BOOKISH: Writers, Start with the End

Writing most resembles sculpture. You chip away for weeks, months, years. Finally you have the finished product. Then you realize a hand is missing.

Just foolin’. Writing doesn’t resemble any other art. But like painting or sculpture, there is planning. This is kind of important. The painter doesn’t paint to find out what he or she is depicting. They know what the end product is, and so should writers.

I always ask those with a story going to tell me about the end. But don’t you want to know about the characters, they ask? No, the end. But what about the story’s arc? No, the end. But what about the conflict? No, the end. But what about…

The end the end the end. That’s what the writer should care about. That’s what the writer must know. I’ll take it one step further.

That’s all the writer must know.

The rest you make up as you go along. Characters change, and should. Conflicts evolve in unexpected ways. Moral complexities emerge, adding depth. A big gripe among readers is predictability. A major interest killer, readers know what’s going to happen next. And next. And what will happen after that. The reason? They know because the author knows.

Let’s solve this common flaw right now. Identify the finish line, and write your story from the gut. If you don’t know what will happen next, there is no way the reader will.

I know what you’re thinking. Now I got him. If the writer knows the end of the story, won’t the reader know?

No.

And even if they did it wouldn’t make any difference. Because the end, which you’ve planned, should be as absurd as possible. The prom goes up in flames, consuming the protagonist and all her tormentors (Carrie). Celie inherits a small fortune because she is really someone else’s daughter (The Color Purple). Chip, in a preposterous twist, marries his father’s doctor (The Corrections). The philosopher’s stone, the point of the whole stupid book, is in the end destroyed (Harry Potter).

In choosing the unlikeliest (or in much of today’s fiction, the most ridiculous) end, you guarantee surprise.

It’s time to wrap this up. Time to end this essay on endings. Sorry about that. Some things I can’t help. In short, know your destination. And little else.

Getting there isn’t half the fun. For the writer, and hopefully the reader, it’s all the fun.