Do You Know How It Will End?

When I sit down to start a new story, most of the time I have an idea of how it will end. Sometimes I can see the whole story and other times it comes to me as the story unfolds. It's funny how a story comes to you suddenly and you just have to sit down and sketch it out. I love it when the whole story comes into my head, but then sometimes that makes it difficult because you rush to the ending and leave out the filler. The filler is the heart of the story in most cases. It's the descriptions, the character building, and the ins and outs of the story that make it build to the last page. Have you ever knew how it ended, but not the filler? I have done this so many times. I know how it starts and I know how it ends, but not the filler. But the filler will come. But what happens when you don't know how it will end? I have written what I thought were stand alone books and then when I neared the end I couldn't end it there. I had to continue the story. Sometimes it's the end that is far away in my mind which causes a series to be born. I can see many angles of the first story or bringing out the side characters in a story of their own. So we as writers don't always know how it will end. I have so many people ask me how many books are going to be in a certain series and I really can't tell them. They always ask why. Well it's usually not something that comes readily. If the story is compelling enough it could go on for several books, or if I see the story starting to wane, then I put a The End on it. The story decides how it ends and sometimes I just don't know how it will end or when. As always, good writing and May God Bless You...