few characters. In the first one, I literally wrote my way to an ending that I only discovered when I got there. In the second, the ending grew out of a subplot that only occurred to me when I was half way through it (thus affirming my definition of subplot: what my characters do while I'm trying to get them to do what I want them to do). My third project, I didn't know the ending when I started but figured it out soon after, and my fourth, I knew the ending right at the beginning, but by the time I got there I realized it shouldn't really be the end of the story but only the end of a part. I shelved it at that point. I think there are several variables that enter into each person's answer to the OP's question. Personal habit is certainly one, but also the kind of story one is writing, one's experience as a writer and the depth of one's reading all contribute. It's interesting to read others' approaches. Memo to @minstrel: okay, you've vented, now go write the bloody thing.
I'm like @TLK. My favourite stories have always been ones with loads of foreshadowing, where when you read it a second time from the beginning you can't believe you didn't guess how it would end, and every time you read it to discover more little clues that lead to the end that you never noticed before. That's what I'd like to create, but for me, it's impossible to attempt that kind of a story without marking out the trail. ... and yet - even with all my precious plans - I still end up lost in the woods more often than not
I write with plot-points. It's essentially an outline, but one that's slightly vague and only hits on major happenings. The rest of the story is left for discovery as I'm writing it. Of course, plot-points do often change as well but at least I have a sort of guideline to follow so that I don't have a book just full of talking. So yes, my current book has the ending down. I doubt it'll change much, because it's truly what needs to happen for the next in the series. However, I'm also writing a piece of erotica that has no ending... and I don't really know where to take the story. I have an idea, but it's not filled out enough and I feel that this story deserves a good ending. I'm just so in love with the character and the world, but here I am, turning it on its head. Oops. Another story that I wrote, I didn't have an end planned out... and 50,000 words in, I realized that my story was going nowhere. It was shit. So, my lesson learned is that yes, I need the ending and if I don't have the ending... don't keep writing, otherwise I'll destroy the story.
all my books have a prethought ending because i know where i want them to go, unchanging till the end of times, for me that's were they begin actually knowing where i am going towards to , but as Tessa said all else is left for discovering. I doubt many people begin their though from a conversation that their MC has with an unimportant character in the story and if it does it's because that's important .
I tend to come up with my story's ending far before I start working on my characters, but I didn't know the ending of my current story until I finished my first draft.
I plan my novels out. I know how they're going to end. That doesn't mean that the plan is written in stone and never changes. While it's worked very well for me, it may not be what works for others. If there was a single 'right way' to write a novel (one that readers will love and rave about), I think the secret would've leaked out by now.
I generally know my story's ending when I start, because it is usually what inspired the story. Occasionally, the ending is not what inspired the story, but I still know the ending before I begin writing. I don't believe in mapping out every aspect of my story before I start. My stories grow dynamically as I write. However, I do need to know my goal, and usually a few key milestones. Like hiking through the wilderness, I need landmarks to set my sights on periodically and make course corrections, and I need a destination, even if it's only a general one. I don't pretend this is the best approach for anyone other than myself, but it works for me.
I know the ending. I can't kind of write not knowing what will come and what will happen. So yeah, I know my ending in actually all of the 7 books I plan to write aha xD
I generally know the ending to all my writings because I always think of what I want to convey. Whether it's a moral, an ideology, or just having a satisfactory end. From that, I end up thinking of how the story got to that end point and why are the characters there. It's like reverse-engineering a story or something. I have a hard time creating the first scene without the end because then as I write I begin to wonder where is this going.
Exactly! Though, when writing these kinds of stories, I do sometimes worry that I'm overshadowing too much and that my reader will guess the bombshells that are coming. I guess that's a given when you do actually know the ending though...
I've had readers comment on the foreshadowing in my stuff, but I didn't realize I was doing it since I didn't know what was going to happen later on, most particularly the ending. I think that's why I prefer to let my mind take over and not worry about planning or structuring.
I used to write my stories by making them up as I go along. Now I use a plot outline to write my stories. I feel that this approach helps the story make more sense and is more comprehensive and makes the story flow better.
@Smitty91 I did the same thing in my early writing days. It was fun and definitely helped me in the long run but actually having a basis and even a glimmer of an outline improved my quality loads.
I usually plan my beginning and ending before I begin writing a story though sometimes when I get to the end, I change it.
Yes. It's one of the first things that pop in to my head when I begin to plan out my story. For me, it's essential.
I always have multiple endings to choose from and make sure some don't contradict to what I'm actually writing. The problem for me is however filling in the gaps in the middle. I got a starting point of the storyline and it edges a bit further and I have the climax and ending planned out, but I got really nothing in the middle so it's all open to filler content.
“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.” ― George R.R. Martin I'd add that there's a third type: the landscaper, who's primarily a gardener but knows more about the plants and has them arranged in neat patterns so they form something close to the picture they want to make. I would be a landscaper. I have no idea how my current story ends and I'm planning as much as I can but the 'plants' I'm planning are already half grown so I know sort of where they should go in the garden.
I don't like to plan, but for my current story i'm breaking down the wordcount into general sections and will modify/enhance the clarity of the sections as I move on. I guess that's a forward thinking landscaper?
I'm working on my first book and have a outline (or summaries of each chapter) written. So, I know the ending now, but not when I wrote the outline. When I started, I just wanted a happy ending.
I always know the ending of my story, maybe not the exact order of events or lines of dialogue, but the general outcome. And yet It has never made me lose interest in writing them. It's still as exciting as ever seeing how things wrap up in the end and if I can manage to have the effect I want. For me it's pretty much essential in order to write a coherent story.
