How does this end?

[JCullen]

When you're writing your story(ies) do you ever wonder yourself how it will end? Or do you already know how you want it to end in your head and giggle as you slowly reveal it?

Usually I already know how I'll end a story, but this time...with the one I'm currently writing...I'm wondering how it'll end myself because while I had an ending in mind to begin with, I don't know if I want it to end the way I originally planned. It's kind of fun! hehe...how about you guys?

[Guest sylvir]

I always have any ending in mind but sometimes it is not fully formed or perminant. It might be just a sentince I want the story to end with or I've written the entire chapter. Sometimes around the middle the story will go off on it's own in another direction then originally planned and the first ending has to be tweeked or rewriten.

I'm one of those writers who has to have an ending to work towards or I'll go on forever or worse get bored and never finish.

[JCullen]

I'm one of those writers who has to have an ending to work towards or I'll go on forever or worse get bored and never finish.

No I totally know what you mean. That's exactly how I write as well, but right now I'm writing a story based on a film and all I'm really doing is adding a character to the original screen play and shaping it to fit the character's presence. So I'm going to end the story where or around where the film ends but not using the films ending and also not really knowing completely how I want it to end. Happy ending? Sad? Ironic? It's an amazing unexpected journey.

[Melrick]

I have to have a story pretty much mapped out completely, from start to finish, before putting metaphorical pen to paper, which can be a real problem sometimes. But I've tried the "suck it and see" method and it really doesn't work at all for me, so I'm stuck with that method.

[knight]

I've had a few where the ending idea came first, then work backwards from

there.

Others, the endind is there, just a matter of getting to it with all the bits 'n' pieces

to work around.

One of my fiction pieces...yeah, I'd like to know the ending, but as of now, there isn't

one. Maybe I'll find a way to just end it...some how.

knight

[greenwizard]

I usually have at least a general idea where I'm going with a story. I do sometimes get new ideas in the middle of it. Like I just did a chapter and wasn't planning on having two of the characters kiss yet, but it ended up happening. When I write my fingers develop a mind of their own.

[DodgeSuperBee]

I usually have a specific ending in mind for my stories, but in one case I'd already planned for the main villian to die in a spectacular fashion until his humanity got to me and I realized he wasn't as evil as he appeared to be (he wasn't a killer, just an overall slimeball/cheat/scoundrel.) There wasn't any foreshadowing of his death in the fanfic so no reviewers expressed shock when, instead of dying, he changed his ways just enough to be believable.

There were real-life events going on that made me less eager to kill him off, but a year later I'm very glad I chose to keep him alive considering the antagonist from the story's prequel also died at the end of that fanfic. So I think it's fine to stray from your ending as long as you don't have to do a complete rewrite of the story to do so. I've also started other fics without knowing the ending in advance.

[Velvet D Coolette]

I won't start a story unless I know how it ends. I think that a large portion of the pleasure of a story is how it gets wrapped up, especially if, halfway through the story, it's difficult for the readership to see where it's going to go. And I love the narrative climax of it myself!

[shinigamiinochi]

I'm a pretty analytical person, so it's surprising to me that all of the fanfics I started a few years back, I have absolutely no idea where they were going. Now, however, all of my fics have completed notes before I start them, it's just a matter of fine tuning everything and sitting down to write it. For example, for my fic 'The Road to Kindness', I sat down and wrote a beginning, middle, and end with the notes only going to about ten pages long. Now, however, I'm on the sixth chapter and I have 22 pages of notes. So basically, as I was in the process of writing the actual fic, instead of the notes going down (as I delete things as I get to them), I kept adding more and more things I wanted to happen in the fic.

[Supersonic Bitch]

Usually I do have a clear idea how my fic will end. However, sometimes the ending changes during writing process when I for example realize that my original ending plan just doesn't fit in the style or I come up with something more delicious. Twist endings are just lovely because I want to surprise readers but then again, the most important point is that the end fits in.

[Kimba147]

In all the stories I have written, I have NEVER known how they were going to end. Weird, I know, but true. The trick for me is not know how it is going to end neccissarily, but when. Knowing when enough is enough, when to stop, and how to wrap it up is the best way for people like me to end a story. When I feel the chracters have reached the peak of their glory, changed in all the appropriate ways, developed their relationships with each other and overcome the initial major plot hurdle, that is when I know that it is going to end.

[marley_station]

I wrote a fic called Constructive Possession. It is 28 chapters and its title is derived from something that occurs at the end of the fic.

I wrote my story in scenes and then had to piece it all together. I didn't have a beginning when I started writing.

Creative process is not the same for everyone, as the responses to your question clearly illustrate.

[MomoDesu]

I always have an ending in mind. Half of the time, that is where my stories begin, at the end. Most of them start out with a series of different scenes, and then I go and string them all together in a story. Does the ending change before I get there? Sometimes, depending on where the story goes as I'm writing it. I gave up on full blown outlines because I NEVER follow them -.-

[Helluin]

I've frequently written fanfiction in which I started with a premise and ran with it, trusting the characters to muddle along until they arrived at some kind of conclusion.

More often, I've written with an opening and a vague sense of how it's all going to end in mind, but no idea how it's going to get from A to B.

I write fanfic for fun, not as disciplined work, so I like kicking back and improvising.

Recent exception: I've got this bally flowchart with notes, maps, outlines, a table of individual character arcs and overarching plots, and great googly mooglies, a whole skeleton of chapters and Important Moments sketched out in advance.

What's up with that?!

[megadeth425]

I only ever just have seeds. In fact, my latest multi-parter started out radically different than intended even on the first chapter. I rarely ever have an idea about where I'm going with something unless it's a two parter with a clear goal in mind. I tend to drift a lot more, as I think it makes for better writing to not chain myself to a single line and just write it. A certain character may grow on me in an unexpected way, and I may run in a different direction because of that.

[windofthenorth]

I don't think I've ever started a fanfic with an ending in mind. Probably not a good thing.

[Velvet D Coolette]

I have to have a story pretty much mapped out completely, from start to finish, before putting metaphorical pen to paper, which can be a real problem sometimes. But I've tried the "suck it and see" method and it really doesn't work at all for me, so I'm stuck with that method.

Same here, absolutely. I always grow my plot bunnies to the end of their gestation but then leave them just before they're about to pop out of the womb, so to speak. I'll write a brief outline of what I want the story to do, where to begin and importantly, where to finish. Then I have a rough framework I can work to which I'll be able to see at that point might be too long here, or be uneventful there, or whatever.

The framework in this case tends to be hollow enough that I can pack in all kinds of stuff - set pieces etc. But importantly, a rough plot framework allows the characters to form organically. It's like with The Wager in my signature - I started writing that not long ago, then I found two of the characters who I'd never put together seemed to have become a couple. I'd never have put the two together myself, and even if you'd suggested MaCavityXJennyanydots to me I'd have said, 'that sounds far too artificial'.

But they've done it.

[jlori10]

I haven't really written all that much so far but what I have I originally started out with a specific ending in mind. One story I'm working on has followed very closely to the plot line and ending I'd planned in the beginning. The other... not so much. I'm half way through it and have no clear ending in mind at this point. Basically, it took on a life of its own somewhere along the line and decided that it wasn't going to do what I wanted it to do. lol Does that make any sense at all?

I guess my point is, whatever happens happens. Starting something without a clear ending in mind doesn't mean the story will ramble endlessly any more than starting one with a clear ending in mind means that it will actually end the way you planned. I think what's most important is the character and plot development done before hand. Then again, I'm definitely not an expert. Just thought this topic looked interesting!