Editor: Try starting your story at the end

It’s New Year’s Eve, a day of looking back at the year that was before celebrating the beginning of a new one.

So what better writing advice to share than thoughts on endings and beginnings?

Joe Ponepinto, a novelist and literary-journal editor, often sees manuscripts in which the author writes about the events leading up to one climactic occasion.

Logical, yes, but engaging? Not always, he says — and suggests that authors consider flipping that process by starting with the dramatic event and exploring how, in retrospect, such a thing could occur.

Read more about Ponepinto’s idea of beginning your story with the ending on Jane Friedman’s blog.

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