Does anybody else find themselves writing the ending of a story before finishing the middle?

[Duleigh]

I got about 6000 words into the story I'm currently working on and suddenly I'm feeling compelled to write the ending. I'd had a general idea for how I wanted to end the story, but now it looks like I'm going to be filling in the middle after I get the rest done.

It doesn't matter what order you piece the story together but I try to stay chronological. If you write the ending, then go back to the middle and do something like introduce a character, you have to dash to the end to make sure he's in the right place for the end to happen properly.

 

[CarmineBlancheJr]

Not really writing the end, no. But I have gotten in the habit of outlining how I would like the story to end, then I create a series of "floating waypoints" that I will use to guide the story along. Then as I get closer to what I think the ending will be, I have something to shoot for.

I never set a "hard ending" for any of my stories because I have found, over the years, that my stories take on a life of their own. The ending I get may not be the one I originally planned on. So if I were to set the ending up before I wrote the rest, I would be constraining myself to follow a more rigid path, so to speak.

If that all makes sense.

 

[WCSGarland]

Not really writing the end, no. But I have gotten in the habit of outlining how I would like the story to end, then I create a series of "floating waypoints" that I will use to guide the story along. Then as I get closer to what I think the ending will be, I have something to shoot for.

I never set a "hard ending" for any of my stories because I have found, over the years, that my stories take on a life of their own. The ending I get may not be the one I originally planned on. So if I were to set the ending up before I wrote the rest, I would be constraining myself to follow a more rigid path, so to speak.

If that all makes sense.

It does make sense. And a lot of the stories I have written have often taken a different direction (maybe it could be said as taken a life of their own) than my original thought. I don't think floating waypoints would have helped me. The ending of the story I was working on when I posted this just kind of spontaneously coalesced based upon what was happening organically in the rest of the story. The middle was set, all I had to do was finish writing it, but the ending demanded to be finished first.

 

[karina_jayde]

Yes, I do this a fair amount. Sometimes I find that a great ending serves as a 'magnet' for me writing the rest of the story. Gives me clarity and momentum to reach that epic finale.

 

[CarmineBlancheJr]

It does make sense. And a lot of the stories I have written have often taken a different direction (maybe it could be said as taken a life of their own) than my original thought. I don't think floating waypoints would have helped me. The ending of the story I was working on when I posted this just kind of spontaneously coalesced based upon what was happening organically in the rest of the story. The middle was set, all I had to do was finish writing it, but the ending demanded to be finished first.

I will only say that it has never worked out for me when I have tried that. I have spoken about this before, but my characters tend to take over my stories and lead them in directions I was not always planning. So I have learned to role with that. I have even gotten to points where I have no clue where my characters are taking me until we get there.

For a person with a background in technical writing, where there is no grey area (you cannot put much mystery into telling people how to work on a Cisco Switch), it feels alien sometimes to have your product lead you where you need to go.

 

[Whanmore]

This is very common in writing. Directors don't shoot movies in order. Singers don't record songs in the order they release on an album. Lots of artists work backward

 

[Otto26]

I work through a story in my head, playing the various scenes along the way, until I get to the end. Then I write down the outline of the ending and start working at the beginning to move towards the ending. Knowing the ending allows me to indulge in a little foreshadowing and creates a list of beats I need to hit. I will frequently be driven to write a scene out of order and I go ahead and do that and make edits as required when the rest of the narrative catches up to it.

 

[ArdentHemingway]

All too often. I also have I story I'm already writing the prequal to. And two where I'm very tempted to begin writing side-stories already.