as a means of settling focus is intriguing, Livia: I plan to use it experimentally. The biggest problem I have with short stories is that they never seem to stay short! *s*

As for endings: I nearly always see the ending either before I actually start writing, or shortly after I start. It's never the ending, (or the beginning, for that matter) that gives me any difficulty: it's the connecting passages that link the two together... I often, in the course of writing, see what appear to be totally unrelated 'scenes', like the outtakes of a movie, involving my characters. I write them down in my x-files, and eventually, like the pieces of a jig-saw puzzle, they end up sliding into place.

I try always to remember the passage of a letter Honore de Balzac wrote to George Sand, upon her asking for his advice in writing a murder mystery. His advice was (translated freely) 'You don't write a murder mystery. You create a murderer, and let him tell his story...' The characters are everything. I find that believable, living characters will yield a plot structure far more rapidly than any outline can. I usually begin with an outline, and then promptly forget all about it once the characters have assumed their lives, and started telling their stories. When I go back later and look at the outline, my reaction is usually along the lines of 'what WAS I thinking!?!' *BEG*