Welcome Wednesday – How do you get there?

Welcome Wednesday – How do you get there?

Welcome to this week’s edition of Welcome Wednesdays!  I hope you’re enjoying these weekly posts and finding some new authors to follow!

Today let’s talk about how you come up with your endings.  When you begin a story, do you know how it will end?  In how much detail?  Authors, tell us about one of your books, and how you came up with the ending for it.

(be sure to provide a description and link to the book!)

I’ll begin!  I’m definitely a “pantser” – I don’t do much, if any, outlining.  But sometimes I have a very clear idea of what the climax to te story will look like.  For example, in book five of the Dream Series, WAKING DREAM, I didn’t know exactly how I would get there, or precisely what form it would take, but it was obvious that the book had to end with a one-on-one confrontation between Sara and her nemesis, the “Woman in Red” and that it would take place within a dream.

For book four, DREAM FAMILY, I didn’t really have any idea what the end of the book would look like until I was more than halfway through, and it hit me.  I saw the scene clearly – Sara would come upon a car wreck, and being who she is, she’d obviously stop to help the victim, and it would turn out to be the man who’d tried to put her in jail. She’d have to save the life of the person who had set out to ruin hers.

For book three, DREAM CHILD, I literally didn’t know how the book would end until I was nearly there.

WakingDreamV1

And now it’s your turn!

(when you’re done here, please stop by Exquisite Quills, where there are daily memes just like this one and plenty of fantastic authors you can discover!)

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8 Replies to “Welcome Wednesday – How do you get there?”

  1. For Drowning Rapunzel, a romantic suspense with a murder mystery, I had an idea in my mind as to “whodunnit”, but when I got to the denoument chapter, I discovered he wasn’t the culprit after all and it was someone else! It surprised me, but it worked out so much better with that villain, That was the only book I had a plan written out for, and I still had to change things anyway 🙂

  2. I’m sort of a planner, but I do a lot of “pantsing” when it comes to the details. I write Romance, so it’s sort of a given that the characters are going to get together in the end, but the fun part is getting them to that point — while keeping them apart UNTIL that point!

    In my most recent book, “Their Love Rekindled,” I knew that the Hero character, Aaron, had to face his past and get to a point where he could forgive and let go of all of his anger. And because so much of the book focused on rumors and gossip in a small town, I knew his big moment had to be something public. So I planned that particular moment long before I worked out the rest of the story. I could visualize the scene as though I were watching it on TV.

    While I was writing this particular book, I also went through a writing workshop that focused on plotting, so this is the first one I’ve written that actually involved an outline. Even though I started the outline with the ending and worked my way backwards to the beginning, I think it really helped me write a better book. I feel like this one flows better than my first two, but I guess only time will tell.

    Here’s a link to thr new book: http://www.amazon.com/Their-Love-Rekindled-Beach-Haven-ebook/dp/B017DIA4FW/

  3. I generally have an idea of how I want the book to end, but not how it’s going to happen. In “Broken Bonds,” second in the Novels of Aleyne series, there was a relationship between Brad Reynolds and the other three characters as well as Brad’s treason trial to resolve.

    My father was an attorney and my mother served on the Grand Jury, so I had a fair background in legal proceedings, but I still ended up doing research on court proceedings for criminal trials and on the International Court, since I had an “Interstellar Court” in the novel I wanted to model it after. The treason accusation was tricky because technically, Brad was guilty, and the relationship because first of all, it involved three other people (they were all aliens, Aleyni) and because one of them was a woman. In both cases, I was writing the pivotal scenes before I knew how things would work out.

    Here’s a link to “Broken Bonds.”

    Broken Bonds

  4. With Growing Up Neighbors I definitely knew how the story would end. I like to be organized and did use an outline, but some of the tinier details I made up on the go. Growing Up Neighbors is sort of based on my own life so I wanted it to turn out the way it did for real. I used a lot of detail from my own experiences, as well as some characteristics from those around me. So when I began the process I knew the ending then worked my way backwards to what I wanted to fill in between the cracks.

    The current novel I’m writing I know the basic ending. I again have an outline because I find that keeps me focused. Some details are based on my own life, but more and more details are being made up as I go. I think that’ll be how it is for my stories here on out because the ending is not how my life went as in Growing Up Neighbors.

    Here’s a link to Growing Up Neighbors – available in paperback and kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Neighbors-Frances-Hoelsema/dp/B00PJGYW40/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449069891&sr=8-1&keywords=Growing+Up+Neighbors

  5. http://booklaunch.io/jbhawker/bodyinthebelfry

    For my latest, A Body in the Belfry, on special launch discount this week for only 99 cents, I knew how I wanted to end, since I usually try to resolve the mysteries and end on a happy, uplifting note in my books.

    I also usually write the crime, in some detail, first. Occasionally it becomes the prologue. Sometimes it isn’t included in the book itself, but it keeps the rest of the story more coherent when I understand how, when, where and why the perpetrator did the foul deed.

    I make a rough outline and background sketches of all my characters before writing the first chapter. Once I know who my people are, I am able to give them their heads and just go along and enjoy the ride.

  6. Since I write contemporary romance, I know my characters will reach their happily ever after and always think I know how they’re going to get there. In “My Rodeo Man,” I knew Ashley had some issues to deal with before Zach could capture her heart. Ashley’s love had been trampled under the feet of one bad boy after another. She had decided that bad boys need not apply when Zach, one rough and rugged cowboy, stepped onto the scene and turned her plan upside down.

    I fall somewhere between a plotster and a punster. I put together a detailed character profile for each of the main characters – if you want to know what they like to eat for breakfast, I can tell you – and a five to six sentence chapter outline that gets me started until my characters take over and tell me what’s really going to happen.

    You can learn more about Ashley’s and Zach’s story on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Rodeo-Man-Texas-Kincaids-Book-ebook/dp/B016TQZWZQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445897369&sr=1-1&keywords=My+rodeo+man

  7. In Book One of the Last War, I only knew the ending once I arrived there. It finished with a character that I had created part way through the narrative. Now that character shows up in Book Two and Book Three. How fun is that? And he has a connection to the main characters that they knew nothing about. These sci fi/fantasy thrillers are romantic and suspense by turn.

    Have a look at my website – http://www.sylviegrayson.com
    or on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sylvie+grayson

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