Writing.Com General Discussion

I don't think starting a book with the ending needs to be a taboo, necessarily. Certainly, if you are doing it just because your beginning is boring, than something is wrong. But I think that scenario sets the stage for an even bigger problem: If you can't make the beginning of the story interesting, what is to say you will have any more success with the ending?

But I think there are some opportunities available to a writer who chooses to start the story with the ending. Beyond the fact the reader will want to figure out how the characters came to that point, you get to play with the reader's expectations by showing them a scene out of context, then gradually changing their minds about what they were looking at. I can see it being a particularly advantageous technique if you were going for a twist ending.

I don't mean to endorse starting a story with the ending. I'm not particularly attracted to the idea of doing that, but at the same time, I can't get behind the idea that it could never work.

As to the original question, I'd say Zen has the right idea. If you want to pick up the pace, start the story with the character doing something. The character could be going to pick up protection money or shake someone down. Maybe he's got to straighten some one out. The great thing about the Mafia genre is that your soldier is probably operating in the city where he grew up, or at least made his bones. There is plenty of opportunity for you to slip his background in to the story. Maybe the place he's going to collect protection is a shop he used to play near when he was a kid, or around the block from where he did the "hit" that later got him "made."

Any work that the protagonist is doing will give you a chance to tell the reader about the world in which he functions. After he picks up the shake down money, maybe he has to bring it to his Capo, who has been paranoid lately because the Russians are moving in on his territory. This is how you can begin to unfold your plot and draw the reader in to your story

I would just be sure to have a clear understanding of who your protagonist is, and who you mean for them to become by the end of the story. Then get busy getting them into trouble.

Anyway, I hope that is helpful.

-James