Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front. – a tweet from Emma Coats, of Pixar

This may be one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever seen on Twitter.

Emma Coats, a storyboard artist at Pixar Animation Studios, composed a series of 22 story basics (you can read the full list on her blog ).  These tips are fantastic for writing stories!

However, from the perspective of living a purposeful life, these 22 tips are even more powerful.  They give me goosebumps!

What story do you want to tell with your life?  You can’t fill in the middle of your life, if you don’t know what the ending looks like.

Unfortunately, most of us simply take life as it comes at us.  When we look back at our lives, we see little more than a collection of reactions–not very compelling, and not very proactive.

What do you want your ending to look like?

I like movies, and I like books.  I’m not too particular about the subject, but the ones that inspire me the most, all leave me with the same response at the end.

When the credits roll, or I close the book, I sit there in silence for a bit (I always watch all of the credits at the end of a movie).  If the story was really good, emotion swirls inside of me, and I don’t have words (yet) to express them.  After a pause, I begin to breathe again.  Slowly the emotions begin to crystallize, and words begin to form.  My emotions expand until they can no longer be contained inside of my body.  I have to get them out of me–either through action or word.  I feel as though I will explode and die if I don’t act!

What do you want the ending of your story to look like?  What emotion do you want observers and participants to feel?  If you don’t know this, you cannot make a path to get there.

Are you like me?

I want my friends and family to be inspired to take action when they see my story.  I want the emotion to swell inside of them, until they have to take action, or die.

When you are moving toward a destination, you can react–with purpose–to whatever life throws at you.  Figure out your ending, so you can fill in the middle.  If you have an ending in mind, and keep it in front of you, your middle has no choice but to be interesting.  There simply isn’t a way to get from here, to an interesting ending, without going through an interesting middle–it’s impossible.

Go, right now!

Take a notebook and a pen, and go somewhere you can think.  Describe your ending with as much detail as you possibly can.  Read it every day for a week.  Then read it every week for a year.  If you really want that ending for your life, take a big risk, and read your ending to someone else.  The simple act of reading it out loud to another person will unleash magic and power that will amaze you.

Questions: Have you ever considered what you want the ending of your story to look like?  Have you shared the ending with another person?  What did you come up with when you did the exercise?  Share your thoughts in the comments section.