E Ellis Allen (girlonstilts.com)

It’s the age-old question without a definite answer: What came first, the chicken or the egg? But what if the question should be, what do you plan on doing with the chicken? Or is it the eggs you need—because knowing what they’re for changes everything.

Recently, I realized that knowing the outcome and working backward to achieve it is a way to success.

In Psychology, the term is Backward Induction, where one starts at the end and works backward, creating strategic decisions that lead to a desired outcome.

In business, it’s called Backwards Planning, where the result is established, and all steps are dissected and executed in reverse order, with the goal always kept present.

And in writing? I’ve seen it referred to as Adapting Backwards, which is what I’ve done. I took a screenplay I wrote and turned it into a novel, which is almost always done in the exact opposite (turning a book into a screenplay).

So why make my story longer when the key concept in all screenplays is brevity?

In novel writing circles, authors are generally put into two camps: the Pantsers (as in writing by the seat of their pants, no plan, just zeal) or Outliners (people who create the story’s skeleton before they dress it up in ball gowns). I consider myself a Pantser.

I write from an idea and build a story around it—whatever comes to mind. The good thing about writing this way is that I feel unencumbered, the sky’s the limit. I’m excited and inspired. I get my kicks from adrenaline spikes whenever two concepts just happen to intersect in the storyline. Hooray!

The bad thing about approaching stories this way is that I’m often untethered. There are millions of possibilities for any element within a story idea. I get overwhelmed. I get bored and struggle to maintain momentum or make connective threads between characters, plots, and subplots. Boo!

I’m a repeat offender of this and have done almost everything I can to remedy it—short story turned novel. The novel turned into a short story. I’ve outlined, got caught in all sorts of story webs and joined lightning-speed writing sprints like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: 50K words in 30 days—actually, I’ve achieved this eight times). Still, I have shelf after shelf of unfinished novels and semi-novels hidden inside protective white plastic 3-ring binders in my office–where they will not see the light of day. Why?  

Because the concept of my story is strong, however, the story ends up lacking clear concepts. See? Chicken meet egg.

It wasn’t until I joined a screenwriting group that I finally wrote a novel that felt finished.

Screenwriting forces brevity. The story is whittled down to only the most pertinent parts within one hundred pages (depending on the genre). And that’s not the hardest part!

Add to this, the competition is vast. Everyone and their well-heeled hound has a written screenplay, which they peddle on social media. Which means, every script I write must be so intriguing that the reader can’t put it down and read it in one sitting. Yikes! Egg, this is the chicken I was talking about…

What’s worse is that to get it in front of someone who can turn those stories into a movie, I must captivate a reader within the first ten pages—sometimes even by the first page before it goes anywhere but the bottom of the trash can. So why on earth would I decide to write more pages for a novel?

I realized that my screenplay could be used as a full-fledged, well-thought-out muse. It’s an outline with all the fanfare and excitement that inspires the Pantser living inside me.

As a bonus, because of all the work I put into creating the story via screenplay form, I was able to write a well-formed novel in months, not years.

Going the novel route, I can delve deeper into my characters and develop people and scenes I had to cut in the name of screenplay concision. Plus, writing a novel gives me Intellectual Property rights and another avenue to get my work out there.

It feels like a win-win! I’ll have the chicken sandwich, please!

So, as you go out there, ready to crack a few eggs, consider adaption, adopt a backwards thinking mindset to shape your narrative with purpose and foresight. You just might be happy you did!

Share your thoughts about your creative process in the comments below!

Here’s a link to my Logline for my Screenplay: https://girlonstilts.com/2024/01/31/where-wolves-are/