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There is a writing technique where a writer would imagine in her mind's eye where her story should end and will write it 'backwards'. Writing the end and then writing the chapters leading to end, so on and so forth all the way to the start. I'm interested to know more.
Are there any best practices for writing a story this way?
There is a writing technique where a writer would imagine in her mind's eye where her story should end and will write it 'backwards'. Writing the end and then writing the chapters leading to end, so on and so forth all the way to the start. I'm interested to know more. Are there any best practices for writing a story this way?
This can be a very effective writing strategy. As a matter of fact, some writing guides will advise you to know what happens at the end, so that is something to write towards. However, in the English-speaking writing community, there are two different types of writers - plotters and pantsers.
Simply put, a plotter is someone who plans out their novel before they write it. A pantser is someone who, “flies by the seat of their pants,” meaning they don’t plan out anything, or plan very little. Some people, like me, call themselves “plantsers,” which means they’re in a little of both. In reality, most people are plantsers, but some tend to lean heavily to one side.
Source: https://thewritepractice.com/plotters-pantsers/
The Novel Factory is a novel-writing software. This software basically outlines the story, from beginning to end, from the premise to the nitty-gritty details of each scene. It is a great tool for plotters. Pantsers may also find the tool useful, because the tool provides structure for the story.
On the other hand, a story's ending may become too unsatisfying for the reader. For example, a story may follow a progression of events and, from the reader's perspective, end in an extremely undesirable state (i.e. some kind of totalitarian government, in which female rabbits are blamed for unwanted births and heavily controlled). The reader may expect a sequel or a continuation to the story, because the reader does not want the story to end this way.
Many books have weak, undeserved, implausible or disconnected endings, so this is one approach that could help that. If you're starting from the end, the questions you want to ask yourself are "What will be different from the beginning?" "What will remain constant from the beginning?" "What will return to the way it was at the beginning, after having changed?"
I'll give an example. This is based on a book I just finished reading ("Draw the Line"), about a gay teenager growing up in a homophobic town in Texas. At the end of the book, the big change is that the main character has gained self-confidence, and has gone public with a lot of hidden aspects of his personality (not just his sexuality, but also the fact that he is an artist). The big thing that has stayed the same is that the town hasn't changed, he's just learned how not to be afraid of it. And the thing that changed and changed back is that he lost his best friends, and then regained them. (This is just an example from a book that is fresh in my mind --you can find those things for any book.) Once you know the answers to those three questions, you'll know where your book will start, and what the shape of it will roughly be.
What you want to watch out for is: 1) You don't want the book to feel lifeless and fated, and 2) You want to leave room for the book to take a different shape than the one you first planned. In other words, if you get into this book, and you realize it's not going to reach the end you first thought it would, don't dismiss that possibility, be open to it.
