Know the ending of the book when strarting to write

[Boneman]

In 2 out of 3 of my books I know the exact ending. One came to me when I was musng on changes to chapter 15, and one was set in stone when I got the idea for the book in the first place. The 3rd? Still working on it, but I sort-of know where it wants to go... almost. I'm hoping my muse will like the writing and tell me of the ending...

 

[TheDustyZebra]

On book-length things, so far I have had an ending in mind at the start. As Mouse said, it's the middle part that's iffy, and as VB said, it's AN ending, not necessarily THE ending. For the one, it did change at some point when I realized an important bit in the middle gave me a different direction. I still haven't finished the end, though, and it may change some more in the writing.

For my mystery, it's how I knew I had a whole mystery book in me -- knowing how it ended was very important for that. It's not done yet, either, but I don't think the end will change during the process.

For short stories, I generally just get a beginning and wing it.

 

[MistingWolf]

Nope! I started writing on a vague idea of what I wanted to happen in the middle-ish of my novel, but am still a little unclear as to how it'll all turn out.

 

[Toby Frost]

Yes, pretty much, but almost never precisely. I tend to know roughly where I want to go, and what needs to be included on the way, but it's never all that precise. Usually, though, books have a climax and then a bit where everyone is happy/sorts themselves out. I find it very difficult to end a humorous book without all the goodies having a big party.

In more serious work, the difficult bit is often choosing which of several endings it could be, each of which is pretty credible. This is often between the happy ending (comparatively), the sad ending, or the middling one where the problem is solved but reveals everyone to be terrible and corrupt in the process. It tends to be the happy ending.

 

[A. S. Behsam]

I set out plans for everything in my story, but if something has to happen in the end when I'm actually writing, I usually let it in

 

[MemoryTale]

It varies from book to book for me. For some books, I have an idea but not the specifics. For others I work it out as I go along. For one book, I have the entire end scene already written out. How much of that will remain unchanged by the time I get to the end I don't know yet, but I'm so happy with the last paragraph I'm determined to keep that come what may.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Sort of, but it changes as I write. A lot changes as the story grows. I am currently facing the fact that my characters don't want the ending I had thought about, they want to go in another direction, so I have to jump back and change one of the characters from a goodie to a behind the scenes baddie

 

[Glitch]

I generally have an idea of the ending, but not the specifics.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I generally have a pretty good idea of what the ending of a book (or trilogy) will be, but there can be some big surprises as to how it actually happens. I don't mean things that come out of nowhere at the end, but unexpected things I learn along the way that will make the events immediately leading up to the climax very different from what I envisioned before I started writing.

 

[TheCrusher]

How about multiple endings? That could help if your planing a trilogy right?
Each book could have on of the endings or maybe some way to transition the end of one book to the next.

 

[Mirannan]

I have a slightly different problem. WIP where I've written the first couple of chapters (or maybe first chapter and a prologue, maybe 5000 words) and also a piece which, if used here, would be maybe a couple of chapters further on - but possibly works best as a first chapter in something else.

Assuming that I want to actually finish something eventually, I've given myself a problem!

To answer the actual question: I have an idea and the first 25000 words or so of a piece that if ever finished will be of typical fantasy epic length. I also have a very firm idea of general structure and the last few sentences are already written - but have absolutely no idea how I'm going to fill in the gap.