Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Why Writing Backwards is Surprisingly Brilliant.
2. Why Start with the Blurb? Grab Your Reader from the Start.
3. Ideal Reader Reviews: Your Unexpected Secret Weapon.
4. Crafting the Ending First: Creating a Solid Foundation.
5. Drafting Resolutions for Better Twists and Conflicts.
6. The Secret of De-escalating Conflicts to Build Tension.
7. Using a Chapter List as Your Outline.
8. Final Forms: How Knowing Your Characters’ End Helps the Start.
9. How a Backward Journey Leads You Down the Right Path.
10. The Final Thing You Write is the First Thing They See.
1. Introduction: Why Writing Backwards is Surprisingly Brilliant
Writing a novel is daunting, and if you’ve ever written your way into a narrative dead-end, you know that the middle can turn into a treacherous swamp. So why not flip the whole process and write backward? This isn’t about just starting from the end; it’s about writing with purpose. In this article, I’m going to explain how to write a fiction novel backwards and why it works.
By writing backwards, you build towards a definitive endpoint, giving each scene a reason to exist. Like a mystery novel’s big twist, where everything you thought you knew is thrown on its head, writing backwards makes it easier to embed layers of intrigue and significance without the guesswork. Imagine writing an epic journey, but knowing exactly where each step will take you, and every chapter, twist, and scene leads towards the ultimate finish line.
Now, full disclosure, when I say “writing” what I’m really talking about is “outlining” or “drafting.” I know this might sound like swearing to all you pantsers out there, but it’s worth experimenting with. You never know, you might become a plantser once you get the hang of it.
“Won’t I lose the element of discovery?”
Surprisingly, no! Instead of discovering the story as you write, you’ll discover nuances and depth. You’ll know the end, but you won’t know the subtle details until you piece each part together backward, creating layers of understanding that only reveal themselves when you see the full picture.
2. Why Start with the Blurb? Grab Your Reader from the Start
Your blurb is more than a quick summary, it’s your novel’s DNA. Think of it as a mini-pitch, like describing a movie trailer that grips audiences before they even hit play. A well-crafted blurb clarifies your story’s central conflict, its stakes, and its allure in a couple of sentences. When you write it first, you create a concise, intentional roadmap for everything that follows.
Why the Blurb Guides Your Story
1. Laser-Focused Direction: A strong blurb strips your story down to its heart. It’s not about every twist or subplot, it’s the core theme. For example, “A mother’s quest to save her son in a world where magic is forbidden” tells you that family and rebellion are key themes. This keeps you anchored even when plot threads start to spiral.
2. Establishing the Core Theme: Is it a thriller that examines justice and morality? A romance about the sacrifices of love? The theme embedded in the blurb helps you craft a story with a consistent tone. Everything you write, every subplot, and every twist can be checked against this blurb to make sure they belong.
3. Ingrained Suspense and Curiosity: A strong blurb plants questions in the reader’s mind: “Will she save her son?” or “How will magic impact this world?” Writing the blurb first lets you build suspense, anticipation, and curiosity as the story evolves, keeping readers invested from start to finish.
For some tips on writing the best possible blurb for your story check out my other article: How to write a book blurb that excites readers
Here’s an Example
Let’s say your blurb reads, “A young detective’s quest for justice in a world where truth is banned.” This single line tells you: the protagonist is determined, the world is authoritarian, and the theme involves fighting for truth. Now, every chapter you write serves to intensify this central conflict, enriching the story’s tone and theme.
3. Ideal Reader Reviews: Your Unexpected Secret Weapon
Here’s a fun trick: imagine you’ve already published your book, and readers are raving about it online. What do you want them to say? If they were thrilled, amazed, or deeply moved, what would they focus on? These ideal reviews become goals for your storytelling. When you picture the reviews, you get a clear sense of what to emphasise, improve, or even cut.
How Reviews Help Shape Your Story
1. Focus on What Matters: Reviews usually highlight what readers love most. If you imagine reviews that say, “I loved the friendships in this story,” you know relationships should be central. Or if reviews say, “The plot twists shocked me,” then surprises and suspense are essential.
