ABSTRUSE
Cirque du Freak
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2003
- Posts
- 50,094
I recently read an article about starting your stories by writing the end first. It may be of help to some newbies looking for ideas on how to approach enhancing writing techniques.
The author Deborah Cannon , brought up some reasons why editors reject stories. She wrote:
,” The pace of the story was wrong, the story was not complete in itself, the main character was not identifiable or likeable or interesting. Nothing much happened in the story, the character did not have a serious enough problem or didn't solve it by his/herself. The story was too grim or downbeat or boring or offensive.”
Nothing was mentioned about the quality of the writing. The emphasis is on story and character.
She also wrote:
“Something I have recently re-discovered in my never-ending quest to uncover the secrets to writing a "Bestseller" is that you cannot know what your story is about - you can't even begin to write it - if you don't know how it ends. Yes. That's right. You must know how it ends. If you don't know how it ends before you write your story, how can you know what events are needed to get to that end? How will your story make sense? Your story must have a logic to it. Even if it's science fiction or fantasy, it must follow the rules of the world you create. But maybe the most important question is: How will you know what to foreshadow? Foreshadowing is one of the most effective techniques for creating suspense. Without suspense, your story will fall flat.”
Makes sense I guess. I know I tend to build my stories after I’ve discovered who my characters are and then create their situation based on their personalities. Some times it’s the other way around. I think I write under the “Chaos Theory of Abstrusion’.
Here is something else that makes perfect sense. You can’t build a house without a blueprint and you can’t arrive at a destination with out a map. Outlining is also important to writing well. An exception to this was Margaret Mitchell, she did not outline “Gone With the Wind” but started with her last chapter first and worked backwards chapter by chapter. It’s easier to re-write an outline than a first draft.
Now I’ve created a conundrum for myself, I have a story started and I have no clue what is going to happen in the end. Think I should go back to the end and figure it out !.
I also liked this:
“The short story is the universal school for fiction writers. Short stories teach writers how a story works. Because they are short, the author can study the piece from beginning to end.”
I hope this might be of assistance to some people out there who are looking for some writing hints. After all, we learn by sharing, I guess we teach that way also.
~A~noviciate in the school of fiction.

The author Deborah Cannon , brought up some reasons why editors reject stories. She wrote:
,” The pace of the story was wrong, the story was not complete in itself, the main character was not identifiable or likeable or interesting. Nothing much happened in the story, the character did not have a serious enough problem or didn't solve it by his/herself. The story was too grim or downbeat or boring or offensive.”
Nothing was mentioned about the quality of the writing. The emphasis is on story and character.
She also wrote:
“Something I have recently re-discovered in my never-ending quest to uncover the secrets to writing a "Bestseller" is that you cannot know what your story is about - you can't even begin to write it - if you don't know how it ends. Yes. That's right. You must know how it ends. If you don't know how it ends before you write your story, how can you know what events are needed to get to that end? How will your story make sense? Your story must have a logic to it. Even if it's science fiction or fantasy, it must follow the rules of the world you create. But maybe the most important question is: How will you know what to foreshadow? Foreshadowing is one of the most effective techniques for creating suspense. Without suspense, your story will fall flat.”
Makes sense I guess. I know I tend to build my stories after I’ve discovered who my characters are and then create their situation based on their personalities. Some times it’s the other way around. I think I write under the “Chaos Theory of Abstrusion’.
Here is something else that makes perfect sense. You can’t build a house without a blueprint and you can’t arrive at a destination with out a map. Outlining is also important to writing well. An exception to this was Margaret Mitchell, she did not outline “Gone With the Wind” but started with her last chapter first and worked backwards chapter by chapter. It’s easier to re-write an outline than a first draft.
Now I’ve created a conundrum for myself, I have a story started and I have no clue what is going to happen in the end. Think I should go back to the end and figure it out !.
I also liked this:
“The short story is the universal school for fiction writers. Short stories teach writers how a story works. Because they are short, the author can study the piece from beginning to end.”
I hope this might be of assistance to some people out there who are looking for some writing hints. After all, we learn by sharing, I guess we teach that way also.
~A~noviciate in the school of fiction.