Know your ending before you write the first line

Most of us start a story the same way: with a scene we can't stop thinking about. A girl at a train station. A city where it never stops raining. A first line that sounds good.

Then, forty pages in, the story runs out of road. We don't know where it is going, so every chapter feels like it could be cut — and eventually we stop.

What Poe said

In 1846 Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay about how he wrote his poem "The Raven". His big claim was simple:

"Nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its dénouement before anything be attempted with the pen."

In plain words: decide how it ends before you start writing. Poe said he chose the effect he wanted the reader to feel at the very end first, and then built everything else — the setting, the voice, even the length — to lead there.

You don't have to believe every detail of Poe's essay (many people think he made the process sound tidier than it was). But the core idea has helped writers for almost two hundred years.

Why it works

When you know the ending:

• Every scene has a job. You can ask of each chapter: does this move us toward the ending? If not, it is a candidate to cut.
• You can plant things early. A small object in chapter 2 can matter in the last chapter — but only if you know the last chapter exists.
• The middle stops sagging. The "muddy middle" is usually a sign that the writer doesn't know where they are heading.
• Readers feel it. A story written towards a destination feels confident, even when it is full of surprises.

Knowing the ending is not the same as a full outline

Some writers love detailed outlines. Others hate them and prefer to discover the story as they go. Both are fine. Poe's point is smaller than "plan everything": know the last image and the feeling you want to leave behind. You can still discover the road.

Try it: the three-line ending

Before your next writing session, write these three lines — no more:

1. The last scene: where are we, and who is there? (Example: "The station, ten years later. She is the one waiting now.")
2. The feeling: what should the reader feel when they close the book? (Example: "Quiet, earned hope.")
3. What has changed: what is different about your main character compared to page one? (Example: "She has stopped running.")

Now read your opening chapter again with those three lines next to it. You will probably see at once what belongs and what doesn't.

For comics, manga and scripts

The same idea works for visual stories. Sketch the last panel or write the last line of dialogue first. In a script, the final image often answers the opening image — knowing both early makes the whole thing feel designed.

A note on credit

The quotation above is from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition", first published in Graham's Magazine in April 1846. The essay is in the public domain, and you can read it in full at Project Gutenberg. The explanation and exercise on this page are Inkly's own.