Ron Gilbert about art and bad endings

In that example yes, it’s definitely better to have an ending in mind. I was thinking more about longer texts, where there’s space to veer off on tangents and subplots, and time to tease your reader about what’s going (or not going) to happen. I guess as @LowLevel says it depends on what is being written as well as who’s writing it.

Also not all stories are written to build up to a big ending. For example the author might be working around a main event or turning point that will happen in the middle of the book, and the ending is more of an ‘unwind’ or bit of character reflection, whatever. So in that case the ending doesn’t need to be predetermined.

I actually think short stories are another example where it’s better to have an ending in mind, because their structure is much tighter and condensed - and they usually have some sort of point to make, or moral. (Even subtler ones like There’s a Man in the Habit of Hitting Me on the Head with an Umbrella, which I love.)

Oh definitely by that point - you couldn’t write a puzzle chain without knowing what the solution is. But earlier on during the exposition and building of the story I don’t think it’s necessary to know how the whole thing will end.

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