Writing the end first?

jannawrites · Feb 9, 2008

A few of you know I've been stalled on my WIP for a while now. I'd gotten over halfway through, and knew what was left to happen, but hadn't known how to get it all out. Finally, fed up with not getting anything done, I wrote the final chapter last night. And it ROCKS! I'm so happy with it. It wraps up my ultimate goal with the story and gives me something to shoot for. Then I wrote out a page of "what has to happen," so that at a glance I can make sure I'm filling the spaces in correctly. And I may end up jumping around to get it all complete, but other writers do this, right?
Feedback?

ORION · Feb 9, 2008

I always write my first middle and last chapter when I start a novel. That gives me the skeleton I need - then I flesh it out.
Don't worry about your strategy for doing it - I haven't met a published author yet who does it the same way...

Birol · Feb 9, 2008

jannawrites said:
And I may end up jumping around to get it all complete, but other writers do this, right?

Yes.

Question, back at you, if other writers weren't doing this, would you stop doing it, even though it's working for you?

jannawrites · Feb 9, 2008

Birol said:
Yes.

Question, back at you, if other writers weren't doing this, would you stop doing it, even though it's working for you?

No, because my end goal is to finish, by whatever means. I just wondered how common a strategy it is.

Sage · Feb 9, 2008

I have mixed feelings on (me personally) doing this. Sometimes when I'm in the Great Swampy Middle, the thing that drives me on is my excitement about getting to the climax and conclusion. But there are times when I cannot write anything else until I write a specific scene because I am consumed by it, and at times, that is the climax. When that happens, I just skip ahead and do it. But I do find it harder to write earlier scenes when I've skipped ahead.

DarkLight · Feb 9, 2008

Usually, I go in order, but for my current WIP I had to start on chapter 3. That's right, chapters 1 and 2 have not yet been written. The excitement really starts in chapter 3 and I knew how to go from there, but I wasn't exactly sure how to build up the suspense in the first and second chapters or even how exactly to start off. I pretty much know what happens, but I figured I'd start off where I knew what I was doing and as I write, I tend to learn more about my own plot and characters. They flesh themselves out and that helps me go back and write a better first two chapters. For all my novels I'll sometimes write out powerful scenes I know will come up in the work at some future point, so that I don't lose it in my jumbled head. Mostly, its to get down the powerful dialogue before I forget a few lines and mess it up. I tend not to write the final chapter, ever, because I want to have the pleasure of writting it when I get to the end, of feeling that finality, to have a goal to get to. But, yeah. It doesn't matter. write in whatever order works for you. And congrats on unsticking your work. Good luck!

Shady Lane · Feb 9, 2008

I will NOT write out of order because I know I'll just get confused. But that's me. I have a small brain.

I will write specific snippets of dialogue--I call them 'quotes,' though it's not really accurate--at the tops of pages that I want to happen later. These quotes are usually melodramatic and out of context and never end up going into the ms as is. But they always show up in some form...which is nice.

reenkam · Feb 9, 2008

I always write in order. Usually I don't know how something's going to end. I'll have a general idea, but no where near enough to actually write an ending. Also, like Shady (surprise surprise) I'd just get confused.

jannawrites · Feb 9, 2008

I never thought I'd write out of order, either, but trying to follow it through from start to finish wasn't working (obviously). I'm just glad the ideas are flowing again.

melaniehoo · Feb 9, 2008

I wrote mine all over the place. I think as long as it got you to write & you're happy with the result, you shouldn't worry about it.

And congrats!

DWSTXS · Feb 9, 2008

Shady Lane said:
I will NOT write out of order because I know I'll just get confused. But that's me. I have a small brain.

I will write specific snippets of dialogue--I call them 'quotes,' though it's not really accurate--at the tops of pages that I want to happen later. These quotes are usually melodramatic and out of context and never end up going into the ms as is. But they always show up in some form...which is nice.

well.....I have a small brain too.....and I was getting nowhere on my 1st novel.....i started it over and over, and trashed it over and over.....more than 125 times in 20 years.....(I know, I know...what a doofus)

I finally sat down and wrote the ending. Then it flowed, and flowed and flowed. I guess you can't know which direction to go, until you know your final destination. Once you know the final destination, you'll know the route you need to take to get there.

