Hello All! I'm new on here and was pondering this: I tend to get ideas by listening to music - it flashes into my mind like a music video or movie preview and I go "How did they get in that cave?" "Why is she pushing that guy into the harbor!?" "Why is he/she sneaking into this ball?" And I start writing. The characters kind of take over and that is that. I'm not always certain of everything I want to happen or how I want it to end. I was just curious how others find their endings in comparison.
It varies. I'm very much a planner when it comes to novels, so I usually don't start writing before I know the ending, but a lot of the time with short stories I figure it out as I go. Right now, though, I'm winging a novel and I know how it'll end now, well before I get there, but I didn't until I figured out what the plot actually was about 14k words in.
I plan. I have the general story mapped out in my head, and then on paper. If I started writing with no specific end goal, I'd never finish writing a book. Without an ending to work to, the story ends up just stopping at a reasonable stopping point.
I put yes, but only because there wasn't an option for "sometimes." Often I know exactly how I want things to end, but sometimes either the plot changes as I'm writing in ways that require me to change the ending, or there are multiple potential endings and I don't know which one I'm going to use until I get there. It's not really a yes or no question for me.
I should also say that even when I was younger and used to write mostly by the seat of my pants, I still knew how I wanted it to end more often than not - I just didn't have much of a plan for how to get there.
For the most part I do know how it is going to end once I start outlining. I don't always know when I get the idea, but it usually comes together fairly quickly.
I would say 'no, never', but that's not really true. In my mind I will come to some conclusion, but the problem is that I have never got to the real end on anything I've written (if a real ending even exists? An ending is an ending however it is). I've finished stories, but the endings are rushed and not how I imagined them; it's like their not really finished, just abruptly stopped, because I couldn't figure out how to do it. In general I find endings very difficult to write (might be a plot problem). I will always leave it with something unsaid or ambiguous and I don't know if that's a good thing. I don't know if I make sense, but ... it's late.
I never sit down to write a story before I know how it ends. Other people prefer to make it up as they go along. I'm curious as well about the results of this poll. I'd like to see it in numbers.
Sometimes I have a general idea for a story, so the beginning and ending, and a basic idea about the rest. Sometimes I have it all planned out, including many details. Sometimes I just start writing, and I just write whatever comes to mind and see wherever it takes me. So yes, no, sometimes.
I put yes because I only write one of two types of endings - HEA (Happily Ever After) or HFA (Happy For Now).
I know how it ends when I first start, but often by the time I'm half-way through, or three-quarters, the ending will have changed (even if it's ever so slightly) I think you need to know where your characters WANT to go, but whether it gets there...well, it all depends on what happens.
I cannot reasonably submit a yes or no to a question I cannot answer. I would have to read the whole story before having a stance one way or another. As well as an opinion on the story as a whole. To simply ask for an uniformed opinion is to invite a skewed perception based on cognitive bias one way or the other.
I think it varies, at least for me. My first novel wasn't excessively planned. I didn't have the actual ending in mind, although I had envisioned the climactic scene. However, even the relationships of the people in the scene weren't fully developed until well into my writing of the story. My next novel, the one I'm working on now, is a sequel to the first, so I have a much better idea what is to happen—and I've actually partly written the end. Unlike the first novel, I also know the beginning to this one as well, and have written the first 4 chapters. This story is much more structured because it has a purpose I knew about before I began. My first novel was simply an experiment. Could I write a novel? Yes, it turned out, I could. But it was a much looser project, and the purpose wasn't obvious to me at the start. It took a lot of revision to shape it into the story it became. I don't think I would ever begin writing another novel without some planning in advance. Writing without a plan of any kind was a hugely enjoyable experience, but know a lot more now than I did then. I'd be inclined to think the story through more thoroughly next time. Not planned to a tight extent, but planned to some extent. I'd probably list chapters and decide what I want each of them to contain. Then get started.
I see. Then on that note I can still fall under the fact that I am not 100% sure how that will end either. It is not exactly a pre-planned ordeal.
