Working Backwards
I have not talked about writing lately. I'm sure this has been depressing as all get out for those of you who come seeking the crumbs of my authorial wisdom. So I'm going to give you what you crave: crumbs of authorial wisdom.
Currently I'm working on two books and a short story. This lesson is about the short story and a bad movie I recently watched. It was "The Lookout" and it starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Charming young Mr. Gordon-Leavitt. So good in Brick. You should watch that movie.
In "The Lookout" a blind Jeff Daniels teaches our brain-impaired narrator to start at the end of a story and think it backwards. This comes into play during the tense ending with the bank robbers. Only it wasn't tense because I didn't too much care whether any of them lived or died. Except for Jeff Daniels. I suspected he was going to die of embarrassment for having appeared in this film. And I felt for him.
My current difficulty with my short story is that I'm not enamored of the ending. I need to rewrite it. It occurred to me that it might be wise to rewrite the ending and then edit back, filling in dialogue and scenery to better fit the story's new conclusion. I don't propose to change everything, but I do think that a revised ending will necessitate some alterations to prior scenes.
So that's you lesson for today: mining bad films for good narrative advice. Try it!



