Found a way to beat writers block by writing the ending first on a sticky note

I was stuck on a fantasy story for like two weeks. Every time I sat down to write chapter one, I just stared at a blank screen. Then I tried something different. I wrote the final line of the whole story on a yellow sticky note and put it on my monitor. That gave me a target to aim for. Suddenly I knew what every scene needed to lead toward. It worked way better than any outline I ever tried. Has anyone else used a backwards approach like that to get unstuck?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma_taylor4713d ago

Did you find it easier to write the scenes knowing the ending was fixed, or did it make you feel boxed in and unable to change direction? I'm curious if that final line ended up staying exactly the same once you actually got there. Would that work for something like a mystery where the ending needs to be a surprise?

kellyjones13d ago

See it the other way actually. Knowing the ending ahead of time gave me more freedom to play in the middle, not less. You can layer in clues and red herrings deliberately instead of scrambling to make something fit later. For a mystery that's basically essential, otherwise your reveal feels tacked on. That final line for me shifted a tiny bit in the wording but the core punch stayed the same because I built everything toward it. Feels like writing backward is the best way to keep a surprise from collapsing.

joel_hall1713d ago

Oh man, I read this whole thing by James Scott Bell about plotting backwards and it clicked for me. He calls it the "hook, build, payoff" method - you figure out the big moment first, then work your way back to the setup. I tried it on a short story last month and it was way easier than my usual pantsing. The red herrings actually made sense because I knew exactly where they needed to point. Plus I didn't have to rewrite half the thing when I realized my original ending didn't match the clues I'd already dropped. Sounds like you found the same thing with that final line - building backward keeps the surprise from feeling like a cheap trick.