Charles Yallowitz of the ‘Legends Of Windermere’ blog provides us with an excellent blog post posing the question if we should know the ending of our book. Thanks a lot, Charles!
I’m pretty sure a lot of people are going to disagree with this sentiment. The path of the pantser if fairly common. Not the way I do things, but I’ve run into many who simply fly into a story to see where it goes. There could be an ending in mind or it could just be a beginning or middle that they have. One thing I can be sure of is that it differs from person to person. Then again, I’m a severe plotter, so I shouldn’t speak as if I understand the other side of the pasture.
While I don’t come up with my endings first, I do like to have them in mind before I start writing. This helps me keep things on track and avoid running the story into a brick wall or minefield. Some would say that the downside is that your writing becomes too linear and dull because you remove the chaos of creation. I can see how you can come to that conclusion, but deciding on the ending doesn’t mean you know how you’re going to get there. Most of my books had the finale planned out, but I only had a general idea of how to get there. That goes for chapter and book endings. Probably why I had the outlines and still had that excitement of not really knowing what will happen.
Writer's Treasure Chest 
In my own case, I have a general idea of how the story will end. But I also leave a certain flexibility because I’m also learning about the characters and I certainly wasn’t sure whether or not sequels were going to be involved in “The Bridge”. But after getting to know everyone better, I really felt they had more tales in store so I purposely left the door opened just a crack at the end as you well know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I too have an idea about the general ending… but then, I have been surprised before. LOL Can you imagine a write being surprised by his own story? Yeah – that’s me. LOL
LikeLike