ExcitingDestiny.com's
Stay at Home Business - Money Making Secrets
  Article Directory
Search:

Home | Writing


ExcitingDestiny.com Article Directory

Every Story Has an Ending, but How You Get There is Crucial
By:

Should you know exactly how your story ends before you start or leave it to chance? Different writers go about it in different ways. Find out what suits you best.

There are four methods you can use to plan how your story will end:

1. Just do it.

This is where you start writing from page one and hope it will all turn out right in the end. Fingers crossed.

Some writers deplore this approach, others find it works for them.

You've got an idea for a story and maybe the main characters are coming alive in your head. You've no idea how it's going to turn out, but you want to go for it anyway. And with luck and a dry wind you may well get there. So go for it. Only time will tell if the creative tide is flowing strongly enough to get you to the promised land or not.

The danger here is that your story might get stuck on the sandbank of I-don't-know-what-to-do-next or totally shipwrecked on the rocks of This-is-a-load-of-rubbish. If the former, then there may be hope of rescue. Read your story and jot down the main events so far. Now put your thinking cap on and decide seriously how you want it to turn out. Then do 'what ifs' to find a path into clear water and on to landfall.

2. Bare bones.

This is where you write down the beginning, middle and end of the story, but otherwise leave it to develop itself.

Not a bad plan this one unless you're writing a mystery or detective novel and you need to plan things out more thoroughly than that.

For short stories it should work well.

3. The whole caboodle

This is more applicable when writing a novel or a very long short story.

Write a detailed synopsis, maybe broken down by chapter or section, so that you know exactly how it's going to work out in the end.

Some writers use the 'cover-the-wall-with-A4s' way of working. Take a sheet of A4 for each chapter and write on it what is going to happen in that chapter. Then stick them on the wall in chapter order. This makes it easier to see at a glance what's going on and how everything links up. Use different coloured pens if you want to follow say a subplot through so that you don't forget anything.

This has the advantage, providing you've got the wall space, of being able to change things quickly, add, delete or merge chapters as you go along. You could use Word for Windows and read it all on screen, but it's just not the same.

4. Suck it and see.

Get the first chapter down on paper to give yourself an idea of whether you can visualise it running on to a satisfying conclusion. You may or may not know what that is to begin with.

This method is good if you have a novel in mind and don't want to work out a detailed synopsis to start with.

When that first chapter is finished and it excites you, gives you goose bumps or simply that yeesss! feeling then you may have got a winner and it's now worth putting in the effort to get the whole plotline sorted out.

Conclusion

From personal experience this is what I think works:

Methods 1 and 2 work well for the short story; 3 is best for the longer story or novel, and 4 works OK for either.

Article Source: http://www.excitingdestiny.com/articles

Mervyn Love's website for aspiring writers www.WritersReign.co.uk offers a mix of advice, resources, market information, competition listings, links to many other useful sites for writers and much more. Subscribe to his popular short course on Article Writing here:www.writersreign.co.uk/WRac.html

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Writing Articles Via RSS!
Additional Articles From - Home | Writing
Sign Up for a free account or learn more.
Submit Articles
Member Login
Top Authors
Most Popular Articles
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
Exciting Destiny Home
Exciting Destiny's Blog
Find Deals on eBay...
Success University
SFI
Empowerism
Host4Profit
Warrior Pro
Traffic Swarm

Are you smart enough to make money online? You could be...

Click here to get your FREE copy of "Dotcomology - The Science of Making Money Online" TODAY!

Link to Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Article Directory Software
Click here to download the exact software that powers this directory for FREE. Start your own article directory today!

ExcitingDestiny.com
Money Making Secrets for the Stay at Home Internet Marketing Business
Hosted by Host4Profit
Contact | Blog | Internet Home Business Top Pick | International Success Mentoring

Powered by Article Dashboard