Fascinating to read everyon'e takes on this.

I never plan endings in advance - but I usually know when I get there what has to happen. It just feels right - even when it isn't what I want it to be or thought it would be when I set out.

Rosy

That's odd, because I can rarely begin anything unless I have the ending in mind. My first novel and the one I'm working on now both started life with my visualising of a certain scene and then thinking 'how can I get xyz characters/plot to that point?' I tend to 'retro plan' naturally, and am attracted to endings more than anything.

JB

I agree about visualising. I always 'see' endings first, sometimes as a situation or more often an image and my task is to put in the bits that go before. I'm working towards two endings on two separate stories at the moment, and one of them is a strong image I can see but the other, where a decision has to be made, just includes visuals leading to that point. I think the problem referred to earlier was when you know the ending and start writing the story but then the characters take a different direction from the one intended or the ending suddenly doesn't seem so attractive as when you first started writing about it. Is that right?

Sheila

True sheila. Can't remember which author said it, but someone who writes murder mysteries, when they get to the end they change the person who did it, ie, the character they've been thinking of all the way through, since even with careful plotting they are afraid they've unintentionally made it too obvious in the storyline.

someone who writes murder mysteries, when they get to the end they change the person who did it

I could never do that. It feels a bit like cheating to me.

Was that Agatha Christie, by any chance?

What a swizzle. I'm not one of these people who tries to guess whodunnit, though. After all, I'm bound to find out sooner or later. I don't mind speculating aloud when watching TV - I saw quite a good Trial and Retribution last night where the main suspects were two bothers and it the viewer guessing right to the end. I can't see the point when reading, though. Learning about these authors who deliberately mislead just confirms my ideas. The odd red herring, yes, but changing the murderer at the end is despicable.

Sheila

My first book is a whodunnit and it was very important to me that when the reveal came the reader didn't feel cheated, that they said 'of course, why didn't I see that coming?'
The only way I could do that was with the ending in mind from the very first page so that 'clues' were scattered.
I always seem to do strong starts and finishes - it's the 80 000 words in the middle that are the bugger.
HB x

Was that Agatha Christie, by any chance?

No, I saw it in an article last year. I think it was P.D. James (or similar).


- NaomiM

Well, I thought I'd try writing the synopsis first for my second murder story. I'd already been thinking about it for months, adding details and characters in my head. It's a kind of spoof Agatha Christie, set in a snowed-up country house in Thetford Forest.

I'm happier writing a story that's already worked out ( I workshopped the synopsis here on WW) So there I was this afternoon, happily revising Chapter 1 - the housekeeper welcomes the guests on their week-end course. 'Any more questions before you disperse to meet your tutors?' And, out of the blue, a young man asks if there's any chance of the Glibden Manor ghost making an appearance!

Ghost??!! What ghost? There was no ghost in the synopsis.

Turns out he's an undercover ghost investigator. Well, he'll come in handy as a witness later on, as he skulks round the corridors with his recording equipment, so I won't eject him. It goes to show, though, that there's no point being too rigid in sticking to the plan. The ending won't have to change - yet.

Sheila

Of course, on this particular novel, I escaped the ending by deciding to make it a trilogy... I reckon I can spin that out, a la Robert Jordan, for two or three decades, and never have to actually write an ending!

JB

What a good wheeze. my first novel has an open ending, too. I'd forgotten that, so thanks for reminding me. It was a case of lovers parted by circumstances. Let's see now, where could they meet again...

Sheila

You might delay having an ending to a trilogy or series, but each book does need some sort of denoument of a story thread or two - while other threads trundle on to link the series.

- NaomiM

Oh yes, of course I agree, just being flippant. I know how this one and the next one end, but I've deliberately not focused on the ending ending, because that would ruin all the fun, wouldn't it?

JB

Actualy I was trying to persuade myself, JB , as I have a long ms that could/should be split, but I can't find a convenient place to do it - there is just too much in the second half which cannot be brought forward. Probably just a case of throwing away the first 100K words

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Mind you, Pullman's 2nd - Subtle Knife - doesn't have a denoument ending. That seems to have been arbitarily chopped to give a 'beginning' to Amber Spyglass.