Write the end first

[skip.knox]

I've seen this said both as direct advice and as simply how a particular author works. Maybe on just one novel, maybe all the time.

It makes good sense to me. As I develop a story I can sort of freehand characters and situations and settings, but when it comes to plot, knowing where you mean to end up would seem to be a great help in knowing how to proceed.

Except.

I try to do this with every novel (after the first one, which really was just groping my way through a jungle). It never works. This might be because I'm no good at this writing business, or it might be that "write the end" disguises a more complex process. I'm here to vote for the latter.

I have this story. It's baased on real events and I therefore know how the real story ends. That ending is no good at all. It doesn't end where it should, the main character rolls from one victory to the next, and once he's won, things only get more complicated. Real life is rarely a good story. Just for reference, the source material is the life of Emperor Frederick II, whose young life, up until about age 20, is pure story gold, but then it goes six ways sideways.

So from very early in development, I knew I was going to need to come up with a better ending. And I did. Several, in fact. I have one where Frederick pursues the villain all the way to the Vistula River, riffing on Alexander pursuing Darius III. But no matter how great the scene, it was anti-climactic. I have another where Frederick cleverly uses one of his opponents against the villain, turning the villain's own magical powers against him. But that took the instrument of victory out of Frederick's hands, rendering that ending also anti-climactic.

But all that means I had already formed a pretty good idea of what sort of person my Frederick was, along with the character of the villain and of Otho, Fritz's main opponent. It also meant that I had thought through where the final battle was to take place, and so on. IOW, I had already developed a fair bit of the story structure before I was able even to consider the matter of endings.

That bears repetition. I could not begin to write the end until I had a decent chunk of the story already in mind. Think about it. Pretend I have nothing in mind, or next to nothing more than "I'll write a fictionalization of Frederick von Hohenstaufen's rise too power". I could write any of a hundred endings. And any and all of them could be powerful endings, provided I constructed everything that led up to that ending skillfully.

IOW, writing the ending first was no help at all. Was in fact, impossible.

I gotta tell ya, how others do this--and I do not doubt for a moment that they do--is beyond my ability to imagine. Did the ending really and truly come before *everything*? And if not, then what did come first and how much developed before that ending came along?

I do see the usefulness. In fact, after much rumination and even some fragmentary writing, I've hit on an ending that feels right. I've just sketched it up in words and the thing holds up (writing, even in rough form, is how I test drive an idea). And I can see, even at this stage, that knowing how and where Otho meets his demise, and what happens to the villainous sorcerer who used him, will help guide countless writing decisions in earlier chapters.

But even with that, the concept is fuzzy. Do I need to have written the whole ending in final form? What if I change it? Was writing the first way actually detrimental? And anyway, in exactly, precisely what ways did writing (or just sketching or outlining) the ending specifically help and inform writing in earlier chapters? Or is it something less tangible and more frangible?

Anyway, write the ending first. Or don't. Or just outline it. Or just dive in the front end and figure out the end when you get there. What the heck do I know.

 

[Penpilot]

I don't necessarily write the ending, but I know what I need from the ending in terms of the character's arc. For example, my main character in my current novel, they spend most of the book denying the truth of themselves and what they are. They lie to themselves about what they really want, and they're always afraid that people will find out the truth.

At the end, in order to defeat the bad guy, they must not only accept who they truly are, they must embrace it, body and soul and reveal it to the world.

For me, the specifics of the ending don't necessarily matter as long as everything logically pushes the main character to that moment where they must make that choice, change or not.

For example in Star Wars, Luke starts off thinking he's nothing special, just a simple farm boy. In order to make the shot during the trench run, Luke has accept that he's not just a simple farm boy. He's fought the empire. He's rescued a princess. He can wield the force. And he can use the force to make that shot. And he does.

 

[Rexenm]

My stories are roosters until you chop their head off. And no stories have true endings anyway. The point is, you have to finish a story somewhere, and it is often anticlimactic, strange to think of it. If you begin a story, that has an ending - it is where you last saw it. That doesn’t mean one is wise to the ending, and it doesn’t matter what came first, the chicken or the egg.

I Began Looking into some old childhood memories. The Magic Piano, Charlotte’s Web. I came to the conclusion that I might just not be there anymore. Those memories are on the other side and part of my future when I finally come back and do it different. It is a sobering thought. We were playing board games today, and I was making my daughter win, spurring it. Is it fun to see young people win?

