I was thinking about writing a story backwards - starting with the ending, ending with the beginning, if that makes sense. Could it work?
Do you mean writing a story that effectively moves backwards in time, or just working backwards during the writing process? Either way, I think the answer is 'sure, why not?' Feels a bit awkward, but I see no reason it couldn't be done.
Isn't there a movie that did this? I'm not sure but I've heard about it before. Unless you mean just starting with the end instead of the beginning and then filling in...I mean, I had the idea of the ending of my fantasy novel before I knew how to start it. I don't see why not though.
In terms of a novel that begins at the end and goes in reverse chronology, I think Time's Arrow did something to that effect. I've never read it, so I can't comment on how it turned out, but I think the book was pretty well-received. As far as just working backwards, as in writing the ending first and then writing the rest of the story in reverse scene order or something, I don't doubt that it can be done, but I'd never want to work that way. When I write a character, the character grows organically with the progression of the story--it's the same reason I can't skip around from one chapter to another. If I do that, the character's development in re the writing will be off. But that's just my process. Surely it's something worth experimenting with.
Are you thinking of Memento? It plays the story backwards: the main character has short term memory loss and is trying to find out who killed his wife. You know the murderer in the beginning of the movie, but it plays everything in reverse building up to it. I don't know if that's what you're thinking of, but it's an amazing movie
If you are talking about the writing process, I compose my story by writing the end first and working backwards.
Haven't watched it but have read about it and it's on my "to watch"-list...I love mindfuck movies ^^ Jacob Ladder is another favorite.
I mean your first thing. Writing a story that moves backwards in time. And of course that's how I'll write the story too, so I mean both things. It's for a video game, and I've written so many traditional stories I want to try something new. Plus, if it does not work, I can just "flip" it and make it into a standard story.
I don't see why not, but I think the story would want to have a reason to be written this way so that from a standpoint of reasoning and resolution, it still makes sense to the reader's progression of reading. For example, Octavia Butler's Clay's Ark has an unusual chapter structure where, as far as the time-line of things is concerned, the logical sense of the writing is like this: 10, 1, 9, 2, 8, 3, 7, 4, 6, 5 Meaning the first chapter is the last thing that happens and the second chapter is the fist thing and so on. The book ends at what is the logical middle of the story. But the story is written with this in mind. It's not like she just took a story written in a normal progression of events, cut it up and flipped one half in reverse between the rest.
I saw a Seinfeld episode that did it. It might work in some situations but in general it would be tough to make it good that way. Now, planning the story from the end but writing it in correct time sequence is a good approach. Define the ending. Then the beginning. Then the middle. Fill in between those. Repeat until you have a logical flow from start to finish. Then write following that trope.
I think there are several childrens' books with this format. It's addressing toddlers' 'why' addiction. They lived happily ever after... BECAUSE She rescued the prince from the dungeon... BECAUSE He was trapped by the Wizard... BECAUSE ... and so on
This really depends on the execution. @Wreybies mentioned how the ideas in the story should progress and resolve in a way that allows the reader to have an interesting time reasoning through it all the same. So the plot points and the way you reveal them should be designed according to the chronological order you decide on, meaning a story that's interesting when presented out-of-order might not make sense, or it might become so straightforward as to be dull, if you just flipped it the right way round after the fact.
For another movie reference, I believe this is what The Last 5 Years did. Starts the story with a girl mourning her recent break-up, flips to the guys POV which shows the beginning of the relationship, and works backwards (from the girls POV) and forwards (from the guy's POV) from there. I started it, but haven't been able to finish it yet, but I assume it meets in the middle... It is a musical, though, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.
I wrote the story. Started with the ending (10) and then 1, 2, 3 etcetera. I think it was okay, my friend talked me out of doing it 10, 9, 8 and so on. It was fun.
Julia Alvarez' In The Name of Salome is told in two components - one that moves forward in time, one that moves backward in time. And it works.
I heard when the writer was working on the original stage musical, he actually intended for both characters to move forward in the progression. Flipping the woman's point of view was made to make it stand out. Although that one works more simply, because on stage (haven't seen the movie) it's just a series of songs. So it's like a series of quick moments that all move forward within themselves, but arranged to move backward in the greater plotline. Plus the song where the two actually sing together is really powerful because of it. Not sure how well it would work for a video game. Although if you had some sort of mechanic to use, similar to Life is Strange, it might work.
Irreversible, a movie made by a French person I believe did the backwards story thing. Haven't seen it, but have heard about it. I think it could work to tell it in reverse, it could be interesting to see how the events play out to how it all came to be at the end. Kinda like committing a crime in reverse. Go for it, never know unless you take the leap.
Some mysteries kind of start with the ending and work backwards. The opening scene is a murder scene with a mysterious person standing somewhat discreetly near the scene, and smiling contentedly. Then the story works backwards to reveal more and more until it comes full circle again showing the same scene again now as an ending. But now we know how the person was murdered, and why, and have a satisfying sense of closure because we know exactly why the mysterious person (who by now is no longer mysterious) is smiling. So the same scene acted as a hook in the beginning before we knew the whole story, then served as a satisfying closure. It works well for mysteries so seems it could be modified somewhat for other types of backwards writing.
JCC, this is EXACTLY how my story is structured. My programmer wants the story, so I'm hyped. This may become a game after all!
