JCFarnham
Auror
The other day I was listening to the Writing Excuses podcast archives and they came up with a good point regarding working backwards from your ending.
For some reason I've never thought of writing this way, but I must say they made some good points. The theory goes if you're writing something like mystery [or anything for that matter which has a bit of that element in it] if you figure out your climactic moment first- the Whodonit, etc. then you are more likely to write a consistant story that doesn't lose sight of its revealing moment. You can then pick and choose from clues and when you want to throw them at your characters. and so on a so forth. To me it seems like this working backwards technique would help to keep you insight of the goal, and not accidentally write in a plothole, or completely derail your story for that matter.
This isn't to say that you can't "work backwards" AND discovery write [seems a lot, if not all of us here do this] after all the middle isn't set, just a scene you now have the ability to foreshadow.
So, what do you people think about this?
I personally don't outline in the slightest, so this feels a tiny bit constrictive for me at first glance but then again, I tend to lose sight of the point of the story and could probably stand to work in a bit of foreshadowing somewhere along the line. I'm thinking I'll give Working backwards a go at some point, if a plot calls for some mystery and such.
Does anyone do this already? Find it interesting? Or do you have some other trick to helping yourself foreshadow and build clear plot goals? Do you do something I can't wrap my head around and just remember what you've written earlier and work it in where necessary? [I'd have to keep lists or something haha]
Is there any real point in working in complete chronological order? Because I personally can see a lot of pros for using either the technique being discussed or simply writing bits and pieces of scenes from all over the place when they come to you say, feverishly in a dream at 2 in the morning, or whatever. I guess what it comes down to is how organised a mood you have to be in write...
So yeah. Lot of questions there, but hopefully not too much you have to wade through the mire so to speak to pick out something you want to talk about.
For some reason I've never thought of writing this way, but I must say they made some good points. The theory goes if you're writing something like mystery [or anything for that matter which has a bit of that element in it] if you figure out your climactic moment first- the Whodonit, etc. then you are more likely to write a consistant story that doesn't lose sight of its revealing moment. You can then pick and choose from clues and when you want to throw them at your characters. and so on a so forth. To me it seems like this working backwards technique would help to keep you insight of the goal, and not accidentally write in a plothole, or completely derail your story for that matter.
This isn't to say that you can't "work backwards" AND discovery write [seems a lot, if not all of us here do this] after all the middle isn't set, just a scene you now have the ability to foreshadow.
So, what do you people think about this?
I personally don't outline in the slightest, so this feels a tiny bit constrictive for me at first glance but then again, I tend to lose sight of the point of the story and could probably stand to work in a bit of foreshadowing somewhere along the line. I'm thinking I'll give Working backwards a go at some point, if a plot calls for some mystery and such.
Does anyone do this already? Find it interesting? Or do you have some other trick to helping yourself foreshadow and build clear plot goals? Do you do something I can't wrap my head around and just remember what you've written earlier and work it in where necessary? [I'd have to keep lists or something haha]
Is there any real point in working in complete chronological order? Because I personally can see a lot of pros for using either the technique being discussed or simply writing bits and pieces of scenes from all over the place when they come to you say, feverishly in a dream at 2 in the morning, or whatever. I guess what it comes down to is how organised a mood you have to be in write...
So yeah. Lot of questions there, but hopefully not too much you have to wade through the mire so to speak to pick out something you want to talk about.
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