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Usually, when I'm plotting out a story, I start at the beginning and work my way to the end. But today I did a scene in my "quest" story that takes place later, and plan to "fill in" what happens before. Has anyone else done something like that?
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On the merits of starting to read a story from the middle:
If you reach the end wishing there was more, there is! = )
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My stories sometimes do that
'Cold Feet', for example, starts with the adult Sarah, and then retraces her life from youth, before continuing chronologically. 'Viewpoints' is effectively an investigation of the subject's childhood. Done fully, where today's character retraces their route to 'now', it can work very well. The difficulty with that is that the reader knows the end result, so a more effective trick is, indeed, to start in the middle. That leaves some narrative tension for the audience.
My one piece where a reader knew the end almost from the start was 'Uniforms', where anyone who had read 'Something to Declare' would know exactly what was going to happen. I had to use a bit of a trick to allow it to work properly, as well as hang the whole thing around character.
Edit: ah, misread it. Are you talking about how you write, rather than the order you reveal? Then yes, I do that too. I have a number of pivotal moments that I might write first, and then backfill the rest. With 'Hard Memory' I wrote the opening bit on the train, and then the final, repetitive, paragraphs, before fleshing out the middle.
Quite often
This is why I have switched to writing the story in full before beginning to post. I did this with both books of Simone, writing the start and the endings and filling the gaps between. I also ended up reordering events a couple of times. The other thing I tend to do is write a scene, and then go back earlier in the story and foreshadow it.
My latest offering, Doomed in the current contest, is unusual in that I wrote it from start to finish. Mainly this is because I didn't have any more time to edit and rework bits of it.
define beginning.
For me, the beginning of a story is a decision point at which the story becomes possible. I write just a little before that point, and at the decision point, that's chapter one.
I often then backfill events that are important to the plot, but which occur significantly previous to the decision point, using either straight memory, or full flashbacks.
I don't remember who it was, but a famous author once said of beginnings, middles, and ends, that the true beginning of a story is always significantly before the middle you choose to begin at.
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
That happens on a more than regular basis
I will rough plot the storyline then fill in different places... i re read the patchwork then stitch or cut as needed... Geeze! i write quilts!
Diana
There have been several times
... when I've had an idea for a chapter, wrote it out, and then backfilled the story to fit it. Some examples are the epilog to The Narragansett Fork, the chapter where Sylvia in Who Is Sylvia rushes off to her beloved when she realizes she loves him, where John and Fanny make love for the first time in The Narragansett Fork, and when Bobbie, Cindy and The Wizard save Santa in Cynthia and the High School Years (I made that a separate story, too).
Portia
Portia
Well, Hey,
Hell, I wrote an entire sequel to a previous unpublished story only half finished.
Kolchak; The Nylon Stalker, Yule Tide Me Over; A Stalking Stuffer was posted on two sites before I put a wrap on Not To Praise But To Bury Him. In fact, the Xmas story helped me finish by hinting at events I hadn't imagined yet.
Way Zim
One of my all time favorite
One of my all time favorite TG stories starts in the middle.
'A Bizarre Turn of Events', by Karen Albright.
This story has everything! Turns a big guy into a tiny nymphomaniac who is more boobs than girl!
What's not to love?
Wholeman
Yes, the weird author with the boob fetish.
Yes, the weird author with the boob fetish.