Pixar’s Rules for Storytelling 7 – Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

Yes, I am going to make a video for each of the Pixar’s 22 Rules for Storytelling (the full list can be found here). Be sure to subscribe to this channel to not miss any of the forthcoming videos. I plan to release one/week.

Rule #7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

A good outline lays the foundation for a story that honors the core of this rule: you must know your ending of your story so that you can be sure to support that ending with a well-structured beginning and middle.

Vonnegut, too, knew what he was talking about when he said “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible… Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”