Uhhh How Does It End Again?

[Perpetual Man]

Funny thing. Whenever I write I generally have an idea, even if it is vague about how a story will end. If it is vague it normally crystalises as I am writing (or changes completely), and when I start writing I have an idea baout what I am going to write about.

Recently I started a short story. I know it was something I wanted to write, I had the genre, I just wanted to write something in that genre. But had no idea what I was going to tell.

So I thought 'In for a penny in for a pound' and did something I've never done before, just started to write with no idea what I was going to write. At all.

Let the imagination lead me.

I came up with a few ideas that I really liked and went with it but now... I suddenly came to the conclusion that I am just writing I keep going, but I don't know how the story is going to end so I just don't stop hoping that I'll discover the end along the way.

As this happened to anyone else?

And how did it get resolved?

(No matter what I feel this is one story that is going to have chunks amputated rather than edited.)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

All the time, sadly. The end will appear, worry ye not.

 

[prizzley]

All the time, sadly. The end will appear, worry ye not.

All the time, happily. I never know the end in advance.

 

[Mouse]

All the time for me, too. I never know the end of short stories until I get there. I usually know the end to novels, but not always (no idea on the one I worked on recently, for example).

 

[ratsy]

I usually know the ending on my short stories. That being said it's a very open idea for the ending so things change as the story gets built. Right now I have two shorts I am going to work on and I have already decided on the premises, rough characters, start, and rough endings. I find I can blast through the sections easier if I have a plan. Like we spoke about in another thread, I treat them like storyboards then build around them.

 

[Bowler1]

An ending never seems to worry JJ Martin in Game of Thrones. His plots and characters wonder off in all directions with no ending in sight. So enjoy mate, write away I say.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Oh, yes, many times. Most of the time, actually, I don't have an ending in mind when I start. It generally comes along, and sometimes after that another, better, one elbows its way in while I'm in the shower or walking the dog or driving to work, and then I have to revamp things to go in that direction instead.

You'll find something. If it doesn't find you first.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Thanks folks.

I've written another couple of hundred words and still no real idea where it is going, which for me is rather disconcerting, although seeing the comments above have made it seem a lot less like a brick wall.

I might even have a vague idea about how it is going to end.

I hope.

 

[paranoid marvin]

If an ending doesn't seem natural, then don't force it. Have you thought that your short story is simply begging to be a longer one?

 

[Perpetual Man]

Heh, PM I was trying desperately not to think that... I need it to be a short story, but it is insidiously whispering to me that it wants to be long...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Heh, PM I was trying desperately not to think that... I need it to be a short story, but it is insidiously whispering to me that it wants to be long...

My last three novels did that... One was originally complete at 75 words.

 

[tinkerdan]

I had something that was too long and had to split it up and then had to create an ending for the middle.

But in all of that I had an original plan that included several sub plots and a main plot so I had something to work with as toward wrapping things up nicely at the halfway mark.

I almost have the impression you don't have much of that or there would at least by now be an ending in sight, which would hint at how much longer the whole thing might be.

 

[hopewrites]

I rarely (I would say never, but twice makes "never" a lie now) know the end.

When your characters have grown enough to make a solid point, or you run out of words, the story is usually over.

Think if it were being read to you at bed time, when you can satisfactorily insert "and they lived happily ever after" you've found an ending. Now the fun thing about not having an ending in mind is that An ending doesn't mean it's The ending *wicked grin* so if your not done, keep going till you are

 

[Phyrebrat]

I appreciate your dilemma, especially about wanting to keep it short (if my behaviour in the SS workshop stuff is any measure).

The Odyssey SFF podcast had an interesting thing to say recently about shorts; 'if you don't know what you're doing at the end, it's probably because you didn't know what you were doing at the beginning.' I'm not sure if I agree with this, certainly I doubt it's uniform, but it did make me think about what was being set up in the first few paragraphs or pages.

In any case, your problem is interesting to me because I realised last week I may have a habit of overplanning. Recently I've been less plan-y and some very provident things arise which are germane to the story, and more importantly, its resolution.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on; it'd be nice to read a short that was discovered* rather than planned.


pH
*hater of the term 'pantser/pantsing/pantsed

 

[Perpetual Man]

Well I am now pleased to say that I have finished the damn thing. It has to be one of the first times that I felt I had to hammer everything into place to get something that resembles a story. It's going to take a lot of work to batter into shape, but there might be a glimmer of something there.

 

[barrett1987]

Stephen King's Mr Mercedes was a short story that when he finished was a novel instead. Sometimes the story has a life of its own.