Do you write the ending or beginning first?

[LotusLily]

(Also, IMO, those social dynamics are the thing that always ultimately bogs down your typical cultivation genre story. WMW escaping from that is the reason it did so well..)

What is WMW?
So the only thing you take from cultivation is the power of cultivation itself, without what you consider baggage, which is the social aspect of xianxia novels?

Anyways, to answer the thread question itself:
I pick a concept I want to write about and create a main character for it. There is probably a middle scene already thought out.
Then I pick a beginning before considering the end. So between "beginning" and "end," I write the beginning first.

 

[Jemini]

What is WMW?

Warlock of the Magus World. It's considered one of the best WuXias out there, and has even won multiple awards. It basically took the concept of cultivation, turned the sects into schools, and made the schools incredibly exploitative and hostile toward it's students. And that's just the overview summary of the first half of the first arc.

At any rate, I keep a little more than just the concept of cultivation itself, but everything I did keep has a very specific reason why it's there. I only kept things that make sense in my world, I am not just following tropes for the sake of using the old tropes.

 

[Shaiyamine]

I start with a premise and build from there. Like I think where I want it to go then add milestones or plot points I want to keep. Then I write as I go. Then discover things that I need to add or remove or maybe things I want to change. Then I edit the story. When it gets particularly bad like.... really bad..... I rewrite the story.

Not sure if it will help but I usually go with the flow. When I hit writer's block I will stop and rest. Or better yet since I did list milestones or plot points then I'd just think how to get from where Im at to that plot point.

 

[GDLiZy]

You needed to know the beginning first before knowing the end.

However, to write without plothole. You must know BOTH the beginning and the end. If the main plot point is set, then it would be even easier to avoid writing yourself into a corner.

Remember, both the beginning and the end is equally important, and most authors did not put their attention at it, making a mediocre ending.

 

[Nakakure]

I have something fairly similar in my writing style. There are a few important points though. Rather than endings or beginnings, what I write first is my world lore. I put a LOT of effort into my world lore and my setting.

After I have a setting, I put some thought into my characters, and I get really good at having my characters act as they want to, not how I want them to act.

Finally, I begin actually writing my story, with some points in mind for milestones that need to be passed along the way. Given my writing style, it requires a lot of outside stimuli to be placed on my characters in order to direct them since they mostly are reacting to the world around them according to the settings I gave them at the start. I find though that this forces me to flesh out my world more and make it feel like there is more to it.

Yeps definitly world lore and world setting first. Even if you failed to write the begining or the ending of novels you can still make it reserve.

 

[Chiisutofupuru]

A reply to the original question:
I usually have an ending in mind before I begin, I may not have it on paper, it might not even turn out as planned, but the idea is there for a direction to steer the fiction.
I think the very beginning of the fiction should be written after you've gotten more than half of the fiction down. This way you could possibly add in some foreshadowing and refer to things that will happen much later.

 

[Anjaly]

I love to write flashbacks and back stories. So it always become when I write something there will be a backstory to it.

 

[sak-chii]

I just saw this thread... i just thought of a character or a theme and write it based on it.

I never thought of any plot for ending. I just write it as to what I "see" or imagine...

 

[S-Scherr]

I can't imagine starting to write a story with the ending already worked out. For me, that takes the enjoyment and the sense of discovery right out of it. Maybe if the story is a small one, I can see having the ending ready and working toward it. But in many cases, story elements and ideas evolve over time, as any good story should, and whatever ending a writer might have conceived at the beginning of their story journey will certainly evolve as well. I believe you need to leave plenty of room for that, especially when it comes to the finale. I prefer writing towards the endings of specific story arcs within the larger tale. These, for me, act like detailed 'mile markers' on a much longer writing journey.

 

[zeryn]

Generally, a thought just pops in my head while I am driving to/from work and I just need to put it down somewhere as soon as possible. Usually it doesn't get acted on, but if I don't write it down then I just keep thinking up ideas to go off it. So my google docs is just full of random story ideas. Mainly based of a character or random idea. Never any plot, that just gets thought out while writing and it leads to its own...

 

[sak-chii]

Generally, a thought just pops in my head while I am driving to/from work and I just need to put it down somewhere as soon as possible. Usually it doesn't get acted on, but if I don't write it down then I just keep thinking up ideas to go off it. So my google docs is just full of random story ideas. Mainly based of a character or random idea. Never any plot, that just gets thought out while writing and it leads to its own...

Same for me also... thought of sth after inspired by one topic when talking or doing day-to-day activities