Whatever ending I think I'm going to have invariably changes by the time I get to the end of the book. One reason why I don't bother even drafting a synopsis any more until the book is finished.

Tori, I know the ending's going to change before I get there - if the antics of characters in chapter one are anything to go by - but I'm finding it useful to have a synopsis already written. I don't have to sit down and chew my pen, so to speak, and could skip ahead if I wanted to. I think if I'd done this before I wouldn't have changed so many novels into short stories.

Sheila



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Not that they work as short stories - too much plot and too many characters. Maybe I'll expand them again into novelesynopsis and see how I get on.

Naomi, I know what you mean. My MS is also heavyweight and could be cut at a certain point I suppose, except I also think it would leave too much unexplained, even for a first novel in a series. I think I'd feel slightly cheated anyway.

I'm going to hold off on those thoughts until I've finished the damn thing (as I'm presently calling it) and endured a very fastidious edit.

Good luck with yours!

JB

No! I write crime fiction and have never started a novel with a clear idea of where I'm going. I agree that a strong ending is important but think that your ending, like the rest of your story, comes through the writing process itself. There's a moment when you realise what it is and then it's there and the rest of the writing works towards that.

Well, that's how it works for me but I guess that doesn't mean it's how it is for anyone else!
Sheila

I never really thought about this before, but in fact I think I think of books as whole objects, so I do have an idea of the ending before I start - even if I don't know exactly how it will happen. For one novel in particular that's on the back burner, I have the ending written, and it is absolutely essential that it gets to that ending, otherwise everything will unravel.
Other times I just start out thinking 'In the end, he finds Atlantis," or whatever - something as vague as that.

With one wip, I have made the mistake of tying up too many threads - or not having enoutgh threads stretching across the chapters - before reaching the end, so the end feels like a beginning, ie, the MC is in a new location and the reader has little idea where or for what reason.


- NaomiM