What To Do When You Know Your Ending but Have No Clue How to Get There
congrats. you’ve unlocked the most ✨ cursed ✨ form of storytelling: knowing the destination but having zero map, no snacks, and one emotionally unstable protagonist riding shotgun.
aka: you know how your book ends. maybe even the Last Line™. but the middle? the plot? the scenes required to get there?
🦗🦗🦗
welcome to liminal writing hell. here’s what to do about it:
🚨 STEP 1: Write the ending anyway.
yes. even if you’re only on chapter three. write the ending now. not perfectly. not canon. just get it down while it’s burning in your brain.
this does 2 things:
gets you emotionally invested in where you’re headed
gives you a north star to align your scenes to
future-you will thank you when you're knee-deep in act 2, spiraling, and you need to remember what this mess was for.
🧩 STEP 2: Backwards logic it like a feral detective.
ask: what has to happen right before this ending can exist? then ask that question again. and again. until you’ve accidentally built a whole reverse-outline.
like:
✨ final scene: heroine stabs the love interest to save the world
→ she needs to know he’s the villain
→ she needs to see him do something unforgivable
→ she needs a reason to be in the same room as him when it happens
→ she needs to go to the city where he’s hiding
→ she needs to choose betrayal over loyalty
now reverse those like breadcrumbs through the forest of chaos.
🎯 STEP 3: Identify your mid-point emotional switch.
the best middles aren’t just “stuff happening.” they’re a turning point. a reversal. a Big Choice. often it’s the opposite of the ending.
ending = character sacrifices love
midpoint = character believes love will fix everything
this sets up contrast + emotional stakes. the midpoint shows how wrong they are. the ending proves how far they’ve come.
no midpoint? no tension. build the middle to break them, then rebuild toward the finale.
🧱 STEP 4: Stack up your themes like Jenga blocks.
what are you actually saying with this ending?
if the ending is: “freedom comes at a price”
then the story needs to explore:
what freedom means
who pays that price
how people deny the cost
how your protagonist learns to accept it
if your middle scenes aren’t touching these ideas? they’re just filler. start weaving the theme early, subtly, and repeatedly. make it hurt a little.
📦 STEP 5: Write “junk scenes” in the blank spaces.
not sure how they get from castle to climax? write a fake scene. not canon. no pressure. just vibes. let the characters mess around in the setting. argue. kiss. kill. eat soup. whatever.
you’ll learn what they want, what secrets they’re hiding, what tensions spark.
some of these junk scenes will turn out to be real. others will guide you to what needs to happen next. use them as scaffolding.
🧃 STEP 6: Accept that messy = forward.
you won’t always see the whole road. write the next landmark. write the next mistake. write the next bad scene and figure out why it doesn’t work.
knowing your ending is a gift. the rest? that’s the part where you dig.
you don’t need a perfect bridge. you just need enough planks to get across without falling into the river of I’ll-Fix-It-Later.
now go. write the scene where everything breaks.
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Okay, look. I don't know if this is an actual method, with an actual name. But I was just explaining to someone how I outline by working backwards from the end of the book, and I figured it might help someone else too.
So this is what I call my personal outlining method. Reverse Outlining, or Trainstop Outlining.
Now, for context, I used to think I couldn't outline. It didn't work for me at all. It'd either get all confused, and tangled up, or I'd build such a comprehensive outline that by the time I got to the writing part, I was bored of the book.
Then I saw Abbie Emmon's video about "Why does it matter?" It was about why you were worldbuilding things that didn't actually matter to the character, and somehow my brain clicked with that and applied it to outlining.
So, here it is. How I begin to outline a completely new project.
Step One
- Figure out the ending.
This is why I call it Reverse Outlining. The first thing I do, is figure out how I want it all to end.
So, let's use my Robin Hood Retelling (But with Magic!) as an example for this process.
Robin Hood and Maid Marian can't be anything (imo) but a romance novel. As such, it needs to have a HEA. I'm rather partial to the Disney's ending, where we end with a wedding. So that's where I want the story to go.
Step Two
- What do I need to do to get to that ending?
Or, more specifically, what are the stops along the way that will help me get to that ending?
This is where the Trainstop Elements come into play.
