Do You Need To Know How Your Book Will End Before You Begin?

Looking back at all the on all the books I’ve started, I noticed that some stories I never managed to get further than a few chapters. I’ve accumulated dozens of Chapters One through Three on a particular tale I’ve been struggling over on and off for years. What’s wrong with these stories? What makes them different from the ones I started and finished?

It’s not that I never struggled with the books I eventually finished. Often I left them and came back multiple times. But I realized that there was a crucial difference. The stories I was able to come back to were the stories whose ending I already knew.

The mechanics of getting to that ending might have stumped me for a while. But even if I had to switch my car for a plane a few times, I knew my destination. I knew the payoff. That’s what kept me going.

I try always to begin a novel with the end in mind. The end may change along the journey, but at the start, I find knowing where I’m headed is crucial.

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