The heading of this entry is a piece of advice I read somewhere, maybe in The Writer’s Digest or one of the other numerous writing books I wade through in free moments. I’ve found it to be true in fiction, but also in non-fiction.
It’s easy to see how starting near the end in a fictional work creates action, tension, suspense, and allows for telling of large parts of a story through fragmented memory or conversation. In other words, the story gets good fast.
But in non-fiction — especially the technical programming works I write and edit — there’s a tendency to start at the VERY BEGINNING all the time. I fall prey to this in particular, always worried that my readers are not following me. But “Start as close to the end as you can” has to go hand in hand with “Trust your readers to be smart.” If we start further along, and go deep quickly — in fiction or non-fiction — we’re trusting our readers to be smart. And we’re trusting our explanations to be sound.
I think about all the advice in literature to avoid “said-isms”, things like “Oh my God,” she shrilled, or “I can’t believe it,” he exclaimed. It’s bad writing, using “shrilled” and “exclaimed” and all these other replacements for a simple “he said” and “she said.” But more important, it says “I didn’t do a good enough job with dialogue, and/or you’re too stupid to know how my characters are talking.”
But don’t we do the same with programming? Can’t even a novice understand if/else (if this thing is true, do something. Else do some other thing) without a detailed two-page windy road? Can’t our simple two-sentence explanation speak for itself?
It better be able to. Otherwise, let’s quit and go work at Starbucks (which would be great for the free coffee, but methinks not so great for the paycheck).
Interesting … I’m a developer and have contemplated writing some fiction for years! How’s the novel going … any chance I could get a “sneak peek”?!!
Scott
October 18th, 2007