Reverse Engineering For Writers

Feeling stuck in your story? Waffling about? Reverse Engineering For Writers might do the trick! You can learn about it in this post.

Reverse Engineering For Writers

Procrastination isn’t the only thing that can keep you from being a successful writer. You can be busy as a bee and still write yourself into a corner. This is what happens: We write and write but the story isn’t going anywhere. We’re waffling. We have no idea how to reach the end. Sound familiar?

Here’s what I do: I reverse engineer the story. I imagine the end first. I take it from there. Say what?

Flannery O’Connor described the process like this:

‘Try arranging [your novel] backwards and see what you see. I thought this stunt up from my art classes, where we always turn the picture upside down, on its two sides, to see what lines need to be added. A lot of excess stuff will drop off this way.’

That’s reverse engineering! It’s a great way to tackle problems. Let’s look at this a bit more closely.

Read: 7 Extremely Good Reasons To Write The Ending First

What Exactly Is Reverse Engineering?

If the word ‘reverse engineering’ sounds all technical to you, then that’s because it is. It’s a problem-solving technique that is extremely goal-oriented.

Wikipedia defines it as ‘a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accomplishes a task with very little (if any) insight into exactly how it does so.’

What writers need to take away from this is that reverse engineering is deductive thinking starting with the finished product (your story) and going back until you reach the beginning.

What It Means In Creative Writing

Think like this: the final scene of your story is what your readers have been waiting for. This is the starting point of your reasoning. Now, you need to ask yourself: What needs to have happened in the scene right before the end to make that ending possible (and credible)?

Pay attention to the following things when you analyse your final scene:

1. The Events

What happens in the final scene? This is the logical conclusion to something that happened before that outcome. So, what could require that final scene to take place?

2. The Conflict

The final scene is meant to be the resolution of a conflict. This can be either happy or sad. So, if you think about the scene before the finale, how does that enable the conflict to be resolved in the way you want it?

3. The Characters

Who takes part in the events of the ending? Where were the characters right before that? Did they need to gather information or things, did they have to learn a skill or make an experience for the ending to happen? That’s what could go into the scene right before the ending.

4. The Setting

That’s perhaps the easiest to reverse engineer. If your hero rides off into the sunset at the end, then the sun needs to rise sometime before that, right? Your hero needs to have been somewhere before he can ride off. So, think about where your grand finale takes place, and then explain how your characters got there.

Once you’ve written your final scene and the scene before that, you can repeat this process all the way to your very first scene. Write down whatever your story needs to reach the end. 

Is Reverse Engineering Just For Novels?

No. You can use it for any text. Journalists use it all the time. You can also use it for short stories, for flash fiction, and even for poetry!

Reverse engineering is very successful at producing goal-oriented story arcs, fictional or not.

Which Type Of Writing Benefits Most?

Reverse engineering your plot is a must if you want to write a detective novel. Why? Because in this genre, the normal story arc is reversed. In crime stories, we don’t see a conflict evolving. We don’t see it rise. We don’t wait for the resolution. This type of story starts with the culmination of a conflict (the murder, for example) and then the detective and the author take the readers along through it all. The whole story arc is an example of reverse engineering!

Writers of detective stories need to reverse engineer, too. When they look at the final scene, then they examine the villain. They need to go back through the story and plan meticulously why the villain did what, when, where, and how. They need to plant seeds of doubt, red herrings, and leave clues. If they don’t reverse engineer, their story ends up in a big mess.

But you can use reverse engineering for any type of story and any genre. You can use it to create your complete plotline. Or, you can use it for that one tricky scene. Use it any time you feel you need focus.

But I’m Just Not A Plotter!

Wonderful! It’s the pantsers who enjoy writing so much that they get easily side-tracked (or even lost in the woods). If you then find it hard to think in a straight line from beginning to end, if you tend to lose your focus, then it’s high time you reverse engineer.

It’s the plotters who don’t need to reverse engineer all that much. Their thinking is analytical and linear by nature. They will get from the inciting moment to the midpoint and then the grand finale much easier. Maybe plotters are natural reverse engineers? I don’t know. I’m a pantser!

There are many ways to plot a story. But whenever you lose that focus, reverse engineering will get you back on track. It will help you reach that final scene and give your readers a satisfying story arc.

The Last Word

Reverse Engineering can help you grow as a writer, too. When you read your favourite book, try to reverse-engineer it. How did the author accomplish this masterful piece? How did they create an effect? What structure did they use? What language? Any particular stylistic devices? What did the writer do to become your favourite author?

I’m sure you’ll find out many things that can inspire your own writing.

Happy engineering!

By Susanne Bennett. Susanne is a German-American writer who is a journalist by trade and a writer by heart. After years of working at German public radio and an online news portal, she has decided to accept challenges by Deadlines for Writers. Currently she is writing her first novel with them. She is known for overweight purses and carrying a novel everywhere. Follow her on Facebook.

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