Got stuck on a story idea and tried something my friend in Boston called 'reverse outlining'

I was trying to write a short story about a person who finds a strange key, but I kept getting lost in the middle. The plot felt messy and I couldn't figure out how to get to the end. My friend, who writes for a local paper, told me to try this trick: write the last paragraph first. So I did. I wrote about the character finally opening the door and finding just an empty room with a single, dusty window. Then, I worked backwards, asking myself 'what had to happen right before this?' I did this for about three hours, filling in the steps. It felt silly at first, like building a house from the roof down, but it actually worked. I figured out the whole middle part by knowing exactly where I needed to end up. Has anyone else tried a backwards method like this to fix a plot hole?

3 comments

3 Comments

willow_martin2mo agoMost Upvoted

My uncle is a carpenter and he always says you build a staircase from the top step down when you're fixing an old house. It sounds wrong, but it's the only way to make sure everything lines up at the end. Your story trick is the same thing. We get taught to do everything in order, start to finish, but sometimes the answer is just to flip it around. Why do we think there's only one right direction to solve a problem?

lopez.jennifer2mo ago

Totally get what your uncle means. I learned that with choreography years ago. Sometimes you have to start with the final pose and work backwards to make the whole dance flow right. It feels weird not starting at the beginning, but it forces you to see the whole picture first. Fixing that one big piece makes all the smaller steps fall into place.

robert_roberts2mo ago

Maybe we're scared to admit some problems don't have a start or an end at all.