Fill in the answer and reverse engineer

I was on a Zoom session which included a highly successful novelist and I complimented her on presenting impossible situations in her stories and then, just when the reader has given up all hope of any good outcome, a plot twist--in her case, always believable and based on what could actually happen in the real world--produced an amazingly great result. 

She responded, "Hey, the best novelists frequently, or maybe always, come up with the desired outcome first, then the plot twist, and finally all the unfortunate events that lead up to the necessity for the plot twist." And she smiled, having revealed that creative storytelling secret.

I was dumbfounded. Of course! Makes complete sense. That is exactly how I analyze real world conflict that has resulted in violence; how can I use real world examples--sometimes stitched together in a pattern that I can see fitting well--to create a nonviolent path to transformation from destructive conflict to nonviolent constructive conflict?

Or, as my great-uncle, an accountant and tax expert, told my father when my Dad asked him a tough tax question, "Just go to the line that says, 'amount owed,' fill in $0 and figure backwards."

Yes, my honest professional great-uncle was sort of kidding, but reverse-engineering best solutions to tough destructive conflicts is not only possible in theory--I literally help my students do that on the regular--but it works in the real world, on the ground. 

Nonviolent Peaceforce is arguably the most robust and forward-thinking, best-practicing unarmed civilian protection organization in existence. The executive director, who was on the ground in several countries doing that work for more than a decade, writes, "building and recovering the relationships, connections and trust to engage all stakeholders in choosing relationships over weapons and peace over violence," (Easthom, 2021, p. 269) is how they overcome all threats to the human connections that appear when they deploy to hot conflict zones in places like South Sudan, Syria, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

They have a desired outcome that never changes--unarmed public and private safety and security, no matter where. This inspiring work is fueled by that commitment to result and to the collective creative process required to achieve it, no matter how many plot twists are necessary.

References

Easthom, T. (2021). Community Resiliency, Conflict, and COVID-19. Peace Review, 33(2), 263–269. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1080/10402659.2021.1956134