Sunday, February 10, 2008

Writing the Ending First?

Walked here today, along Rio del Mar, for a couple of hours. The beach goes on and on and on. There were lots of dogs and walkers and surfers and sun-worshippers enjoying the first sunny-in-the-70s day we've had in forever. (We native Californians are wimps about "cold"--meaning too many days in the 50's.)

Before my walk, I worked on the memoir. Also worked on it for hours yesterday. I wrote the last scene. I've never done that before on a book-length manuscript: writing the ending before getting there. I feel like I'm about two-thirds of the way to that ending. So now it feels like I have a chasm to cross to get there. I like the feeling of knowing I have solid ground to land on.

Do any of you write your endings first?

2 comments:

Lisa Romeo said...

Always. If not right away, then way before I get even halfway through. The ending, I find, informs the beginning, often causing hair-pulling-out over revisions to the beginning. But somehow I also like knowing where I'm heading.

Kate Evans said...

Wow, this is interesting. I write both and have only first written the end to a piece of nonfiction, never fiction. Thinking....