The main key I can think of is to have an idea and a message. Every great story says something and means something. If you can pinpoint what that is, it will become easier for other things to fall into place. Then as I am planning a story, I typically outline, giving myself an idea of where I am going in the story itself but more importantly with the characters.

If you are having trouble coming up with endings, then you might want to focus on what you are trying to say and where you want your characters to go. Every good story needs to have a point near the end where the characters overcome something, realize something, or if the characters don't the reader does. Something that is critical. It is that that should be driving your story.

My usual way of writing is a little bit at a time. I write 200-300 words, mull and edit then repeat the process. It leads me writing less fic but to me, my quality is higher. On my most recent fic however, I sat down and powered out near 3000 words in three hours (which for me personally is huge). It was a refreshing thing to do, now I just need to fill in the blanks and expand but it went completely against my usual mindset.

personally, it depends. when i get an idea i kind of think for a while; is this going to be a full-blown fic or just a drabble? if it's a drabble i just sit there and write for how ever long it takes (usually around half an hour?)

if it's a long/proper fic, i write the beginning while i still have the idea, whatever scenes come into my head first. which means that a lot of the time, i'll get the intro and lots of scene near the end and i'll need to fill in the middle later. at this point, i'm just getting the very general idea and the feeling of the fic down first for later, disregarding details/plot.

then, i usually have to bounce ideas off someone to see how my plot will work out, the finer details and what characters i'm going to bring in with what role. after that, depending on how long it is/how invested i am, i finish the fic.

when i have ideas, i just write them down somewhere, sort of mini-prompts, then when i feel like i can write, i do. i usually write in a single pop of a vein to keep the words and style in one spirit... i write at night or simply when the urge is there. when i force myself, i don't like how it turns out.

yeah, that can make it really hard to get started. the thing is, just getting started is the best thing you can do for yourself. and you don't need to be brilliant on a first draft. for me, first drafts are like my outline. i don't plot in advance so it's just figuring stuff out. some sections will be whole paragraphs that might make it mostly intact to the final draft, and some will literally be "and la la la stuff happens and then x gets mad and..." seriously. but it gets me to the next part where i actually know what happens, and i can fill it all in later.

i've abandoned a lot of fics. depending on how long and how rough a draft is, it can kind of seem like too much work lol. breaking it up into small sections and only working on it for as long as i have the patience for it are the best ways for me to get around that.

• i guess by trying to learn a little more about the people involved, and thinking about how their personality quirks would affect their actions/speech? i find a lot comes down to dialogue and/or thought process, if you're showing it. depending on the situation, two different people might make the same choice for different reasons - or end up in the same place but take different routes there.
• http://music-withme.livejournal.com/2173.html?thread=524925#t524925