Dr. Bailey had encouraged our class to ask Franklin lots of questions and not to be shy. “He’s here for you guys.” Even though most of us went to the Q&A just to listen, we ended up asking a lot of questions.I asked Franklin a question I’ve been trying to decide for myself since I started Intro to Fiction — Should you know the ending before you write the story?
I’ve always found I have to know the ending or at least have to have a goal in mind in order to write a story. I’ve always felt like that kept the story focused and moving, but in class Dr. Bailey’s really been stressing to us that good stories are not driven by plot. They’re driven by character. I guess not knowing the ending forces you to let your characters drive the story.
Dr. Bailey says he never knows the endings to his stories when he starts writing. In fact, he says he can’t write if knows the ending, though he always concedes that some writers, like his colleague Susan Parabo, a writing professor at Dickinson, always have an ending in mind when they begin a story.
Franklin agreed with Bailey. “Endings are better if you surprise yourself,” he said and then went on to explain how Flannery O’Connor, while writing her story “Good Country People,” surprised herself so much with a twist in the plot that suddenly came to her that she wrote in the margin of her first draft: “Oh my God, he’s going to steal her leg!”
