How to Write Your Book Backwards (Episode 144)

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to read a book backwards? What about writing your book backwards?

I know, you’re sitting there scratching your head wondering what this post is all about. Remember the movie memento? It was a unique way to tell a story, the way the story was told was powerful and effective.

It follows a man by the name of Leonard who is tracking down his wife’s killer. The only problem let her has is he cannot remember what happened more than 15 minutes ago. The movie starts at the end of the story and works its way backwards filling in the pieces until you have a complete story.

It may be difficult to try to write a book in this fashion, but one of the most effective ways to start writing is to begin at the end. Knowing how to begin your book is great, but what about your book’s overall message?

Would you write your book backwards before you start writing chapter one?

I want to give you five ways on how you can not only find your why and know how to start your book knowing where you’re going to end up when you type the words, the end.

1. You must find your why.

As with anything in life, knowing why we want to do something is half the battle. If you don’t understand why you want to write a book, you will never be able to write a single chapter let alone a single sentence.

To discover your why you must dig down deep inside your soul and ask yourself the question, why should I write this book? In other words, what is the purpose behind your desire to write the book? Your why is what inspires you to take action and to clarify your understanding of the purpose behind your book.

Take a minute and stop reading, pull out a piece of paper, and begin jotting down five of the reasons why this book should be written.

2. Who is your book for?

I know, it seems like a cliche to even ask this question. But one thing I have learned is if I don’t know who my book is being written for, I’m going to be writing for nobody.

Think about it this way, what sort of books do you like to read? When you pick up a book from the library or to purchase, you normally don’t think about the author thinking about you purchasing their book. However, the author did visualize you when they started writing their book.

One good way to visualize who you are writing for is to imagine what kind of individual will be purchasing your book. This person is called your avatar. As you begin writing, you are aiming for that individual knowing they will one day buy your book.

Go ahead, start visualizing and writing down who you want to buy your book. Once you know that, write it down, give them a name, and maybe even find a photograph of that individual to paste next to your computer.

3. What is your goal or message for writing a book?

When I write, I like to start with an overall message. What truth or concept am I trying to convey to the reader? For example, in my book Vengeance at Purgatory, my protagonist learned the lesson that vengeance belongs to the Lord.

Ted Dekker, in his book Rise of the Mystics, his message is trying to convey my God loves all people oh, no matter who they are or what they have done.

When you are writing you want to have a sense when the idea of what your overall goal and message is for your book. Without a goal or vision that you want the reader to walk away with, you’re just writing words into the wind.

Take a minute and write down the message you want to convey in the pages of your manuscript. For example, I wrote; the goal of Vengeance at Purgatory is to help the reader know that God will fight their battles no matter the storms that come rocking their life. My desire is for the reader to learn to trust God, seek His face, and know that The Battle Belongs to the Lord.

4. Be relevant.

It doesn’t matter if you are writing fiction or nonfiction, our goal is authors is to be relevant with our words so that the reader can understand. I encourage writers to be real and authentic so that the reader can identify with what the protagonist is going through or the message you are trying to convey.

Readers want to identify and relate. This is why it is so important for us to choose our words wisely so that our message does not get lost. If you find yourself getting lost when you write, that means you are not identifying with what you have written.

5. Write from the end.

Once we know our why, who our book is for, and what our message is, we can now begin the process of writing our story.

This is where the fun begins. At this point, you probably have a good idea of what your book is going to be about. Think through how you want your book to end and write down that idea. It really is that simple.

Once you know you’re ending, sit down and begin crafting and writing out that Final Chapter. Remember, it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect it just has to get done. If you are writing a nonfiction book, I encourage you to write your introduction first. This will give you an overall sense and feeling of how you want the message of your book to come across.

Writing your book backwards is simply knowing your why, your purpose, who your book was for and knowing how your overall idea is going to end. When you know you’re ending you can begin at the top and move in that direction.

Trust me, I just saved you years of fiddling around with a single idea.