Learning How To Write

I think I may have discovered something abouty writing that no one ever in the history of the entire universe ever knew: it’s easier to write if you know where you’re going.

Okay, I suppose some folks might have known that already. And I know that it’s not true for everyone. Some folks are diametrically opposed, they can’t know the end before they start. Still I consider this discovery the greatest thing since self-toasting individually packaged single slices of bread (oh it’s coming, just you watch).

I used to get and idea and sti right down to write it out. It might be anything from a  title, to a character to a setting to an actual plot point. Most common was titles. I’d get an idea for a title and shortly it would spawn the beginnings of a story idea. So I’d do what you do with beginnings, I’d begin. Then I’d stop because I was just running around in circles, going no where. At that point I’d have so  much written that I didn’t consider it a story idea any more, it was an unfinished story. But, because I couldn’t get anywhere with it, a flawed story. So I’d stop writing. It didn’t occur to me to go back, scrap everything but the idea, and start over after deciding what the end point was. I suppose I considered those stories failures.

At some point I realized that my problem was with endings, but I never really made an effort to devise a solution. So I haven’t made any attempts at fiction in a very long time. Until recently.

But this time, I’m not going to begin a single word of actual story until I know the endgame. And I do, for the story I’m beginning now. It was really fairly simple to find it, too. The only difficulty I had was deciding between the happy ending and the downer ending. I picked the happy ending. Of course, I’m not going to stick to the ending I have decided on if the story goes in other directions. But if it does do that, I’m going to establish what the new ending is before going on. I think being able to see the goal posts that I set will make the writing a lot more fun.