Doing the Story Backflip

the cart before the horses?

Scott MacLeod, author of the Son of Ugly blog—if you don’t know it yet, you’re in for a treat—was interviewed on Mark Robinson’s Behind the Screams last week.

Scott writes short fiction—he posts a story every Sunday, free to read—and one of his answers to Mark’s questions intrigued me. He said:

Almost always I start with the conclusion or twist and work backwards. I try to think of ways things can go wrong unexpectedly but plausibly.

My first reaction was: How odd, I never do that!

I might start with a piece of text, an image, a character, or a scene, and I find out where the story leads as I write it. Or I might have a rough idea, like this one for a story called Chimera: A young man decides to complete the garden design his grandfather started. It’s a sculpture garden and all the statues are mythological monsters.
You can guess where that will go … nothing pleasant. But how will it end? I discovered the conclusion three quarters down the road.

It’s typical of the way I approach a short story and I enjoy the surprise reveal. That kick might be the main reason why I write.

Then I realized that my I never do that! reaction to Scott’s answer wasn’t accurate. There are exceptions. I have actually done that! Once.

My old, slightly crooked, Underwood in the upside down - Photo M.E. Proctor

A few months ago, I wrote a long story (9,000 words, 30 pages) for a submission call, and I did a Scott MacLeod-style backflip. I knew exactly where the protagonist would end. I didn’t have the precise form of the reveal, but the climax was clear in my head from the get go. Like in The Sixth Sense, the ending was the entire reason for the story.

If you think that having the conclusion buttoned down makes writing the rest a cinch ... not really. I’m convinced that ‘figure it out as you go’ is a lot less stressful.

Pacing is always critical, but what comes naturally when you start at the beginning turns out to be a lot harder when you’re writing toward a conclusion. And so is building the story block-by-block without giving the game away. I had a couple of events lined up at the start of the character’s journey but not enough of them to carry the complete narrative, and these incidents (the blocks) had to follow a logical and believable progression, going from relatively innocent to seriously warped. Setting up the pieces of the puzzle had me scratching my head.

Yep, it’s a crime story. No, the main character isn’t a serial killer upping the stakes, that would be way too easy. And to add to the fun and games, I’m fond of the protagonist, sick puppy that he is.

Another key element was finding an engaging ‘voice’ and sustaining it/adjusting it through the progression. Again, this happens spontaneously when I write a story on the fly. Here, I had to make the shoe fit. The main character is also the narrator, which adds complexity. There is no safe distance in a first-person point of view, no cool detachment. What the narrator feels is what the writer feels, and the reader too if the job is done properly. Fellow writers may argue that there’s a way out. The protagonist could be lying. Unreliable narrators are a fiction staple (for a great example, read In a Lonely Place, by Dorothy B. Hughes). I tend to shy away from these sly operators. In the back of my mind, a little voice whispers Cheater! So, my narrator is completely honest. Seriously messed up? Up to the readers to decide. To be clear, he might be bonkers but it doesn’t mean he isn’t truthful. He certainly sees himself as straightforward and rational.

Knotty? Yes. Challenging? You bet.
If I ever do another backflip, I’ll know what kind of headache to expect …

You should be suitably tickled by now. The story is called For Rosalie, With Love, and the anthology it appears in comes out at the end of the month.

One Year Anniversary

The first Declan Shaw mystery was published a year ago. Already.

If you haven’t given Love You Till Tuesday a read yet, now is the time because the new installment in the series comes out a month from now, on September 16. I’ll talk about it in an upcoming post.

This is what Best Thriller Books had to say about it:

Love You Till Tuesday by M.E. Proctor is an absolute page-turner, packed with superb characters and thrilling twists. This detective-thriller is hands down the best I’ve read this year! Declan Shaw, a private investigator that you’ll love to cheer for, is the perfect protagonist to unravel the murder mystery and bring the villains to justice. Proctor’s writing style and exceptional storytelling will keep you on the edge of your seat, making it impossible to put the book down.

You can find it on Bookshop.org , Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your favorite shop can get it for you too.