My conclusion is, you have to break your routine, to see anything clearly. Anything in life. You’ve come to your ending, then run to the other side. It is a catechism. Does your story begin at its end? Is that when you start your own story? Is this but some conclusion to make? I wonder if we are attempting to set up an arranged marriage, whatever genre it is, as writers. Rhetorical.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I prefer the sentiment: Know Thy Ending. This came from screenwriting and seeing how many writers had great "high concepts" but had no way to end the story in a satisfying way, with those bolded words being the key. Movie ideas are bought on the high concept alone, and I'm convinced that many films never got finished or failed in the theaters because they lacked those two bold words. A similar thing applies to novels. Seeing what's happening to Rothfuss might be something similar, with book 2 struggling with readers, although I'm not a fan of book one either. GRRM might even be an example. I have a humorous theory that he hasn't finished AGoIaF because HBO ended the series exactly like he planned, and he now knows that his ending sucked, heh heh.

When writing the ending first, I don't think it means the final form. Things change, but what can't change is the satisfying part.

 

[pmmg]

I've had the end in mind for about 30 years. And....its never changed. I am just slowly getting to it. And now I even know the epilog. I am sure if I wrote it now, it would require entirely different words when I got to it, but I could.... But that is not my way. I start on page one, and steadily move to page finish. I don't do much out of order.


My guess is, and not that I know, but GRRM will not finish the series. I dont think he has real love for it, and now that HBO finished it, I think he feel even less of an obligation to it. When I've seen him speak in various videos or interviews, I dont get from him that he is as hooked on his series as his fans are, and given his age (and weight...) I'm just thinking he's not gonna get to it. Maybe Sanderson can finish another one....

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I'm the sort who has to know where they are going in able to get there. But, I also absolutely must write linearly. And for me the reason is in part because I'm terribly lazy and I don't like to spend a lot of energy on work that can't be used in some way, and in part because the changes characters and story go through as we navigate their secrets in search of blood-spattered treasure can have a profound impact on how the story ends. We had this happen with Beneath a Stone Sky. Etienne has a life-altering plot reveal, and as we worked and drafted I didn't even know until we were halfway through the final battle.

Thanks a bunch, Etienne.

So, we were charging right along, talking release dates and starting the cover process, and a stranger sits down beside me and informs me she's always been there. It's just that no one knew to look. There are some things you can't shelve.

 

[skip.knox]

>end the story in a satisfying way
Well yes, that's it exactly. To be satisfying, it has to fit all the character arcs and the plot.

>Things change
And then there's this. If I can change the ending before The End, then that wasn't the ending was it? IOW, the ending is every bit as exploratory as the rest of the wretched mess.

Which I'm sort of OK with. I write sideways. If I were a painter, I'd sketch a bit here, paint a bit there, sketch in an open spot, paint over bits already done, and in general muck about until I called it finished. Or until a buyer paid me. <g>

So, I write the ending ... somewhere in along there. I write the beginning a bunch. Bits that were in the middle wind up later or earlier or on the floor where they make mewling sounds until I kick them and they skulk off. Writing--and by "writing" I really mean drafting fragments--the ending at some point is helpful because I can at least measure or not I can make the jump. I have the characters, who are in a similar state of sartorial disarray, along with the setting and plot and details about the ending help me flesh out some of that. Which helps me write more. Which helps me gain a clearer notion as to what about the ending is not likely to work. It's a dialectic, but with multiple voices and they speak different languages.

The only thing I can say for sure is that *not* thinking about the ending is probably a mistake. There you go. Timeless Advice.

 

[Karlin]

"I make mention of my faults this day"
I start out with an idea, a "what if", then I start writing. I don't really know my characters till after I've written for a bit, and then they take things from there.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I write linear most of the time and all over the place others. The endings I write early "change" in detail but not substance. Age of characters. Whether a minor character lives or dies. How many children does Character X have. But the important story bits don't change.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I can imagine this going either way for GRRM. He's got a lot of pokers in the fire, but if he has any concern for his legacy, he will finish the series. Sanderson finishing those books gives me a chuckle. There would be worse choices, but...

I've had the end in mind for about 30 years. And....its never changed. I am just slowly getting to it. And now I even know the epilog. I am sure if I wrote it now, it would require entirely different words when I got to it, but I could.... But that is not my way. I start on page one, and steadily move to page finish. I don't do much out of order.


My guess is, and not that I know, but GRRM will not finish the series. I dont think he has real love for it, and now that HBO finished it, I think he feel even less of an obligation to it. When I've seen him speak in various videos or interviews, I dont get from him that he is as hooked on his series as his fans are, and given his age (and weight...) I'm just thinking he's not gonna get to it. Maybe Sanderson can finish another one....

 

[Mad Swede]

For me the opening of a story is defined by the end of the story. I've always written the opening and closing scenes first and then the rest of the story. They're a sort of matched pair in that the way I end the story sets the tone for the way I set the story up at the start, and these are themselves linked to what the story is about. I've said before that I don't set out to put a given theme into my stories, but that this theme (or themes) turns up anyway. For me the ending needs to wrap up the story and the way it starts, not just resolve the conflicts in the story. By wrapping up I mean that there is a sort of emotional link between the start and the end of the story, and this emotional link is also (according to my editor) linked to the theme of the story. Don't ask me how all this works, because I have no idea. I just think of the story and write.

