Write the end first

[A. E. Lowan]

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?

Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense for our brains to process what we're reading. They'll reject anything else. Reality, on the other hand... I live in a very rural area. I like to joke that you know you're in my neck of the woods when you see a tween peddling a rusty bike down a gravel road like their lives depend on it, being chased by a three-legged pittie mix.

I've seen this three times. I can't make this up, and I'm IRISH. I feel like getting a red pen. "Fate, honey, let's talk plot and conflict."

 

[JBCrowson]

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.

My scene outlining has become very brief as I head into book two. Sometimes it's as little as just character names, a location, and either an essential piece of info that needs to come out, or an emotion someone has to show. Then I set to, and the characters do it their way. I think having an entire book of main character development helps with this approach as they really have internal momentum at this point.

As an example It tried to make my MC, Arlechs, fall for a new lady not that long after he'd split with his long time love. It didn't happen, and ended up with a sort of unrequited love on her side and a blissful ignorance of her interest on his. After a bunch of adventures, narrow escapes and so on they will be close, but in a different way than I'd originally drafted for them. It might just be more interesting than a standard romance would have been.

I sometimes wonder if my writing is overly lapping back into my real life. The break-up scene I mentioned wasn't going well. I eventually got it written after a RW argument with the missus. A lot of catharsis came out in that scene shall we say. I was then able to make up in RW, feeling much better about all sorts of stuff. I sometimes think I'm on a bigger arc than my characters.

 

[skip.knox]

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.

I appreciate that. I'm doing something quite similar, but my person is Frederick II. The trouble isn't the solution; the trouble is having scores of possible solutions.

To hearken back to the OP, I can't just write the ending first. Or, rather, I can and have, but it's solid gold guaranteed that those endings (yes, more than one) aren't going to work. And they won't work because they won't fit the character arcs, or plot practicalities, or some combination thereof. I need to write beginnings and middles before I begin to see the shape of the end.

And that's ok, which is really the point of starting this discussion. Writing the ending first is great ... for those for whom it turns out to be great. But it's also ok not to have any idea about the ending. Or to have fifty ideas. Or to have an idea that turns out to be wrong. And every method is ppaaiinnffuull.