Finding the Main Event

Recently on the ScriptNotes podcast entitled My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend’s Screenwriter, Mike Birbiglia, a writer, director, performer, and creator of "Sleepwalk With Me" shared a very good insight about creating a story. Often, in writing, the suggestion is to start with your ending so that you know where you are going.

Mike said:

...is finding a main event that the whole film or play builds towards. And if that main event is interesting enough, all you have to do is build backwards to it so that secretly, as a writer, your little trick is that you know that no one has any idea that where you’re going is pretty fascinating.