Do you guys like when a story tells you the end from the get-go?

[Santaisblue]

Title

 

[Deleted member 266]

Title

Depends

 

[CarburetorThompson]

honestly hate them and flash forwards in general. It’s one of the biggest ways to kill my motivation to keep reading, why bother turning the page if I already know what’s going to happen?

 

[Empress_Omnii]

It can be pulled off okay..? I suppose it works better when only revealing a few arcs ahead for slow novels. But I can't recall any that are significantly improved with the extra knowledge.

 

[l8rose]

I'm indifferent but when it's done right, it's fantastic.

The movie "Fallen" does this and it's just so good. "I wanna tell you about the time I almost died..."

 

[fcures]

I'm indifferent but when it's done right, it's fantastic.

The movie "Fallen" does this and it's just so good. "I wanna tell you about the time I almost died..."

I don't think he meant like that. Something more like telling the future plots like a wizard telling the future from crystal ball and saying that a certain character will die and it happens in the future chapters.

 

[Valmond]

I'm indifferent but when it's done right, it's fantastic.

The movie "Fallen" does this and it's just so good. "I wanna tell you about the time I almost died..."

Now I wanna see this line.

“Let me tell you a story. A story about how I died, but then I lived!”

 

[cabbag3]

Meh. Sometimes I hate it even if it's done well, sometimes I like it even if it's shitty. My opinion is unreliable particularly on these kind stuff.

“Let me tell you a story. A story about how I died, but then I lived!”

Sounds like the opening line of a movie adaptation of a YA novel. Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl vibes.

 

[Nolff]

Meh. Sometimes I hate it even if it's done well, sometimes I like it even if it's shitty. My opinion is unreliable particularly on these kind stuff.


Sounds like the opening line of a movie adaptation of a YA novel. Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl vibes.

Everyone has a standard, some has double, and this mf got triple standard holyyy

 

[deweyan]

I like it more when it's somewhere around the start of the story, I just love having the sensation of wonder and exploring the ins and outs of the story alongside the protagonist at the same pace.

 

[Tsuru]

honestly hate them and flash forwards in general. It’s one of the biggest ways to kill my motivation to keep reading, why bother turning the page if I already know what’s going to happen?

Yep.

Now I wanna see this line.

“Let me tell you a story. A story about how I died, but then I lived!”

And its why its immersion breaking.
Bc its 4th wall breaking in a serious way.

And well, immersion is one big factor for some novels.

 

[ElijahRyne]

Title

Depends, seriously depends. If you can pull it off it will elevate your work higher than before, if not it becomes extremely boring. Most of the time you need a mystery to pull it off though.

 

[JayMark]

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Some stories did it well. One of the most famous plays literally tells you the ending in the prologue

 

[CharlesEBrown]

USUALLY I hate it. Every once in a while it pays off - and I remember one story that seemed to give away the ending but really gave away the mid-point, and shifted from past tense with occasional present tense asides by the narrator to present tense when the action hit the point the first paragraph - may even have been the first sentence - gave away. Don't remember what it was (this was, maybe, thirty years ago), but the way it was pulled off stayed with me, even if the story did not.

 

[Valmond]

View attachment 35623

Alright fellas, this local beef is speaking madness!

 

[Alski]

Depends how much of the "ending" we get.

 

[BouncyCactus]

Generally, no, but there are some that did it really well. The one that sticks with me is Halo Reach~

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Ah, the movie Fallen, I think it was, did this well - with the narrator saying that this is the story of how he almost died or something like that in the opening scene...

Spoiler

then at the very end you discover that the villain is the narrator saying this, not the hero who almost beat him

 

[3guanoff]

I sometimes skip Chapter 0 or Chapter 1 for this reason. I would rather not know the end. However, it can be done well.

One of my favorite non-linear novels is Catch-22. This style is called "prolepsis". It was also not uncommon in ancient works.

A well-known example is "Wuthering Heights". Not personally my genre, but it is a classic.