Write The Ending First...

I haven't done one of these writing tip posts in a while, so here's one I've been using a lot on my current WIP.

Disclaimer first:  I do not consider myself a professional anything, so my suggestions and tips should be taken as just one more person on the internet sharing his personal opinion based on his own experiences. These tips and ideas may work for you too, but they may not. Just saying.

Writing Tip #011

Writer's block can be a major obstacle when you're trying to get words onto the page. You may have already started your story. Your characters are beginning to develop, and perhaps you've crafted the first big reveal. Then, suddenly, you lose momentum and can't figure out how to move your characters to the next stage of the plot.

One approach to getting past this block is to start by writing the ending. For many of my stories, there are certain scenes that come to my mind immediately—scenes I know will definitely be part of the book. Sometimes, it's a crucial moment in the middle of the story for the main character; other times, it's the dramatic reveal at the end. Even if I don't have all the details that lead my characters to this point, it's clear that this is the direction the story is heading.

Writing the scenes you already envision can be highly motivating. I might not know how my character arrived in that particular room, but I know they're going to get there—and I know what I want to happen to them there. Plus, let's face it, these are probably some of the most exciting parts of the book. By simply writing out the scene and letting it unfold, many of the story's unanswered questions, the one's I've been struggling with, often become clearer. At the very least, I've made progress: a part of the story now exists on the page.

It's true that this method could result in a nightmarish editing process when the story is finished. However, editing is always a challenging task, and it's something every writer must confront eventually. The important thing is that by getting words down, you create material to work with and improve through editing. And, to be completely honest, in my experience, it has never been as bad as I feared it would be. 

Keep writing!

MHD