Sunday morning, I wrote like the wind on a new novel. Even later in the day, after taking a break to run errands and do a few things around the house, the words threatened to ooze and tumble from my fingers onto any surface that can record them.
I wrote the first draft of the ending of my next novel, the sequel to the book I’m releasing next month.
“What?!?” you might be saying to yourself. “You’ve written the end already?”
Yep. Now I just need to write all the middle stuff between the prologue (drafted), chapter one (drafted), and the end of the book (drafted).
I know it might sound odd, but bear with me. By writing the conclusion of the novel, I know where I want the story to go. I know how I want to present the end, who I want to still have present, and more importantly, what key facts are revealed that need to be hinted at. I’ve known in rough terms what the end was going to look like since before I wrote the fist word. Writing a draft of the conclusion out lets me build a framework to strive towards. I know how the story begins and ends, which means I can better plan the punctuations that get you there.
I don’t know if this is a common technique. I don’t think I’ve read about it anywhere, though I doubt I’m being that original. But I do know that I’m excited to fill in the gaps on this novel, and that’s a great feeling. I struggle with outlines, with trying to codify the path I expect the book to take. But by writing the end caps and then figuring out the intervening highlights, I am in a way outlining the book, albeit by long hand. Chances are good I’ll keep a good portion of what I’ve written, but I do it knowing that nothing is written in stone. If I write the rest of the book and find my initial finale doesn’t work – no problem. There’s plenty of words left in me to write an alternate ending.