Arriving at Creative Writing Solutions by Thinking Backwards - by jimgreen

Arriving at Creative Writing Solutions by Thinking Backwards - by jimgreen: "Here is a neat little trick I have employed all my life in resolving problems, in realizing goals, and finally as a tool for crafting fiction. I call it reverse plotting but it is in effect the act of thinking backwards to arrive at solutions.

I can best illustrate its power by showing you how I used it to create the basic storyline for my first novella…

I’d always wanted to have a crack at writing a murder mystery and in line with my policy of sticking to scenarios with which I am familiar I used the theatre as the setting for Beginners Please: Murder.

Now there is a world of difference between wanting to craft a mystery story and actually accomplishing it. I could have of course gone the route of pulling down a ready-made plot from the internet (there are hundreds freely available for download) but I wasn’t looking for an easy solution; I was determined to devise my own original outline.

All I had going for me when I started out was the concept of a repertory company based in a creaky old theatre in North Yorkshire during the late 1940s. The actor/manager is brutally murdered and the police narrow their suspects down to the youngest cast member. He is arrested on suspicion of homicide but one of the senior players in the company is convinced"