2. Set Expectations for Tone and Style: Reviews reveal emotional impact. If readers rave about how your story “made them cry” or “filled them with hope,” you have a foundation to create scenes that evoke those reactions. Each page becomes an opportunity to deliver the emotional highs and lows that resonate with your audience.
3. Audience Clarity: By writing towards a specific audience, whether it’s mystery lovers or epic fantasy fans, you can sharpen your story to match their preferences. A thriller fan will expect rising stakes, while a romance reader seeks emotional depth.
Here’s an Example
Imagine your ideal review says, “The villain was terrifyingly real, and the protagonist’s struggle felt so human.” Knowing this, you can delve into the antagonist’s complexity and craft a main character who feels relatable and flawed.
“Isn’t this limiting?”
Not really! Think of it as writing with the reader in mind (something I always do, me being the reader.) You’re creating a relationship between story and reader that’s intentional and rewarding, focusing your creativity in ways that resonate most deeply.
4. Crafting the Ending First: Creating a Solid Foundation
Knowing how your novel will end does more than prevent loose threads; it enhances every decision you make in between. By visualising the finish line, you can work backward to identify the critical events and transformations needed for that powerful ending.
Why Endings Strengthen the Whole Story
1. Drive Towards a Meaningful Climax: With a clear ending, every chapter builds toward that pivotal moment. You’re not just adding action for action’s sake; you’re creating a journey with real stakes that all lead to one final payoff.
2. Keeps Characters Consistent: When you know where your characters end up, you can trace the specific journey they need to get there. If they end up as heroes, you know their early struggles will involve challenges to courage, resilience, and integrity.
3. Rich Foreshadowing: Knowing the end lets you sprinkle clues throughout the story, creating those delicious “aha” moments when readers realise how everything was connected. These hints add cohesion and depth, making your story feel satisfying and well-rounded.
Here’s an Example
If your ending reveals a character’s hidden past, you can drop subtle references early on. Perhaps their nervous habit when certain topics come up, or cryptic conversations that hint at something deeper, all make sense in hindsight, adding richness to the story.
5. Drafting Resolutions for Better Twists and Conflicts
Plot twists and conflicts are often the heart of storytelling, but when you start with the resolution, you can ensure they feel natural rather than forced. Think of each conflict as a bridge to your resolution, and each twist as a tool to heighten the stakes.
How Resolutions Shape Conflict
1. Purposeful Conflict: Knowing how it all ends allows you to plant conflicts that serve the story’s main purpose. If your ending is tragic, for example, each conflict might test the protagonist’s hope, heightening the final blow.
2. Twists that Surprise and Delight: A well-crafted twist feels both unexpected and inevitable. By writing backwards, you create tension that makes readers go, “I should have seen that coming!” because the clues were there all along.
3. Depth and Dimension: Resolutions rooted in character development are the most satisfying. When you know your character’s final growth or transformation, each conflict becomes a stepping stone, showing incremental change.
Here’s an Example
If your story’s resolution is a character finding inner peace after a lifetime of trauma, conflicts might test them emotionally, allowing readers to see how they handle hurt, betrayal, or forgiveness. Each twist deepens this journey, making the resolution feel earned.
6. The Secret of De-escalating Conflicts to Build Tension
Think of it this way: when you read a book and the author slowly pulls back the veil on a central mystery, the suspense grows exponentially. By de-escalating conflicts as you write backward, you’re peeling away layers that reveal the true stakes of the story, creating a subtle rise in tension.
Building Tension Through De-escalation
1. Unveiling Hidden Layers: As you work backwards, each removed conflict shows a new level of risk or danger. Instead of climaxing too early, your story intensifies, showing that the real issue has been there all along.
2. Suspense through Discovery: Readers begin to see the pieces of a larger puzzle as conflicts simplify, keeping them on edge because they sense something bigger is at play.
3. Controlled Pace: When you control conflict intensity, you build a steady tension that holds readers captive. Instead of constant high action, the story becomes a psychological maze, making the stakes feel real and personal.
Here’s an Example
If your protagonist starts with a murder accusation, working backward reveals motives, secrets, and lies. Each step shows just how deep they’re tangled, making readers question what they thought they knew about the character.
