QuanSai
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Starting a novel at the end of the story?
Well, I've never written a novel before, and I don't really have much experience in storytelling unless you add up the lies I've told people since I
first learned how to speak. And I certainly haven't read enough adult novels in my time to really understand what a great novel is. I mostly read
textbooks on mathematical concepts, software development, and computational logic.
I have an idea for a novel about an uprising amongst a large group of abused individuals (trite, I know). I'd like to end their efforts tragically,
however. I want the main characters to die, and their entire plans foiled.
From your experience and observation of stories you've found extremely engaging, can you tell me if it would be wise to start off the book at the
downfall of the protagonist? The rest of the book would be a large description of what led up to the hero's demise. I assume I could leave the
description of the character's untimely death very vague, leaving the reader to question it immensely.
Thanks. 
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Sevastian Winters
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Kurt Vonnegut says to start your story as close to the end as possible. That said, flashbacks are a tricky business if you seek to create suspense.
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QuanSai
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Quote: Originally posted by Sevastian Winters  | | Kurt Vonnegut says to start your story as close to the end as possible. That said, flashbacks are a tricky business if you seek to create suspense.
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Thanks for that.
I don't want to make it seem like a "Hail Mary" attempt to engage the reader. Any pointers?
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Sevastian Winters
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Some of it is the story. The rest is just stuff you need to know about them. Don't bore readers with anything that doesn't pertain to the story.
R.U.E. (Resist the Urge to Explain). I recently cut a 2000 word scene wherein I explained the lead character is a Navy SEAL by putting him back on a
mission in a flashback. I killed the scene, opting instead to have the character glance at the SEAL sticker in the back window of his pickup before
making a decision. I needed to know the details of the back story. The reader didn't, because it didn't move the story forward.
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QuanSai
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| Quote: Originally posted by Sevastian Winters | | Some of it is the story. The rest is just stuff you need to know about them. Don't bore readers with anything that doesn't pertain to the story.
R.U.E. (Resist the Urge to Explain). I recently cut a 2000 word scene wherein I explained the lead character is a Navy SEAL by putting him back on a
mission in a flashback. I killed the scene, opting instead to have the character glance at the SEAL sticker in the back window of his pickup before
making a decision. I needed to know the details of the back story. The reader didn't, because it didn't move the story forward.
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Note-worthy advice. Thanks a lot.
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Cleo
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One thing that I think you might want to consider is if you are going to write your story in 1st person or 3rd.
If you start with the ending and then use flash backs throughout it would be interesting to use 1st person - a bit like the trailer for the film 'The
Lovely Bones' at the moment, investigating how the main character died. However, if you are going to write your story in chronological order then it
would be better to write in 3rd person, otherwise when you get to the end you aren't stuck with the line '...and then I died...' The end.
Hope this gives you a couple of ideas.
[Edited on 20/12/2009 by Cleo]
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
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Michy
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If you start the story off with the downfall and failure of the main character, and then go back in time, I'm putting down your book and buying
something else.
It's impossible to build suspense when the ending is known in a situation like that. I'm not saying it can't be done in some stories, but I don't
think it should be done when the ending is a bad one.
Now if you're going to move the story on beyond that original ending, so there's some conclusion that is still a surprise to the reader, then that's
fine. I don't want to know how the story ends before I get to it.
Love and stuff,
Michy
~~Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations~~
Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." James R. Cook
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Cleo
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Goood point Michy. Knowing the downfall of the character at the start of the novel would suck, I agree, but it could work if there is a twist, an
unseen surprise, at the end.
If you are determined to have a main character die, and have this identified at the beginning of the story, maybe have the story told from the
perspective of another main character, and how they 'deal' with the event?
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
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Kess
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It really depends how you do it. Many crime books begin at the 'end' of the story, and then go back and work out how they got there. It's one way to
do a mystery story, and entirely possible to create a lot of suspense.
Do you intend to have the dead main character as your viewpoint character through the story? Are you going to rely heavily on flashbacks? You need to
make sure that the reader has a lot of questions to ask to keep them reading through the story - if you're taking away the question of whether the/a
main character lives or dies, you need to put in other questions to keep up the interest. Why should a reader care about the story of a dead man?
Hope that helps!
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Michy
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Crime and mystery books don't start at the end of the story though - they start at the end of a crime and work backward to discover what lead up tot
he crime, but the real ending of the story is not that same thing as the ending of the crime. I can handle starting at the end of a crime, because I
know there will be an ending of the story that goes beyond the crime itself - and that's the solving of it and the resolution of the side plots that
crop up.
But starting with the main character, the 'hero', being defeated and down and out and showing us that as the ending and then moving backward to tell
us how he got there is demotivating. There's no hope he might succeed, now inspiration to continue reading how it happened. It's the human condition.
Even if he fails, we want hope that he might not, and starting with the failure, we don't have that hope.
It's different than, say, exploding up a huge space station while two people in a space pod/ship/whatever look on and then we flash backward to watch
what happens. See, we still have hope that at least two people we don't know yet have survived. We can assume there's at least a partial happy ending
and we assume there is some more story after the space thingy explodes. We have hope and that gives us motivation to continue reading.
But when you tell me the main character doesn't have hope... even if YOU as the author knows he doesn't.... I'm not going to read your book. It's that
simple.
I want the hope.... I want the tension of sitting on the edge of my seat wondering if he's going to make it, do it, beat it, succeed, whatever. I
want to root for him to succeed and pray he won't fail.
When you start there, with that failure, you don't allow me to do that.
Love and stuff,
Michy
~~Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations~~
Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." James R. Cook
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Mindscrew Min
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Hi there!
Let me tell you, I am a sucker for tragedy. I'm happiest when I read about a protagonist getting screwed over in the end. That said, when I'm reading
a book, I want the ending to be a surprise. If the hero dies on page one, what's the point of reading the rest? I got what I wanted.
Imagine if you went on a blind date and the person slept with you twenty minutes after dinner. What's the point of sticking around, right?
That said, you can pull it off if along the way you throw us some really unexpected curve-balls. Like Fight Club, if you've ever read that--it starts
about five minutes before the ending with the protagonist held at gunpoint in a building that's about to blow up, but along the way the author takes
us on a high-octane (not to mention anti-commercialist) thrill-ride.
...While I'm on that topic, starting "five minutes before" the downfall is also a viable option.
Anyway. Rant over.
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mparker
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I think this works better with movies. ie. Uno Momento... i don't speak spanish so don't set blame on spelling problems there... or Vanilla Sky. I
think with a book it would take a lot of the suspense and building out, but I like Mindscrew Mins idea. Five minutes before, open it up, don't tell
the ending, just right before, and everything leading up to it, so it doesn't seem so... this happened, because this happened.
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Ditchdoctor
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It can be done but you have to be a pretty good writer to pull it off. Read Gary Jennings "Aztec" and "Aztec Rage." Both start in the end, almost. In
one he is in jail awaiting a firing squad. In the other he is a very old man telling his story. He was a very talented writer.
Don't let fear and common sense stand in your way.
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