So what do I think about writing endings?
I am obsessed with the right endings. I wrestle with the endings to my projects for months, and often fixate on them while writing the whole rest of my rough draft.
With the massive project I've been kicking around the last few years, Silver Mask, I even got so tired of waiting that I opened a doc titled it "Ending 1" and plunged right on in.
Setting up the perfect ending, in my head, often teaches me a lot of my characters' various back-stories. Mostly because I'm popping into the most tense time for all my characters and throwing them together in a way they just won't interact at any other point in the novel.
How these characters act when everything hits usually teaches me more about their characters, the direction that they are growing in and their relationships with the other characters than I might see imagining any other time/scene.sequence in a story.
In Silver Mask, the ending is complicated, full of a lot of threads. I don't want to miss any of them, and i also want to make certain that when the rough draft is done, each character has been developed evenly. Writing the ending now is going to tell me how to get there. It'll also tell me what the main tensions between characters are going to be earlier in the novel, by providing me the instances in which these tensions are addressed in some fashion or another.
Endings are just so much fun for me.
I do the same thing and for the same exact reason, and I know of several other authors who do as well, so we're in good company. With my current WIP, I have the beginning and ending both mostly written. Now it's going to be a project of filling in the middle, but I'm confident that I know where I need to go with it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating in my blogfest!
Thanks for hosting! Gald to know other writers who work in a non-linear fashion :)
DeleteI usually have a general idea of what an ending will be like as I get closer to the end of a book, though I never plan it out in advance. The physics teacher who oversaw Creative Writing Club at my first high school never thought things out in advance, and loved the element of being surprised at where his stories and characters ended up.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. It takes me forever to "get it right" anyway, and my characters can still surprise me plenty...but it's also really cool to know the diverse systems writers employ to create. Thanks for your comment.
DeleteI usually have a big picture of the ending, but then getting the gritty details right is tough, but it is fun too. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is so much fun! Thanks for stopping by my blog :)
DeleteSounds like you are particularly good at endings. I like that you are able to jump right in.
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