Welcome to 40 Days of 3 Questions!
For the next few weeks, meet here every morning with a notebook or document to answer three questions about writing, about your status quo as a writer, or about the writing life. You can answer briefly and go about your day, or you can use this as a warm up exercise before your regular writing schedule. Whatever works for you, works for me.
Day 6 Questions
- Do you know the ending of your current project, or with each project?
- Do you need to know the outcome when you begin writing so you can write toward it, or does the story’s end come organically as you write?
- Have you ever changed a story’s original ending?
You may post answers in comments or keep your thoughts private–your choice!
And here is today’s pretty picture:
Ramona DeFelice Long 
With a short story I usually know the end. Not so much with a novel, although I sometimes do. And yes, it can (and has) change!
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I always know who the killer is and why before I begin, however, the circumstances surrounding the ending have been known to veer completely off course from what I envisioned. Have I ever changed the original ending? Not really. There have been times I really wanted to (as with the manuscript I just turned in), but doing so would have weakened the emotional impact.
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I always begin with a “goal” ending. Sometimes it’s specific such as character A will arrest the murderer of character B, but find no satisfaction in it. Other times it’s very general because I know it should be a happy story so it needs a happy ending but I’m just following my characters along on their journey.
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I’m curious. Why does the ending need to be happy?
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I was just using that as an example. Sometimes I have an exact ending in mind, other times my story might be light and the story calls for a happy ending but I don’t quite know yet how that character or particular story will find it. I only know at that point that is my goal.
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I always know the ending. Sometimes I write the ending first. Other times, I only know the broad idea, and the details come later.
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1.) Do you know the ending of your current project, or with each project? I always know the ending in the first draft.
2.) Do you need to know the outcome when you begin writing so you can write toward it, or does the story’s end come organically as you write? I need to know how it ends while I’m gutting through that terrible first draft.
3.) Have you ever changed a story’s original ending? Yes. Of the six books I’ve written in the Webb’s Glass Shop Mysteries, I’ve changed the villain in two of them.
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Do you know the ending of your current project, or with each project? I usually think I know the ending. I might even draft it. I am usually wrong.
Do you need to know the outcome when you begin writing so you can write toward it, or does the story’s end come organically as you write? A little of both? As I said above, I often have a first idea and that is enough to get me going. But as I write the story, that ending either fits or it doesn’t. Quite often the “facts” aren’t different, but who is responsible for those facts and the aftermath changes along the way.
Have you ever changed a story’s original ending? Ha! Frequently! The book that will be published in August has had at least three different endings.
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1. Do you know the ending of your current project, or with each project?–Usually I think I do. I have to write a synopsis for my editor and that has an ending.
2. Do you need to know the outcome when you begin writing so you can write toward it, or does the story’s end come organically as you write?–Like Kim, I usually have a goal ending, even if that doesn’t turn out to be the one.
3. Have you ever changed a story’s original ending? Yes, several times. Sometimes the solution is too obvious once I get there. Other times, I can’t maneuver the right person to the location of the murder at the right time with the weapon. The “broad brush” solution from the synopsis is impossible. In these cases most other solutions are impossible, too, and I really have to put my thinking cap on.
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Do you know the ending of your current project, or with each project? I struggle with this. Truly struggle. In my work of fiction, I’m not quite sure where is everyone is leading. I’s a very complex story and trying to make it plausible and true to the story in my imagination is tricky.
Do you need to know the outcome when you begin writing so you can write toward it, or does the story’s end come organically as you write? Well, I don’t like it, but it has to come organically.
Have you ever changed a story’s original ending? My memoir was easier because the book had to reflect all the precepts of the prologue.
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Do you know the ending of your current project, or with each project? With the current project I have a general idea. Others, not always.
Do you need to know the outcome when you begin writing so you can write toward it, or does the story’s end come organically as you write? I’m still figuring this writing thing out. So, I have started some pieces without knowing how they will end, just believing that they (or I) would find the natural ending as the story progressed, whatever that ending was. Mostly those are the ones that just drifted off, went nowhere and were abandoned.
Have you ever changed a story’s original ending? For those for which I had an idea of the ending, no, but I haven’t written many. I’m open to the idea since I’ve noticed that as I write I sometimes get new ideas about how things should flow.
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I’m a pantser so when I start a story I have no idea where it will end. Generally about the midpoint, my thoughts on ‘who done it’ will begin to crystallize. I like this because up to the midpoint, I have a number of possible killers. How my heroine will interact with the real killer when she is faced with him, I don’t know until I start writing that part. Keeps me from directing my readers. I want them to be guessing until the end just like I’m guessing!
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***Do you know the ending of your current project, or with each project?
In general, I do. I use plotting templates and set up a beginning and ending scene. I don’t write them, just sketch out what I think will happen. For short stories, though, I work more free form and don’t always know how they’ll turn out.
***Do you need to know the outcome when you begin writing so you can write toward it, or does the story’s end come organically as you write?
I have to have something to aim for so I don’t wander off course.
***Have you ever changed a story’s original ending?
My actual scenes sometimes vary from my sketches, and sometimes they don’t. Once I had to change the killer for the publisher. That was quite a project, but I think it did a good job of keeping the reader guessing since I had great clues pointing every which way. Once, for a short story, I had to change the motivation—the whole basis, what I call the pre story, the story behind what happens in the book. The publisher wanted nothing to do with rape, and an old rape (not described or anything, just characters finding out that it happened) had to change into another motivation. I felt the story was stronger the first way, but I also thought my first murderer for the novel was better, too. But I’m just the writer. What do I know? They both got published, so I like the endings.
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Know the ending? I know the ending of one current project, and writing to it is dead boring. I thought I knew the ending of the other project but changed it along the way.
Need to know? I start with a character, a setting, and a line and go from there. I probably know more than I think I do, but the best parts come as I write, important things I’d never have known if I’d written to an outline.
Changed an ending? Yes. I change one because my critique group made me.
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