Hey everybody, I am writing a novel and am trying to map out the ending, the only problem is: every ending I come up with I feel like I have read it before. I want it to be my own and original. So my question to you all is: What are your tips for finding inspiration? Are there any creative writing exercises that I can do to help me come up with creative ideas? Or at least creative writing exercises that will help loosen up my mind and help the creative juices flow? Just to clarify, I am not asking you to come up with the ending for me, just tips to help unlock the creative juices XD. Thanks for your help! Sorry, I think this is in the wrong category but I don't know how to change it :/
If you wait for an idea that has never been written, you may as well take up another pastime. You'll never write a thing. Originalityu comes in how you write it.
Pretty much every thing has been done before even 3000 years ago, in The Bible, Solomon in Ecclesiastes said, "There is nothing new under the sun..." and "For the writing of books there is no end." So, yeah, If he felt that way way-back-when, It's pretty safe to assume that you will to. Just try and write an ending that is meaningful to your story, one that makes sense. Sometimes in trying to be different, people lose the soul of what they are doing. Just write it the best you can and don't worry so much if it's been done before, because it has.
Endings don't have to be spectacular - like Pheonix said they just have to make sense. Also, I wouldn't necessarily map out an ending. Let it emerge as you write. Just keep a handle on where you want your story to go, and what resolution is to be solved and something will come up.
Just to piggy back on what was already said -- some writers are strong advocates of NOT having an ending in mind when you write a story. They feel that if you know the ending you are working toward, you force the writing to that ending, making it seem artificial. In other words, let the characters do and say what feels natural as you write. The ending will then emerge on it's own.
wow thank you everyone! I'm going to take in all of the advise you've all given me, and just let the ending come when it's time and stay true to my writing style Thank you all again, you've been very helpful and encouraging
Tips for getting creative - Play the violin or an instrument of any kind. Einstein played the violin whenever he had a particularly difficult physics problem to solve. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also played the violin whenever he was stumped in coming up with a creative solution for Sherlock Holmes. It seems to me like many of the great minds resorted to music when they needed that last bit of creative energy to help them find an ingenious solution.
I find knowing what your message is helps you come up with your ending, because then you're tailoring everything to your story, and not so bogged down with whether it's "original". What good is an original ending if it doesn't serve your story and give your reader a satisfied resolution, after all? Take Disney - you can't get much cheesier or less original than some of their stuff, but they give the viewer the ending they want, the ending that follows from everything they've established earlier in the film. Seems like an easy formula they have but it's memorable. So focus on what your story needs.
One approach regarding endings that works for me: I tend to create an extremely rough sketch in very general terms about how I think the story will end. Nothing terribly specific, just very high-level. Example: "My villain will die horribly in a fire. After he is dead, his ghost will be attacked by the ghost of the person he killed. Then my hero will return to the cemetery and assume the responsibilities he was afraid to assume at the beginning of the story." Very general. Not a lot of detail. Not sure exactly how we'll get there. No idea how the fire will start or why he won't be able to run away from it. But since I now have a very general sense of where it's going, as the story progresses, that endpoint stays in the back of my mind. And as I get closer to the endpoint, the available range of choices narrows and the specifics begin to work themselves out. At least, that approach seems to work for me.
Another approach is to return to random points in the novel and see if they suggest an ending - could this apparently trivial thing that happened early on actually develop and be used to tie everything up? You may be surprised. You could also try extending bits from early on and seeing where they naturally lead, keeping an eye out for the "opportunities" for the ending. A really naff example would be something like this: you don't know where Jack and Jill should go to celebrate that they are back together again. You look back through the novel and discover that, way back in chapter 2, Jack mentioned that he used to like museums and doesn't visit them often enough. Hey presto - the ending is them going to a museum. As I said, it's a naff example, but...