DeleyanLee · Feb 9, 2008

I've done that before--written the ending first. It makes sense to me to write it while I'm still charged up and energized about the book instead of waiting all those months when I'm tired and frustrated and just want it to be over and write a crappy climax.

When I've done it, it's given me something to shoot for and, though it might need tweaking, it's always the ending I promised along the way. It's actually kinda nice to know exactly what I'm building towards in great detail when I can do it.

~grace~ · Feb 9, 2008

I write totally out of order. I begin a draft in order, and then when I reach my first major stalling point I just skip ahead to the next scene that's working for me. This story's been living inside my brain for so long I rarely get confused.

Terran · Feb 9, 2008

I tend to write all over the place, but I have found myself writing from the end at times.(mostly when I have gotten lost within my story)

It does help to give you an idea of where you want to go. I would suggest however, not to lock yourself into the ending you have fashioned, rather use it as a guide.

If you feel the story begin to turn away from your ending, I say let it. Trying to force the story onto a preset path its likely to read as forced and your readers will notice.

Though as Orion stated, every writer has their own method, you have to go with what works for you.

Hope this helps.

Alexandra Little · Feb 9, 2008

Chapters 1-3 are done, and chapters 19-20 (the end) are almost done. The middle is pretty scattered, depending on what I have the urge to work on.

ishtar'sgate · Feb 9, 2008

I usually write in order although I know in my head where I want to end up. Thing is though, for my last book I ended up scrapping the final chapter and rewriting it because by the time I got there I found it wasn't actually where I wanted to go. This time I'm operating within a confined historical time line and know precisely what the ending will be. But I'll still just keep it in my head before I get there as I know there will be slight variations I hadn't planned on plus, hopefully, my writing will have improved by the last chapter and will be better than any first attempt I may have made in the months before completion.
Linnea

Cranky · Feb 9, 2008

I've always worked in order, for the most part. I've only really skipped ahead when I tried NaNo last year. *shakes head at own insanity*

My current book, I love! But I'm a little confused as to where it's all going, so I've been thinking of writing out an ending (or two) and see where it gets me. Unless it completely kicks ass, it won't stay, but it might give me a point to work towards in the meantime.

"Seems like a valid approach to me", is the short answer. LOL

girlyswot · Feb 9, 2008

I believe JKR had the epilogue to book 7 written and stored in a safe somewhere for about 10 years before she got to the end of the series. Seemed to work out okay for her.

Moonshade · Feb 9, 2008

I say do what works for you. If you have a ROCKing ending now you can work on the rest of it. What matters is that you complete the story. Then after you're done, you may go back and revise that ending anyway.

Polenth · Feb 9, 2008

I write in a completely random order. That includes which bit of the story I write and where I put it in the document. It means that most stories have the beginning at the beginning, but everything else is mixed up. I don't think in a linear way so it suits me. I sort it out into the right order for everyone else later.

farfromfearless · Feb 9, 2008

At one point when I was struggling with the plot, I jumped straight to the end as I felt that I was rushing through the writing process just to write that one part. It ended up being a good thing that I did that as I was able to use it as a means to focus what I was doing through the rest of the story.

wayndom · Feb 9, 2008

I read that Margaret Mitchell knew exactly how she wanted Gone With the Wind to end, and also knew that characters often gain a life of their own and won't do what their authors want them to. So she wrote the last chapter of Gone With the Wind, then the next-to-last, etc., until it was done, thus preventing the characters from straying from her intended ending.

Whatever works, works.

Bartholomew · Feb 9, 2008

It doesn't matter WHERE you write in the timeline, so long as you write. Editing is as much a process of filling in as it is taking out.

wood pixie · Feb 10, 2008

I write whatever comes to me.
I do not write in order.

It is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. I put it together as I see the pieces ... eventually the whole thing gets finished.

megan_d · Feb 10, 2008

I write start to finish. Very boring, me.

Writing the end first?

no, really

Sailed away years ago

Around and About

no, really

Our Lady of Parentheticals

my name is hannah

aka cupcake

no, really

And thus we begin the edits

Mr Mojo Risin...

Writing Anarchist

the good old days

What a desolation.

living in the past

Mushroom

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Falling in the milk