How important is it to know the end before the writing the beginning?
One of the Rules of writing indicates that knowing the end before the beginning is critical to writing. Which I find odd, because in my writing (early days, probably doing it wrong), one of the best things is that I don't actually know what the end is on my first run through. I think this gives my writing some of its dynamism, because the author is as unsure of where this will end up as the characters.
Now, just for clarification, I have something of an idea of what is going to happen, some sense of what is being worked towards, but - critically - until I get there, I cannot say what the interactions will be, and so how the story will end.
Obviously, on a secondary rewrite, I do know where it is going, and I make sure that I put pointers and indicators in at that stage, but I see this more as adding items that the characters didn't notice the first time, but can see with hindsight.
So the question is, how important is this rule? Is my way of writing breaking it, or actually fulfilling it (by the rework)? As a new author, I want to understand whether I am getting things right or not.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/5626. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Like all rules, this can be broken if the end result is what you want.
Some people are "discovery writers" (aka "pants writers"). They just sit down to write, and watch the story unfold as if they were watching TV. Some people have to have everything structured and sketched out before they begin.
There's no wrong way to do it. If you get to the end, decide you like it, and then rework the rest to fit the end, congratulations: you did it right. If you get to the end, decide you hate it, and change it, congratulations: you did it right.
As long as the finished, edited story works so that all the pieces throughout point to the end, or don't, as you intend, it doesn't matter how you arrived at the end, or any piece in between, on any draft.
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