7. Using a Chapter List as Your Outline
For many writers, the idea of creating a strict outline can feel a bit confining, like placing your creativity in a box. But a chapter list? That’s a flexible, approachable way to see your story as a series of connected, purposeful steps without boxing you in. Think of it as a skeleton: it’s there to support the whole body of your novel, but it’s also versatile enough to allow movement, change, and growth as you write.
The Power of a Chapter List
1. Built-In Flexibility: A chapter list doesn’t dictate every detail, but it does give you a clear sense of direction. You know each major turning point and where it will fall in the story, but there’s plenty of room to discover new ideas as you write each chapter.
2. Natural Pacing and Flow: Pacing is one of the trickiest elements of novel-writing, but a chapter list helps immensely. You can visualise where big moments happen, then balance them with quieter scenes to give readers a chance to breathe. For example, if you have a major confrontation in Chapter 8, perhaps you follow it with a chapter that allows the protagonist to process what just happened, bringing depth to the experience.
3. Structural Consistency: With a chapter list, you can ensure your novel has a strong beginning, middle, and end. The beginning introduces key players and stakes, the middle builds tension and deepens character relationships, and the end delivers the climax and resolution. By mapping it all out, you prevent the dreaded “saggy middle” and make sure each chapter drives the story forward.
Example of a Chapter List
Imagine you’re writing a mystery novel. Here’s how a simple chapter list might look:
– Chapter 1: Introduce the protagonist and the crime scene.
– Chapter 2: Protagonist receives unexpected evidence.
– Chapter 3: Conflict with an uncooperative witness.
– Chapter 4: Protagonist experiences a personal setback.
– Chapter 5: A new clue is revealed, bringing hope.
With this list, you know what each chapter’s purpose is, keeping the story dynamic and intentional while leaving room for creativity as you fill in the details.
“Isn’t this the same as outlining?”
Not at all! A chapter list is less rigid than a full outline, which may feel overwhelming. Instead, it’s just a guide—a quick-reference checklist of where you’re heading so you don’t get lost along the way. If you’re keen on outlining your stories, this gives you the perfect opportunity to list some notes beneath each chapter and begin the framework of your outline.
8. Final Forms: How Knowing Your Characters’ End Helps the Start
Creating a memorable character arc can feel like drawing an emotional map with invisible ink. You want readers to see the character’s growth by the end, but making it gradual and realistic is often easier said than done. By knowing who your character will be at the story’s end, you can intentionally craft scenes that show subtle changes over time.
Why Final Forms Make Stronger Characters
1. Consistent Transformation: When you know the final version of your character, you’re equipped to write a realistic arc. Instead of a sudden personality shift, the character’s growth feels more organic, with each chapter showing a small but significant change.
2. Easier to Plant Seeds: Let’s say your protagonist transforms from a selfish, self-centred individual to someone who’s selfless and caring. You can use small moments to show glimpses of that final, better self early on. Maybe they reluctantly help a stranger in Chapter 3, foreshadowing the compassionate person they’ll become.
3. Understanding Their Motivations: If you know where your character will end up emotionally, it’s easier to understand their starting point. Characters who undergo drastic transformations need powerful motivations, which you can reveal through conflicts and interactions along the way.
Here’s an article I wrote about the importance of characters and why they are crucial for book sales: Read it now
Here’s an Example
Imagine you’re writing a story about a detective who starts off as a loner and ends up realising they need connection and community. Knowing this, you can create scenes where they shy away from team-ups, only to gradually become more comfortable relying on others. By the time they fully accept help in the end, readers have seen their journey every step of the way.
“Won’t this make the character too predictable?”
Not at all! Just because you know where your character will end up doesn’t mean every step is obvious. Think of it like baking a cake: the ingredients may be simple, but the final result is more than the sum of its parts. Surprising subplots, complex motivations, and well-timed revelations will keep readers guessing.
9. How a Backward Journey Leads You Down the Right Path
Writing backwards isn’t just about finding an endpoint; it’s about tracing the clearest path to that destination. When you’re working in reverse, you avoid the pitfall of endless rewrites and unnecessary detours. Your story naturally becomes tighter, more cohesive, and less cluttered.
How Working Backwards Creates a Stronger Structure
1. No Plot Holes: By working backward, you’re able to spot inconsistencies right away. If a plot detail doesn’t connect to the end, you’ll catch it before it leads readers astray. For example, if your protagonist has to confront a fear in the climax, you can ensure this fear is foreshadowed early on.
