DO YOU THINK UP OF AN ENDING BEFORE YOU START A STORY?

This is a good question. I don't really write stories. The longest story I've written was when I was 10, and it was about 30 pages long. I want to be able to write a story, but everything I write I feel like it's crap. It seems like I'm getting better though. Hopefully I'll be able to be happy with something soon. I've heard Pixar begin at the end, sometimes.

Sometimes.

I usually have at least a vague idea of where I want most stories to end, but I keep it loose in case I think of something better or have missed something. When making games in specific, I find that having a set beginning, middle, and end helps me plan the overall locations and dungeons I need and is thus very useful ^_^

As the author of 4 comics, each over 400 pages, I learned that not only was starting with a full outline more efficient, but it also made for a better story.

Creating a sequence of events with no planned ending is creating a historical account, not telling a good story. Historical accounts are a record of what has happened, for better or worse, chaos or order. But stories resolve.

I usually think of how I want it to end in terms of mood, whether I want a sad or happy ending, and what kind of message I want it to send. I usually don't nail down the specifics until much later, though, because the I usually change the rest of the story so much.

No. For me, thinking of an ending is easy. I have a terrible time thinking of a beginning. In fact, my inability to think of beginnings is my top reason I'm now on year five of writing my second book.

No, because an ending is already part of a story and if you got an ending then you already started a story!


When I was younger and writing my super cool video game stories of the day I always started at the beginning. Graduate from hero school and get out there for adventure! Go to the eight mystic shrines and unlock super moves! Go to a town and befriend a talking cow! Continue on with whatever random thoughts I had at the time bereft of any sort of pacing or buildup to anything. It's like a shitty serial that goes on endlessly and when anything gets close to being resolved it's time to dig up more shit from the compost pile.


Now I follow more of what Zachary and Red Nova talked about with a top level view and work my way down. Think of the general vision, concepts, themes, major plot points, characters, and the climax as what ties everything together. I usually have an idea of what I want the climax to be but no guarantees that it'll survive untouched (or rewritten entirely) by the end. Having a plan for it helps keep everything in focus for me as everything should be building up to the (or at least a, with the number of subplots and so on that can exist in a narrative) climax. With a destination in mind I find the rest of the journey can flow much easier.

Awwww - but coming up with the ending towards the end of a story is the best part! It’s like treating yourself to something very grandiose after slogging through all those many countless hours writing the thing, thinking about the thing, dreaming about the thing, and getting all the way to the end of the thing!

I mean, yeah, I’ll usually after I start brainstorming and beginning to write the story think about initially how the tale is going to end and what exactly might happen, but the exact words and the very exact sequences of events during that particular moment I like to wait until I officially get there first before I write that part, because it also gives me, the author, a bit of a sense of wonder of what exactly might happen in the story since by that point there’s very little for me to look forward to anymore. Also, you might suddenly have an idea somewhere later on for a potential sequel, prequel or a side-story and you might wanna adjust a few things here or there to leave it off on that note.

Either way, the ending is always something that I’ll think about from time to time, but I won’t actually really type it or do the actual scene until that faithful day comes…you know, just to keep me in suspense a little bit more. :)

For most of my stories, I have a pretty good idea of how it's going to end going into it. If on the off-chance I don't, it's usually resolved early in the planning process. Like, I knew the world was going to come to an end when it was all said and done, but it wasn't until I started working on a different game that I adopted into the main narrative of the world that I decided to change the ending to not show this final conclusion. Now it's simply implied if one reads into it deep enough.

Of course, when it comes to storytelling, experience is key. The only way you're going to be able to make a beginning and an end before going back and filling in all the middle bits is if you know how a story is typically told and how its conflicts are resolved. I had the misfortune of not having this experience going into my main project so the first few iterations were just awful in terms of pacing and plot-holes.

I've also found moderate success with just coming up with a list of places and then trying to put them all in an order that makes sense both geographically and allows a story to basically write itself.