The End Is Just The Beginning by Mary Dutta

Sometimes a story begins at the end.

Not usually for me. When I write a story, I start at the beginning and develop the plot until I reach a satisfying conclusion, usually one with a twist.

Other writers do it differently. Some write the ending they want, then craft a story to get them there. Some start with an inspired bit of dialogue and build a story around it. Some have a scene in mind, then work out the story that best supports it.

A recent local news story, though, gave me an end complete with a twist. A motorist reported a pickup truck parked on the side of the road, driver’s door open and engine running. When the police arrived to investigate, they followed drag marks from the pickup bed into the woods where they discovered two bodies, a man and a woman.

I could easily imagine a scenario where a murderer wants to dispose of his victims where they wouldn’t be found. But how to explain the idling truck? Did a co-conspirator spirit away the driver, leaving the truck because it could be traced to him or her? Why leave it running then, rather than abandoning it in the woods? Did another car come along, causing the body dumper to leap into his partner-in-crime’s vehicle and flee? Or did that other car contain an inadvertent witness, whom the criminal then forced to drive away at gunpoint to be disposed of?

Further investigation of the real-life incident revealed that the woman had been strangled. The police believe that the man found with her had killed her and intended to hide her body in the woods. Only he had a heart attack and died while executing his plan, never to return to the truck he had left running to make his escape.

Now that’s a real-life plot twist, one that has inspired me to begin writing a story at the end for a change. I know who died and how, now it’s up to my imagination to lead the reader back to the beginning.

 
How important are beginnings and endings in your own reading and writing?