Reorient your story���s plot by shadow staging
One variation 
of developing a story is to present a crucial event���s consequences rather than directly telling or showing it. Using this approach is called shadow staging, a term coined by Cambridge SF Workshop creator Steve Popkes.
An excellent example of shadow staging is the novel and motion picture ���Sophie���s Choice,��� by William Styron (Warning: plot spoilers ahead). The story, set in 1947, examines the seemingly inexplicable behavior of a Polish woman named Sophie and her Jewish lover, Nathan, as seen through the eyes of a writer named Stingo. Nathan is a self-medicating paranoid schizophrenic, but the cause of Sophie���s actions is a dark secret that she reveals near the book���s end ��� the Nazis forced her to choose which one of her two children would be gassed. The consequences of this tragic event leaves her an alcoholic and deeply depressed.
To a large degree, shadow staging creates a mystery that needs to be resolved; in the case of ���Sophie���s Choice,��� Stingo, and by consequence the reader, want to learn what brings a beautiful woman like Sophie to become alcoholic and depressed. If that secret were revealed in the story���s opening (as it���s the out-of-whack event that transforms Sophie) then we���d have quite a different tale, specifically one in which Stingo and the reader want to see how she comes to terms with this tragedy by ending her self-guilt and addiction to the bottle.
Hence, use of the technique largely depends upon the type of story you want to tell. Arguably, since most stories present the out-of-whack event in the opening paragraphs and the rest of the tale focuses on overcoming it, reorienting that inciting incident offers the advantage of being a more unique and (at least during the opening days of such a writing trend) interesting story. A significant challenge for the author using shadow staging ��� like a mystery writer who presents a crime that must be solved ��� is to not reveal the secret too early but to leave enough clues that allows for the secret to be believable.
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