That time I tried writing a story backwards after hearing about it from a friend

Last Tuesday my buddy Mark told me he wrote a whole short story by starting with the last sentence first and working his way back to the beginning. I thought he was joking at first, but he showed me his notebook and it actually made sense. So I sat down on Wednesday night with a prompt about a lost dog finding its way home and started with the dog already in the yard. Then I wrote the scene before that where the dog crosses the highway, then the one before that where it escapes the shelter. It felt weird at first, like solving a puzzle instead of telling a story. By the time I reached the opening scene where the dog runs off, I had a full 1500 word piece done in two hours. Has anyone else tried writing backwards like this and did it work for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason7981mo ago

Did it actually feel like you had a better handle on the pacing and payoff since you already knew the ending, or was it more of a gimmick that just saved time? I'd be curious if the backwards approach fixes plot holes you normally miss going forward, or if it just forces you to fill in gaps you would have caught anyway. Sounds like a fun experiment either way though.

river1901mo ago

Take a step back and ask yourself if this really matters all that much. It's a writing exercise, not a surgical procedure where plot holes are life or death. People get way too hung up on the "right" way to tell a story when most readers just want something entertaining.