Eureka

My biggest creative issue is that I can't come up with endings.

This is a super simplification, it's a layered issue, but that's the core of it.
I'm not a comic artist, nor am I really a writer. I'm too much of a coward to be any of those things. I've always liked to make bare bones stories though, mainly a few character concepts that I mash together and grow attached to and then think about for the next decade of my life.

Those characters lose their shape over time though, they may feel the same as they did 5 years ago but neither I or them are the same people from then. They lose form, their harsh edges are softened as whatever I had planned for them is slowly lost, they're comfortable to think about but I know they have no future.

They have no endings. They have backstories, but they don't have dreams. They have friends and families, but they don't have any ideals that shape their core. Maybe it's because I have no goals, no dreams, nothing driving me forward in life, but I find it very hard to give these things to my Ocs.

There's a few stories that do have endings though, and that's how I can identify this problem. With an ending, comes someone achieving, or failing to achieve, their goals. At it's core Mage story always had an upper hand with this. The setting is confined to it's own isolated realm and while the amount of characters in it isn't set in stone, there's a firm limit how many could possibly be in there.

The very basic goal has always been “Defeat the demon king”, doing so let's whoever is left standing in the end escape. This has played out a number of ways since it's conception a decade ago, but once I identified who would be playing the key roles it's become set in stone. I've been able to give the players stronger voices, what they're willing to bend on and what ideals they refuse to give up on no matter the cost. I've been able to give them a conflict I'm not able to back down from or soften over time. To do so would be to shatter the characters I've created and I'm not willing to do that to them.

Sure I still gotta actually get a firmer grasp on what all comes before that that isn't backstory, the filling of the sandwich, but that's life baby.

I'm mainly musing on this because I've recently gone back to another concept I was playing with a long time ago. It's lost a lot of it's original details as I mulled over it and cut away a lot, honestly it's not too similar at all anymore. All my concepts are basically ships of Theseus'. As long as I replace parts overtime and not just re haul it all at once, then who's to say it's different? It still takes up the same part of my brain and still has the same characters roughly, give or take some parts I've had to cut out and replace.

Anyhow, I finally figured out the endings that story could have. And with those routes come character ideals and aspirations that if achieved could close out the story. It's not even anything complicated, but I've been wracking my brain on it for weeks since I've picked this back up!! What's driving them to the finish line, what's worth it to them to cause so much conflict with other people?? How can I push this character forward through the story if they have no solid core? Oh the things that keep me up at night!!

I know this isn't the only way to construct stories and characters but it's the only one I can really wrap my own lil brain around. I really wish it came easier to me. （=´∇｀=）

This was a lot of words to say "Yay I feel creatively fulfilled today" and it probably got quite off track.