"It Ain't Over Till It's Over' or...
When You Get to the End, STOP WRITING! by Gino Bock. Among the authors I know there is no consensus about using story outlines. Some writers use outlines, some don’t. I’m one of those that don’t. I always plan to, just like I plan to put money aside to pay my bills or plan to lose weight so I’ll fit into that suit I don’t want to send to Goodwill, but the truth is I never do it. I jump at the keyboard, excited because I thought of a great, exciting issue or problem, usually from an incident in my own memory—something that actually happened to me. Then I just start writing. After all, with such a great party-starter of an idea, this just has to result in a great story, right? Uh, not necessarily. To me a great story needs two things. A terrific beginning, which grabs readers and drags them into the story, hungry for what happens next. But it needs a greater, even more terrific end , something that resolves the plot, does something unexpected and leaves the r...