Hot take: My whole character arc was backwards for 3 years

I kept starting my fantasy story at the moment the hero gets the call to adventure. Then I read a prompt challenge over on the Scribble forum that forced me to write the "boring" town life first for 5000 words. It made the hero's sacrifice hit way harder because I actually saw what he was leaving behind. Anyone else find that front-loading the ordinary world makes the stakes stick better?

2 comments

2 Comments

robert_smith3628d ago

Did you try doing that backwards thing where you just drop hints of the ordinary world through flashbacks during the action? I did that once and it felt clunky cause the reader already knew the hero was leaving, so the flashbacks felt like filler. How many words did you spend on the town before the call came in?

perry.karen28d ago

I spent about 2,000 words on the town before the call came in. My beta readers said the flashbacks felt like stalling too, so I cut them down to just three quick memories during the action scenes. One was a smell from the diner, one was the sound of the church bells, and the last was a joke the hero's dad told. That way the reader got the hint of normal life without sitting through a whole scene. It still felt a little forced, but it worked better than dumping all that detail upfront.