[Cool Trick!] The Reverse Fixer-Upper

From Pristine to Bloodstained – How Fallout Breaks Its Heroine to Keep Us Transfixed

One of my favorite stories from the 7FF book revolves around realizing I was a fixer-upper after my usually egalitarian husband made the unilateral decision to buy a fixer-upper in California.

Well, here’s the thing—we had the exact opposite experience after our big move to Florida. Back in 2021, our three kids told us no more moving after my husband and I got restless (and cold) in Maryland. So we did three things:

1. Negotiated them down to moving just once more to Orlando, the cheapest and most progressive city we could find without a winter.

2. Promptly started referring to our three daughters as The Union, even to strangers we’d barely met.

3. Set out to find a house that was the opposite of a fixer-upper.

Since we were only looking within our price range and three school districts, this house only had to meet two conditions:

1. It was completely turnkey: ready to move in with no work required on our part.

2. All five of us agreed we could stand to live there for a decade. (As a family who once took over two hours to agree on a 90-minute movie, we’ve learned to value general consensus over individual wants.)

Lucky for us, we found exactly one house that fit the bill on the single day we allotted to looking. We put in the offer, and less than two months later, my family was moving to Florida while I stayed behind in Maryland for a week before joining them (sigh, pre-order deadline).

But over the last four years, we’ve done several things to make the house ours. The walls are covered with an eclectic mix of photos, posters, memorabilia, and my youngest twin’s paintings. Inspired by Vanessa Vale, who told me she only uses her desk for admin and writes in a comfy recliner¹, I installed a power recliner in one corner of our primary bedroom.

The fridge was promptly wallpapered in magnets from our travels. Every room that doesn’t have a toilet or fridge now hosts a bookshelf. Do not even get me started on what the cats have done to all the pretty furniture.

In other words, we’ve turned this perfect, turnkey house into something that fits our ramshackle family.

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Standard Fixer-Uppers Vs. Reverse Fixer-Uppers

When we talk about Standard Fixer-Uppers, it’s often about characters who need fixing so they can become the idealized version of themselves:

• The Beast, who learns to love unselfishly.

• The bosshole, who learns to treat his assistant like a human being and treasure them as a life partner.

• The spoiled socialite, who learns to pave her own way.

• The selfish criminal, who learns to put others first.

The list of bad to good character arcs goes on and on, which is why a Reverse Fixer-Upper character can be so much fun to write.

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Famous Reverse Fixer-Uppers:

• Michael Corleone (The Godfather): The golden Ivy League son at the beginning of the film Reverse Fixer-Uppers into the ruthless head of a mafia family by the end of the book and film.

• Princesses Who Become Mafia Queens: The romance heroine starts off as a sweet woman with standard morals but eventually becomes the ruthless queen her mafia husband needs by his side.

• Psychological Dramas like Beef: A clean, privileged protagonist who unravels her life to become who she truly is—even if who she truly is isn’t the perfect mother, wife, or #girlboss.

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Fallout is a master class in the Reverse Fixer-Upper. Without spoiling too much, here are some takeaways we can use in our own writing:

1. Boundaries: The aggressively pretty and clean MC spends the first half of the series stating righteous boundaries—only to cross all those lines she’s drawn in the sand, one by one, in the second half.

2. The Imperfect After Picture:
   In my course, I teach the importance of creating Before Pictures in your beginning to make for impactful After Pictures at the end of your story.

Prime Visual Example:

If Cinderella starts off as a lowly single maid in a plain dress:

She ends as a married princess in a sparkling wedding gown

A Reverse Fixer-Upper flips this. Fallout begins with ultra-pretty Ella in a pristine wedding dress. And by the end—well, without spoiling the ending, let’s just say there’s dirt and blood. Lots and lots of dirt and blood. Speaking of which…

3. Knowledge and Dirt:
   I loved how this series used dirt as both a physical and symbolic marker of transformation. The heroine starts out pure and mentally innocent but gets dirtier—both literally and metaphorically—as the story progresses.
   

What “dirt” or knowledge does your Reverse Fixer-Upper need to acquire?

• Sexual knowledge?

• Family truth bombs?

• Dystopian new-world rules?

And I especially love when characters run straight into stone walls of…

Hard and Fast Truths:

Soft lives are a myth in the mafia. You can’t live clean when you’re part of a criminal empire (The Godfather).

Unchecked ambition leads to self-destruction. Scarface’s rise is undone by his own indulgence and greed (Scarface).

Survival of the shrewdest. Sansa Stark learns that idolizing kings like Joffrey and leaving her fate to others will only hold her back, and by the end of the series, she becomes a cynical and hardened power player (Game of Thrones).

Play selfish games; win selfish prizes. When Walter White begins making self-serving choices, his empire crumbles. His Before Picture is a loving family he’ll do anything to care for. His After Picture is him dying alone on a warehouse floor (Breaking Bad).

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Breaking Down the Reverse Fixer-Upper

The Reverse Fixer-Upper isn’t about breaking your character for the sake of it. It’s about breaking them open—letting dirt, truth, and hard-earned knowledge transform them into who they were meant to be—even if that character isn’t the nicest person ever.

Whether it’s Michael Corleone stepping into his father’s shoes or Fallout’s Ella facing down a new storyline with a head full of knowledge and bloodstained threads, the Before and After of a Reverse Fixer-Upper feels hard-earned.

Just remember: Whatever kind of character you’re writing, ensuring that they have a compelling Before Picture in the beginning is key to creating an ending that your readers never forget.

“Nosedive” is one of the BEST, most cited episodes of the anthology series, Black Mirror, and an AWESOME example of the Reverse Fixer Upper.

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Ready to Write Your Next Unforgettable Transformation?

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• Bestseller Magic (Universal Fantasy™ Course): On sale through January! Learn how to create characters and situations that addict readers and make them clamor for more.

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Have you ever pulled off a Reverse Fixer-Upper for one of your characters? Let us know in the comments.

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1. Recliner Witch Note: We cover different kind of writers in Unit 1 of the Bestseller Magic course, but now that I’ve mostly eschewed pre-order deadlines, I happily identify as a Recliner Witch (with movement breaks every hour, of course).