I’d like to discuss the notion of “beginning with the end in mind” in general terms before applying the concept to the writing of fiction. In my last post, I discussed writing goals, and in the process of articulating and working towards a goal, we “begin with the end in mind”, as we foresee a future event and then steer our actions towards it. In its humble website, Bovina Elementary School relates the concept of “beginning at the end” to how-to tasks and applies the idea to cooking, navigating, and to playing a puzzle.
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| Photo by PXFuel |
When we read a recipe before cooking a meal, look at a map before driving, and review a picture before creating a puzzle, we are “beginning with the end in mind”. In these examples, readers are reading the materials about the end, conceptualizing the information, and then producing a result. In these examples, writers enable readers to successfully follow a process to the desired end; the writers themselves began with the end in mind before they designed the process for the readers to follow.
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| Photo by PXFuel |
Imagine the result if the writers of these recipes, maps, and puzzles neglected to consider the end!? If they just threw out a process that led nowhere, readers would be eating something awful, getting lost on the road, and missing those puzzle pieces forever! Writers of how-to tasks “begin at the end” just as academic writers do when composing thesis statements. In its ever-resourceful Writing Lab, Purdue Owl aptly alludes to the notion of beginning at the end when discussing the revision of a thesis statement, as does Shaun’s nicely-presented YouTube videos on essay writing.
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| Photo by PXFuel |
“Begin with the end in mind” relates to the construction of various non-fiction texts, and I suspect that the concept is equally important in the writing of fiction. The outlines that I wrote for my first novella, I wrote after I composed and edited the first chapters of the text. After my last chapter was written, I wanted to rewrite the first chapters, in light of the last chapter, but I didn’t want to throw away all of that text! Anyway, it wasn’t an efficient or effective method. With this second novella, I am writing first and second drafts of the outline and am moving into varied drafts of storyboarding too, which I will discuss in more detail in my next blog.