Approaches to Writing Endings
How do you know when you’re at the end of your story? How do you wrap it all up neatly and put a bow on it?
This article suggests ten different approaches to endings, which will resonate with different authors.
For some of my stories, I definitely see the end when I get started. I know where the goalpost is, and I just have to proceed toward it (even if it’s not always in a straight line). For others, it’s much harder for me to pin down the ending. This is often when I have a vague idea of “these things should happen, and then ???” So for me, figuring out the ending probably starts at the beginning, so I can set out a road map of what needs to happen to get there. But I’m a plotter/outliner through and through. (And yes, I even write outlines for my short stories. Sometimes even for flash fiction!)
What this tells me is that I should nail down those endings before I get started. And while that seems counterintuitive to people who are discovery writers or pantsers, it makes it easier for me to write the story if I know where it’s going. I still enjoy discovering a twist I didn’t see coming as I’m writing, but when I know the ending, I can evaluate if that twist will work, or if that will require a change to my ending. And nine times out of ten, I don’t want to change my ending. That remaining one time out of ten is when I decide that the twist will give me a new, even better, ending.
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