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Originally posted by: Bossk
I agree to a degree. He wrote ANH and saw what a success it was and then wrote ESB and ROTJ together. How could he have risked writing ESB with the ending that it had and, if it wasn't successful, he winds up with a story line that is dangling at the end. ESB and ROTJ were written together. I'm sure he had the idea of making this a series from the get go. But I doubt he had the story dreamed up. Just a rough outline, at best.
Okay, once more.
GL wrote Episode VI after he had finished Episode V. He may have written some of the back story earlier, but while writing Episode VI he was seriously wondering if he would follow up on the father-son relationship he hinted on in Episode V. He admits to this in an interview on the documentary VHS tape "Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga". He made sure not to leave any blank spots (story wise) by having Uncle Owen and Obi-wan tell Luke in Episode IV that his father was murdered by Darth Vader. In Episode VI he decided to turn the story around and establish the father-son relationship between these two characters.
So ... NO. He didn't write both stories at the same time. A rough outline might have been writen earlier, the actual screenplay/story of Episode VI was written when Episode V has released in theater.
The open ending or cliffhanger at the end of Episode V was to make people curious about the next Episode, to lure them into the theater for the next movie. I'm sure that, if Episode V would not have made enough money at the box office, Episode VI and all prequals would never have been made.