 

[Penpilot]

Maybe Sanderson can finish another one....

He's said that he wouldn't do it even if asked because he's not the right fit.

Brandon Sanderson: I wouldn’t finish The Winds of Winter should something happen

When asked by fans on Reddit, Brandon Sanderson says he would never consider finishing The Winds of Winter for George R.R. Martin, should it come to that.

winteriscoming.net

 

[pmmg]

Well..I can be available if he needs.

 

[Penpilot]

Well..I can be available if he needs.

Get in line.

 

[Prince of Spires]

For me, the ending develops as I progress in the story. I have only the vaguest of ideas when I start writing about how the story will end. I outline, and I stick to that outline pretty well, but my ending scenes are something like "something terrible happens here" and "they probably win, but maybe an important character dies."

It turns out that's pretty much my process. It lets me get the thing written. So I stick to it.

I suppose I probably should know more about my ending when I start, so I can make it have a bigger impact.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

For me, the ending develops as I progress in the story. I have only the vaguest of ideas when I start writing about how the story will end. I outline, and I stick to that outline pretty well, but my ending scenes are something like "something terrible happens here" and "they probably win, but maybe an important character dies."

It turns out that's pretty much my process. It lets me get the thing written. So I stick to it.

I suppose I probably should know more about my ending when I start, so I can make it have a bigger impact.

I find a whole lot of the time that I will somehow plant signposts for things that I wasn't even aware would happen. Stuff that never appeared in the research and worldbuilding and role playing and spaghetti throwing that's all big parts of our process. And it freaks me out every time. lol

I'd say when you go back over to edit or whatever, keep an eye out for those little, unknown signposts. I'm willing to bet there are more than you think.

 

[dollyt8]

I have a vague idea of the ending when I start, but if I write the ending, I lose 100% of my motivation to write the rest of the story. I'm not kidding. One of my habits when I started writing was to write all the most interesting parts first and get to the tough parts later, and I never finished a book that way. It works for me now to have a good outline and a good idea of the climax, but as I start to write there are character changes, new ideas introduced, and a million other factors that make the original ending I might have come up with impractical anyway.

 

[pmmg]

One of my habits when I started writing was to write all the most interesting parts first and get to the tough parts later, and I never finished a book that way.

An obvious solution is to write only boring parts.

Outline? Whats that?


I find, that when I write, the scenes almost never end up on paper the way they played out in my head, but the big picture does not change. I'm still progressing in the same direction, so its like the whole is figured out, the parts are flexibile, but the parts are still gonna equal the whole.

 

[The Dark One]

I have this story. It's baased on real events and I therefore know how the real story ends. That ending is no good at all. It doesn't end where it should, the main character rolls from one victory to the next, and once he's won, things only get more complicated. Real life is rarely a good story. Just for reference, the source material is the life of Emperor Frederick II, whose young life, up until about age 20, is pure story gold, but then it goes six ways sideways.

I have a possible solution for you...

Some years ago I was looking at scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry. In scene IV a young chap in a green tunic is walking down the stairs after a feast, preparing to take ship with Harold. Who are you? I wondered. What was your story?

Instantly a story exploded into my head - a retelling of the events leading up to the Norman Conquest told through the eyes of the green shirted chap, blending historical figures and real events (as far as they can be established after a thousand years) with my fictional characters. All plot threads come together at the Battle of Hastings.

What this means from a storytelling perspective is that the Battle itself is only a side drama to the fictional drama. Also, and more importantly, it enabled me to throw my own spin on how the Battle ended and why. Readers may think they know what happened at the Battle of Hastings but they will never guess how my novel ends. They will also see the events of Hastings in a new and very different light.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I find a whole lot of the time that I will somehow plant signposts for things that I wasn't even aware would happen. Stuff that never appeared in the research and worldbuilding and role playing and spaghetti throwing that's all big parts of our process. And it freaks me out every time. lol

Yep, same happens to me. I just write and somehow get to a point where I had no clue what would happen when I was outlining. And I look back at what I wrote and the answer is obvious, given all that happened. Since I started noticing this happening I worry a lot less about gaps or vague bits in my outline. I just assume I'll figure it out when I get there.

And then during the editing it just takes a bit of spit and polish to make the signposts shine just that little bit more.

As for real world events, I always think that there are plenty of real events that are so unbelievable that they'd never make a great fictional tale. Just take Alexander the great. Who would believe a kid gains the throne of his father's kingdom, goes on to conquer the entire known world, never losing a battle, only to die to malaria when he gets back home?