LA
Author
LATRAME
@latrame
You know the ending from page one. He's going to die. It's there in black and white, line one.
And yet you read the three hundred pages that follow. Why ?
Because a story doesn't hold only on its "what next ?". It also holds on "but how ?", "but why ?", "at what moment did it tip over ?". Starting from the end isn't giving up suspense. It's changing its nature : you're no longer watching for the event, you're watching its mechanism.
Some of the greatest stories are built this way. You're shown the body, then time runs backward. The tension doesn't come from what will happen, you know that, but from the weight piling up on every page, because every smile, every promise, you already know what they lead to.
And yet you read the three hundred pages that follow. Why ?
Because a story doesn't hold only on its "what next ?". It also holds on "but how ?", "but why ?", "at what moment did it tip over ?". Starting from the end isn't giving up suspense. It's changing its nature : you're no longer watching for the event, you're watching its mechanism.
Some of the greatest stories are built this way. You're shown the body, then time runs backward. The tension doesn't come from what will happen, you know that, but from the weight piling up on every page, because every smile, every promise, you already know what they lead to.