Most of my writing happens in a parked car with twenty minutes before pickup, so I've started drafting endings first. Something to aim the car at, so to speak.
My teenagers think this is cheating. They say a story should surprise the person writing it too.
So which are you? Ending first, ending last, or rewriting it eleven times anyway? And how do you know when a last line is actually done?
Twenty minutes before pickup is a real deadline, and aiming the car at an ending makes a lot of sense with that clock. It reminds me of John Irving, who has said he writes his last sentence before anything else. I bet your teenagers would still be surprised by how many times that ending moves before it is done :)
Ending first for me, then the middle wanders off and the ending gets rewritten anyway. Your teenagers win on draft one only.
You can lie to yourself daily and deceive yourself.
Dionysus, Dionysus. Don't be afraid, have fun like everyone else.
The 4:42 p.m. TGV cut through the fields of Upper Provence with a steady, monotonous speed. Outside, July was bursting with a display of violent yellows and blazing violets; sunflowers and lavender…
More Than Hope; a Promise
Sunset window, books at the lake,
Do you write the ending first, or let it show up on its own? Tell me how you know a last line is the right one.