We know that Robin Hood is an outlaw, so we'll have to solve that problem. In most of the stories where Maid Marian exist, she is a noblemans daughter, sometimes the cousin to the king, so the difference in status could be something that needs addressing. The antagonists will get in the way of course, The Sherriff of Nottingham, and Prince John speciifically, so there's at least two sub-plots where Robin will have to thwart them, which brings to mind his "Merry Men", and suddenly I have an idea where Robin is forced to choose between saving one of his men, or rescuing Marian, and now we have stakes.
Step Three
- Figure out where to start!
So, we have the ending. We have a handful of trainstops (aka plot points) for the middle of the book, now you have to make sure you give the characters enough TIME to go from where they start, to the end of the book.
It's no good starting the story a week before the end, when you have to fit in two plots, a death sentence, and a wedding.
So it's during step three that I start looking at characters, and more importantly, their backstories to figure out where I want the book to begin.
Now, I've already outlined my Robin Hood Retelling, so I know the character's backstories, and I know some of how I want to include magic into this setting.
Robin was raised by the elves after his parents die, but the omens and portents from the druid clans have him return from the forest, only to find the land beseiged by taxes and a cruel prince.
He challenges them to relieve the pressure on Marian's lands, whom he remebers playing with as a child, and throughout this they fall in love again.
There's more to this in my full outline, but that's enough for the initial outlining process.
They knew each other as children
Robin has returned as a young man (Mid-20's)
He puts his life on his line for her
Draws his men to him by chance. He didn't intend to form a crew, but now he's responsible for them.
So we need enough time for this crew to bond, so that when the choice between Marian, and the Merry Men happens, it's gut wrenching for Robin.
That means, realistically, we're looking at a minimum 6 months time span between the start and end of the book, and I'd feel happier were it closer to 8 months.
Step Four
- Laying It All Out
Now you've got the pieces, you need a birds eye view. How you do this is entirely up to you. I like using a sheet of poster paper taped to the back of my living room door, and then post-it notes. I've also done it using a more classic "3-act-story-structure" in a word document. So really, whatever works for you.
But take your beginning (In this instance, the moment Robin finds out he has to leave the elves), your middle bits (all those plot points we brainstormed in Step Two that have to happen to move the story along to...) and the ending (The Wedding!)
And now you're going to shuffle them around until, somehow, these individual train stops, make some sort of sense.
For example;
Disclaimer; This part I haven't done for my Robin Hood Retelling before, so I'm making this bit up on the fly. And anyone following that project, this is subject to change.
Robin hears from the Druids about signs of strife in the land, and they give a prophecy that he must leave the forest or all will fall to ruin.
Robin leaves the forest, only to find the human ruled lands under huge strain due to the taxation of the Sheriff of Nottingham
He travels to Marian's fathers lands, only to find the old knight sick, and Marian struggling to keep her people safe and fed.
Robin intervenes with a tax collector, and gets himself branded an outlaw.
One of the people Robin helped flee's with him, and Robin teaches him how to use the forest to mask their tracks. This is the first of his 'merry men'
Robin and Marian meet when she brings him supplies in the forest. She tells him to leave, go back to the elves, but he finds out that Prince John is seeking her hand and is determined to save her from that fate.
As he begins making a name for himself as an outlaw, the Sherrif of Nottingham becomes more determined to stop him and puts traps in his way.
As Robin evades or defeats said traps, he starts to get cocky and begins being brave enough to meet with Marian. She, however, is worried.
Word gets back to the Sherrif about Robin and Marian's meetings, and he passes the information along to Prince John, who arrives in Nottingham.
Prince John blackmails Marian, or threatens her people, to expedite the wedding/get her to agree. Meanwhile, the Sherrif lays a trap for Robin's men, and finally captures one of them.
Robin now has to choose between stopping the wedding, or saving his man from execution.
Something happens that allows him to save the day; Robin rescue his man while defeating the Sheriff, and interrupts Marian's wedding.
Robin offers to turn himself into Prince John, if he agree's to allow Marian to choose who she should marry, without coercian. Prince John accepts, and summarily orders Robin executed.
Kind Richard returns, and ousts Prince John from power before Robin can be killed. Marian chooses Robin to marry.
Epilogue is the wedding and the HEA
Again, I digress, this is SUPER rough and I'm using it for example purposes only. I'd probably put each scene/plot point I wanted to cover on a post it note, and move them around for a while, adding in any additional plot points I thought of while doing it, and end up with something like a 30-odd chapter "bullet point" style outline.