2. Intentional Connections: Writing backwards means every scene is leading somewhere specific, rather than just building momentum. When you have a clear goal in mind, you can layer in meaning, connecting characters, themes, and conflicts in ways that feel almost poetic.
3. Efficiency and Focus: This method removes any need for filler. Every chapter has a purpose, and every line of dialogue is serving that end goal, making your story feel powerful and purposeful.
Here’s an Example
Consider a fantasy quest story. If the ultimate goal is for the characters to retrieve a magical artefact, then every step backward can reveal how that artefact relates to the protagonist’s growth, the antagonist’s motivations, and the world’s stakes. The journey becomes more meaningful because each scene is part of an intentional path leading to that grand conclusion.
“But doesn’t this make the story feel forced?”
Actually, working backward helps keep things feeling natural. Rather than adding events randomly, each piece of the story has a built-in connection to the others, creating a sense of inevitability that readers will find both satisfying and seamless.
10. The Final Thing You Write is the First Thing They See
Your opening line and paragraph are the gateway to your entire story. They set the tone, introduce the voice, and hook the reader’s curiosity. But here’s the secret: because it’s the first thing the reader sees, it should be the last thing you perfect. Why? Because only after you’ve written the entire novel do you fully understand the heart of your story.
Crafting an Unforgettable Opening
1. Setting the Right Tone: Your opening sets the stage for everything that follows. If your novel is a suspenseful thriller, the opening should create tension. If it’s a romantic comedy, that first line should have a hint of humour. Writing it last ensures that it perfectly captures the essence of the story.
2. Foreshadowing the Journey: Once you know where the story ends, you can create an opening that hints at this destination. Perhaps it’s a small detail that only makes sense in hindsight, or a line of dialogue that feels prophetic. Readers love when the beginning and end mirror each other, giving the whole story a sense of unity.
3. Crafting a Hook That Grabs Attention: By the time you’ve written the entire story, you know what makes it unique. Use this knowledge to craft an opening line that intrigues readers, hinting at the mysteries, characters, or conflicts they’ll encounter. A great hook keeps readers flipping the pages to uncover what happens next.
Here’s an Example
If your story ends with the protagonist discovering their hidden strength, maybe the opening line touches on a perceived weakness or vulnerability. It’s subtle, but it gives readers a sense of the journey they’re about to embark on, making the character’s eventual growth feel even more impactful.
“Won’t I be tempted to keep rewriting the beginning?”
There’s a common saying among writers: “Write drunk; edit sober.” Let your creativity run free in the first draft, but as you revise, you’ll find it easier to hone in on the perfect opening. By leaving it until the end, you give yourself permission to write without overthinking.
So, on reflection
Writing a novel backwards might sound unconventional, but it’s an incredibly effective strategy for creating a cohesive, meaningful story. It forces you to think deeply about your characters, themes, and plot points before committing them to paper. You’re not writing blindly, hoping everything will make sense; instead, you’re crafting a story with a clear vision.
Why learn how to write a fiction novel backwards?:
– You’re never without direction: Every chapter, every conflict, every detail is there for a reason.
– You write with intentionality: Each word is a step toward a specific end, eliminating wasted scenes and tangential plot lines.
– Your characters and themes gain depth: With the end in mind, you’re able to make decisions that add layers of meaning to your story.
My Personal Opinion
I’ll admit, the first time I tried writing backwards, it felt a bit like learning to dance in reverse. But here’s the beautiful thing about it: once you see the whole story from the vantage point of the ending, every step you take feels purposeful. Writing backwards taught me to fall in love with the process, not just the product. There’s a clarity that emerges when you have your final destination in sight, and it’s exhilarating to see your story become something cohesive and powerful.
It actually dawned upon me, that writing backwards is quite natural. As you can imagine, when you have an idea, you usually begin with the end result, you often have no idea how you’re going to get there. Professional writers in writers room need to be on the same page, so it’s quite common that destinations are planned first so each writer can contribute to the journey while staying on course. Perhaps we’ve stumbled on a big secret!
Ultimately, writing a novel backward gives you control over the journey while still leaving room for discovery. So go ahead, try it out, you might just find it’s the secret sauce your writing has been missing.
