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February 11, 2012 5:12 AM

Is it passible to write a story/novel/book backwards starting with the ending and ending with the beginning yet keeping the whole thing in in forward chronological order? The readers would never know it was written this way. What would be the writing logistics of doing this?

I just realized the ending of a novel while running and found I was following the story line backwards to the beginning. I then started wondering about the difficulties and logistics of actually writing this way. has anyone actually done this?

posted by Xurando to Writing & Language (22 answers total)

Are you talking about:
A) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, or
B) 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1?
posted by michaelh at 5:27 AM on February 11, 2012

I guess it depends on just how specific you are being with respect to backwards. I mean, it would be ridiculous to write the words backwards and then reverse them. (".sdrawkcab sdrow eht etirw")

But if you mean writing the last chapter first and then writing them in reverse order, ending with the first chapter, it seems completely possible to me. IE, starting with the idea that the butler did it, and then figuring out how The Inspector would figure this out, and then setting up the rest of the story to lay out (and obfuscate) the clues leading to the butler.
posted by gjc at 5:37 AM on February 11, 2012

Well, mathematicians do this all the time. We call them "proofs" instead of "stories", but close enough. With a computer it's trivial to jump around and work on the parts you know while you're waiting for other parts to become clear (you can do it on loose leaf paper, too, but it's harder to keep track).
posted by anaelith at 5:48 AM on February 11, 2012

Time's Arrow by Martin Amis. Reader is aware of what's going on but narrator is not.
posted by nathancaswell at 5:56 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Harold Pinter wrote a play like this, so I don't see why you couldn't write a novel the same way...assuming that what you mean is simply the scenes/chapters/events unfolding in reverse chronological order.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 5:57 AM on February 11, 2012

Or reading your question again, maybe you don't mean that...
posted by DestinationUnknown at 6:00 AM on February 11, 2012

Take a look at this thread for more examples like Time's Arrow, where the story is told backwards. Read a few, to work out the best way to do it.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:02 AM on February 11, 2012

Oh you're talking about conceiving your story backwards but then presenting it forwards?
posted by nathancaswell at 6:02 AM on February 11, 2012

Why couldn't you? You can write any way you want. It's the end product that matters, not how you arrived at it.

I don't think this is actually even an unusual way of working - in fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen writing manuals instruct that you should do this if you're having problems with plotting - you know, figure out where it's all headed and then work backwards from there.

It may be more difficult to see things from a reader's perspective when you're writing backwards, but that's something you can work on later when you're editing the text.
posted by Jelly at 6:02 AM on February 11, 2012

Teachers use a technique called Backwards Design. They determine the benchmark they are teaching to, design the assessment by which it is measured, then work backwards as to the points of knowledge that are necessary for a student to be competent as measured by the assessment.

If the goal is knowing "x", and to know "x" you need to have knowledge of t, in order to know t you need to have knowledge of m, in order to know m you need to have knowledge of j, you then teach j, m, t in that order...

I don't know why you couldn't write a book this way, it seems like the logical method.
posted by HuronBob at 6:06 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Are you talking about how you, as the author, would go about the writing process? Or do you want to know whether it's possible to write a story that goes backwards while letting the reader think that's it's going in order?
posted by reductiondesign at 6:22 AM on February 11, 2012

Yeah, plenty of authors have written texts that ended up being presented in a completely different way in the book. Graphic novelist Don Rosa writes half the story, then stops, figures out an ending and then writes the story backwards towards the halfway point. Kafka's The Trial was written piece by piece, and if I recall correctly, the first and last chapters were written first, and then the rest was sort of filled in as he thought of it (he never quite finished it, though).
posted by Kattullus at 6:49 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would love to see an exquisite corpse done this way.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:50 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't think there's any one "order" to write things in. When I write, I start with the first thing that comes to me, whether it's the beginning or not.

For example, I came up with what I'm working on now by hitting on an interesting middle of the story. As I outline, I'll flesh out how to introduce my protagonist and her goals, and then of course I need to figure out the nuts and bolts of the resolution. When I actually sit down to write scenes and dialogue, I could start anywhere, really.

I would be really surprised to meet a writer who only ever wrote by coming up with the story from beginning to end, from first sentence to last. That's just not how writing works, really.
posted by Sara C. at 7:26 AM on February 11, 2012

Kenneth Koch wrote at least one book backwards, like this. It has the obvious advantage that you know where you're heading.

However, I would never write a novel without writing an outline first. You wouldn't build a building without making blueprints first, would you? And if you have the outline, then you can write the chapters in any order you like, as inspiration hits you, because you already know how they relate to each other.

My wife writes screenplays in no particular order. But that's after working out the beats of the story in an outline.
posted by musofire at 7:27 AM on February 11, 2012

I heard in an interview that John Irving does this.
posted by Buckt at 7:44 AM on February 11, 2012

Yeah, you can totally do this, and I dare say a number of writers have done it. Sometimes the process of writing means you might have to make some adjustments to your desired end as you revise (JK Rowling famously wrote the final chapter of the potter saga around the same time as the first book, and to my mind I think you can see a shift in tone) but I think in many respects you'd avoid some certain problems that plague many novels, where threads go unresolved of get cut off abruptly.
posted by Diablevert at 8:11 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: As always, there is a relevant Simpsons quote:

Lisa: How can a hamster write mysteries?
Clerk: Well, he gets the ending first, then he writes backward.
posted by RobotHero at 8:43 AM on February 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

Oh, I see, you're talking about writing it backwards, but it reads just like any other novel. Yeah, lots of writers do that.
posted by empath at 9:30 AM on February 11, 2012

Lots of people do that, so it is possible.

I wrote the last three chapters of my current Big Civil War novel (yes, I am still working on that damn thing) first, then went back to the beginning.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:55 AM on February 11, 2012

Yeah, Time's Arrow and Memento immediately came to mind.
posted by mannequito at 11:24 AM on February 11, 2012

Definitely - in a story characters always need to get to point A to Z (either physically, emotionally, or both), and as the writer, you can always decide what route you use to take them there. Just like in a real-life trip you can say, "well, before going to Z, I'd like to hit Y....and that means I'll have to go to X to get to Y.... and plan out your trip that way, and that helps you decide whether your A-->B means staying on the Parkway or getting on the Turnpike....if that makes sense..... You can definitely do that in a story.

...That said, the downside to this is that you can become "trapped" ....in the past few months I've discovered it's much easier to let my characters go and do where and what they want, as long as they stay in character and do it for the right reasons. What this has meant is that outlining a story from the backwards forwards meant a lot of characters were *forced* into their next move....which didn't make a lot of sense.

I would just keep in mind when writing - characters really drive the plot. The *worst* stories are the ones where you ask your self "Why did the character do X?" and then you read/watch on and you realize, "oh, it's so they could set themselves up to do Y...." - it's awful, and probably because a writer was working backwards. That's not how life works - characters do X because they are coming *from* W, V, U, etc. I'm not sure if that makes sense.... a good writer can definitely work backwards but it's very difficult to do so without it looking strained.

I would recommend keeping a route in mind, but let your characters take the trip.
posted by Lt. Bunny Wigglesworth at 5:49 AM on February 12, 2012