Do you know what you're aiming for?
By Kathryn Comstock
‘The End’ is one of the most exciting sentences for an author to pen. All the work and planning is over and you’ve finished. You’re at the finish line. But if you think about it, there are steps to getting to that point. In the same way a runner trains for a marathon, a writer has to something similar: planning, outlining and brainstorming. How do you get to those two wonderful words, ‘The End’?
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All writers have problems coming up with story goals at some point in their career. I’ve experienced it, my friends have experienced it and I’m sure those reading this have as well. This isn’t entirely possible to avoid, but I have found two major things that help me get out of the “no story goal” rut quicker.
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First, write out everything that couldn’t possibly happen. That’s right, the way’s your story won’t end. May seem silly, but it does work. It helps you to figure out what direction you shouldn’t be taking your story.
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Second, list everything you think may be a viable option for your ending. The things on the list don’t have to be long, or even that extreme. It can be something really little or something big. I’ve had times where I even write down something cliché, because it is an ending that might possibly happen.
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When doing both those things, talk to someone about your ideas. I know it’s scary to share your ideas from fear of rejection, and I totally understand that. Having someone else look at it can give you a helpful and different perspective. I’ve had the experience where I’ll just take one item from my list of possible story goals and start talking about it. It may not seem that great to me, but the other person is able to think more outside the box than I am and give me some helpful tips. Usually, that turns into my story goal.
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Whatever you do, make sure you actually have a story goal. You need something to work towards, just like anything else in life. When I had just started writing, I didn’t think I needed a story goal. I thought I could just write and eventually, one would magically appear, work amazingly and my characters would ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.
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Oh, was I wrong.
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That novel didn’t work out well at all. Because of the fact that I didn’t have something to work towards, I worked towards mini goals. Perhaps in one chapter it was my character finding something to eat that night. In the next, it could be her reconciling a relationship with someone. Then the next was something totally unrelated that didn’t have anything to do with the story, but I thought I could tie all the events together anyways.
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Events in that book happened for the sake of happening. Without the story goal, I had flat and unmotivated characters. Instead of affecting my story, being dynamic and actually doing things, the events just happened to the character (which, believe me, isn’t a good thing). She didn’t really advance the story at all.
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Please, learn from my stubbornness and don’t make the same mistake. It is so helpful to have something to work towards, and I’ve found that in my other books. The goal that you have in mind not only helps you as a writer, but it helps with the whole character development process. Since you know where you want them to end up, now you can go back and add the little details: why they want the goal, what things they need to do to achieve it and so forth.
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I think it was last year that I started making the lists of story goals and writing has gone a lot better for me. I’m not saying I have amazing novels now, but I do at least have something that makes sense, instead of random mumbo-jumbo. It’s also a lot more fun to write when you have something to work towards. It may seem like something that helps the characters out, but it helps you as an author too.
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Don’t worry about getting the perfect story goal right off the bat. A lot of it is experimentation. It’s okay to change your story goal, but don’t change it in the middle of the story unless the events require it and it’s planned. If you start writing a novel and the goal you picked just doesn’t work, scrap it and start over with a new one. I guarantee you’ll be happy you spent time solidifying your end point.
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No one wants to be confused while reading a novel. Make sure your finish line is clear.
Become an Unstoppable Writer!
*applauds* Very helpful. Thanks for posting this!
Very good advice and certainly true 🙂 For me the outlining method works the best — what you can do is give a little summary of each chapter there. Working out a beginning, middle and end goal would also work well in mapping out the plot.
So true! I have a very wonderful sister who I tell all my story ideas to. She then gives me very helpful advice and aids the brainstorming process immensely. Sometimes all you need is someone to ask questions… “OK, so how would THAT work?” “Why does he want to do that again?” And eventually you figure out what’s going on. =)
Another thing along the lines of the “finish line,” is developing something called a “logline.” This is a film term, but it’s basically a one- or two-sentence summary of your whole plot. It provides focus for your story… you can use it to evaluate all your scenes to see if they support or distract from your logline. So the readers don’t get lost on rabbit trails. =)