Question for Authors: Do You See the Ending?
I a rooky author and honestly, this is my very first real experience with writing. But recently I started wondering: is this just how I work, or do a lot of authors do the same thing?
Long before I released the first volume of my story, I already had a rough idea of how many volumes there would be. I knew where the story was heading, what the major twists would be, which moments would matter most, and - most importantly - how it would end.
Not every bit, of course, but I always had the ending in mind. I knew what kind of conclusion I wanted and what direction the entire story was moving toward.
Now three volumes are already out, and naturally, a lot has changed along the way. Sometimes new plotlines appear that I never planned for. Some characters end up developing in completely unexpected ways, and certain scenes or conflicts are born naturally while I’m writing. At times it almost feels like the story starts living on its own.
And yet, after a year of writing, I can still clearly see that the story is following the path I imagined from the very beginning. The core events, the atmosphere, the character arcs, and the ending itself are still there.
So now I’m really curious how other authors work.
Do you also plan your stories far in advance? Do you build the world, the characters, their abilities, the major arcs, and the ending early on? Or does everything come together spontaneously as you write, chapter by chapter?
Do you see the end of the story before you even begin writing the beginning?
I’m not claiming that my approach is the “right” one. It’s just the only method I personally know so far. That’s exactly why I’d love to hear how other writers approach storytelling. Maybe there are completely different methods out there - and maybe I can learn something useful from them for my own growth as a writer.