Step Five
- The Train Stop Outline
Now comes the fun bit, if you're PREDOMINENTLY a pantser, like me.
I consider each of these bullet points a train station. But I still have to get from one station to the other, and that's the story telling.
I use these points as nothing more than a guide, to let me know I'm heading in the right direction.
If I see the train tracks divert off to the left, I'll follow that rabbit hole. See where it takes me. But I'll always know I need to get back on a track that will take me towards that next station. I mean bullet point.
This helps fuel the discovery writer in me. I never quite know what I'll find along the way, or HOW I'll get from one point to the next, but what I do know is those points I outlined, as long as I hit them in SOME way, from SOME angle, WILL get me to the ending I wanted.
The ending I started with.
And there you go. That's how I reverse outline a novel, and how I use a Train-stop outline to get from point A to the Ending, without my discovery writing brain having a complete freak out about it.
I recently decided I want to write genre fiction. I have ideas and would love to try. But I have come to realize that my writing is just naturally literary leaning. Very character focused, and internally driven more than anything. Sometimes a bit passive. I was wondering, if you had a student who was the same way, how would you direct them to learn to get better at the external conflicts and the various genre conventions?
reverse outline everything. buy a really fancy notebook and a nice pen, and take down notes about every story you encounter, especially ones in the genre you'd like to write in. tv shows, movies, books, video games, everything. make a bullet point list of Things That Happen. when the story is over, review your notes and highlight the inciting incident, moments of rising action, the climax, and the resolution. notice also *when* these things happen, at what percentage of the story. find an existing structure you like, say the three-act play, and draw lines between the bullet points that signal the end of each act. draw major conclusions about the way every story works. avoid criticism; practice neutral observation. if you find a movie you like, read the script. annotate the hell out of your books. articulate and witness your own perspectives of narrative.
when you reverse outline habitually, you start to internalize story structures and deploy them more easily and intentionally. you start seeing patterns in cause and effect, events that are expected or unexpected, plot beats that aim to satisfy or disappoint. and even if you're only noticing and jotting things down, your observations will naturally, eventually, bleed into your own work.
Captive Prince Book 1 – Reverse Outline 13 chapters – about 70,000 words total Prologue 3-page scene from Guion’s POV: we see Damen (bou
this is for my anon from last week, who wanted to see what reverse outlining a story looks like in practice! here is the first half of my reverse outline for the first captive prince novel! (warning for huge spoilers for the series as a whole.) it's still a work in progress (i'm doing a couple chapters a night) but it should give you a sense of how i approach reverse-outlining.
typically i make a succinct list of the scenes in each chapter (with the approx scene length in kindle book pages) and then break down each scene further into the key emotional or narrative beats. then once i've finished reading the chapter, i pause and take general notes where i synthesize what just happened in the book & try to identify the different subplots each scene is advancing. i also make observations about scene structure, flag what seem like key beats or 'pinch points' in the development of the central relationship, and try to note if there are particular passages that do something really well (so i can go back and consult those scenes as models in my own work).
i find it easiest to reverse outline with stories i know really well and have read more than once, so i already know what's coming and can better identify how & where the author is planting what i refer to as 'support beams' to hold up later revelations or subplots or character arcs that we'll see develop over the course of the novel.
you can also choose to focus on different things in your own reverse-outlining, if there are particular skills you know you want to hone. for instance, i once did a long reverse-outline of a favorite story where i just tracked scene length + the first and last lines of each scene, to better understand how/where the author chose to 'enter' each scene and how/where she chose to alternate shorter, punchier scenes with longer, more complex scenes that did a lot of plot or character work. in this captive prince reverse outline, you'll see that my attention is really focused on:
how c.s. pacat weaves in worldbuilding details (esp about two contrasting cultures with a deep shared history)
where the pinch points in the developing romance fall -- ie the beats that challenge the characters' perceptions of each other. i'm also interested in tracking how she scaffolds those moments so that they increase in intensity (and thus in their ability to disrupt the characters' mutual dislike of each other).
how and where she introduces important subplots and side characters that she'll end up developing over the course of the trilogy (again, looking for those support beams).
3/4 chapters of the Magical Mystery Project have been outlined. Final chapter (which is actually the first chapter) should be a breeze.
Writing tip: sometimes outlining in reverse, from end to beginning, is really, really helpful in making sure you adequately set up things that need to be resolved.
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