Behind The Author Episode 2: Do Authors Know the End of Their Story?

These are the notes from episode 2 of the Behind the Author Series--all about whether or not authors know the end of their book when they start writing. These are just brief, summarizing snippets of the clip. To see the full video, you can click HERE.

"Here’s the magic answer: SOMETIMES.

There are two groups of authors.

• The first group is called Plotters. These are people that plot or plan out their story ahead of time.
• The second group is called Pantsers. As you can imagine, these are people who essentially write by the seat of their pants and let their characters take the story where they want it to go.

I do a hybrid.

I like to plot out a very skeletal version of my story. Just the barest details of what’s going to happen. From there I start writing. I usually write the first chapter. Then I stop and write an in-depth, almost mini-plot outline of the next chapter. Then I go ahead and write the second chapter. 

I repeat this as I go throughout the book, progressively building a complete story that follows the initial skeletal outline I planned.

So basically my answer is yes, I know how my story is going to end. What I don’t know is exactly how it’s going to get there.

In summary though, every author is unique and will have their own writing and plotting methods."

Hope this was some interesting insight!