Building Backwards

One of the more unusual aspects of writing and completing 'Hidden Legacy' was the idea that, although I've had the idea about the story for over six years, I began to craft the body of the story after blasting through the last chapter( Epilogue) in one amazing burst of late night frenetic energy. 

Actually,  the way I always write my best material is to 'hear' the dialogue in my head (usually when I'm walking, swimming or driving, the three best places to find yourself isolated and able to think). Once that happens, I race to find a spot where I can write it all down, then begin to refine and play it out. My family gets weirded out when I 'talk' through a story, but verbalizing it helps me understand the characters and the action, and makes the characters less two dimensional. 

Anyway, "Hidden Legacy' started as the Epilogue. I knew that's where the book had to begin--- with the ultimate confrontation. From there, it was easy to build backwards, blocking ideas, action and dialogue to create a flow that lead to those final few pages. You be the judge whether it came out all right.

One other advantage of doing things this way is, now you know how the book will end. That may sound silly, but all those of you who are stream-of-consciousness writers like I am know EXACTLY what I mean. After all, sometimes, we let our stories run in directions we hadn't anticipated. For me, that happened quite a few times in the course of building the different ideas. Good thing I was rooted in knowing, I have to get to this one point. Had I not, I may have given in to temptation and allowed myself to follow a completely different path.

It was the easiest part of the story to write. It was the most rewarding. And, as it turned out, it created a defined major character that I had no real trouble giving a  soul too. I'm very grateful it worked out this way.

What say you? Did the book deliver on its promise at the end, or not?