The Sequence of Your Writing...?

[Majyk]

Many of you know about the YWO Blog (http://sbsmag.wordpress.com/). I had an idea for another blog post, and I want to hear some other opinions before writing the post. So here's me asking for your help and creating a literary discussion at the same time. Mmm... anyway.

Have you ever written a scene that came in the middle/end of your novel/short story, and then went back to writing your current scene? I have. And in the novel that I'm editing, I'm rearranging different scenes as well, months after having written them. So I want to hear about if you've ever written a part of your story out of order. If you haven't, that's fine, too--tell me why you haven't. I just want some peoples' opinions/experiences here, please. ^^

[Bowie20049]

I do think up of scenes irregularly, but I don't write them down. After writing the beginning though, the scene changes to adapt to what I have already created while at the same time I create to get to that one scene. So both benefits.

[Carraka]

Until November 2007, I had always started where I had left off, going chronologically. I was writing EC. I would write the next scene, then I would post it, then read the feedback, then write the next scene. So on. After a while, I realized I didn't want to post EC anymore, but I kept going chronologically. Then I started NaNo, and everything went into hyperspeed. Soon I reached the dreaded traveling part. I had no idea what to put there, but I had a word count to meet. So I skipped it. After that, whenever I came to a part I couldn't write, I skipped it. Later when I came back to write those scenes, I ended up simply cutting that part out. Who needs traveling? Nobody! (I have three traveling chapters. x.x)

NaNo 08 - Started a new novel with minimal outlining. It was hard, but I went in order, skipping scenes. I figured I would go back to those scenes later, and write them. Then I ended up editing EC for the rest of year, and when I came back in

NaNo 09 - I realized that I had started the entire story in the wrong place. The previous year, I had written the second half, so for this year, I tried to write the first half. I didn't even bother trying to write chronologically. I thought of ideas for scenes, and then I wrote them. I decided I would figure out where the scenes went later. Granted, this works easier for the new novel because I work with four different POVs. Whenever something uninteresting is happening with one POV you can simply skip to another. On the very last day, I skipped to a scene in book two, and wrote that, because it contained my favorite character, who hardly features/features differently in the first book.

And that's how it is now. I have a mess of scenes, no beginning, and no end. The good thing I can say about this system is that -- at least I met my word count for all three NaNos. I trust my mind to work it out in the end. Besides, it's amusing to be thus challenged.

-goes back to procrastinating-


I edit chronologically, though when I get to a part I don't like, often I go back to an earlier part and make that part even better. But I never skip forward.

[Lykaios]

I have never written any prose fiction in chronological order. Even short stories. The one I'm working on now has come to me in bits, and the one I wrote at Christmas for the comp was almost written backwards.

Sometimes I'll start at the begining, and go from there, then get stuck or can't be bothered to do research fro a certain part and skip it, going on to something else, and come back later when I have time to research, etc. My novel, Hamartia, has more holes than a seive, and with the amazing Scrivener, I can see exactly what and where I need to fill things in - it's utterly brilliant. I have most of the begining written, some of the middle, and a fair part of the end, but I'm finding that what I'm writing for later parts sometimes means I need to change earlier parts . . . Editing, will definitely be done in chronological order to riddle out inconsistencies and the bits I forgot to change, etc.

I've tried writing chronologically, though, but it never works for me, and I marvel at those who it does work for. Stories never come to me fully formed, so I write the parts that my mind goes over and over like a film, sort-of, and then I think about something else.

Though, as to whether it works or not, I haven't actually finished anything longer than 10k . . . so maybe there's a lesson there that maybe I should try keeping to chronological writing . . . who knows?

[Spacepirate]

I write in order.

But I think things out of order. I might have an ending, or think up a couple scenes before I even start. If they're any good, I usually jot them down somewhere and just wait till I reach those parts.

If I reach a part where I'm stuck, I'm stubborn so I never move onto other parts.

[Majyk]

I write in order.

But I think things out of order. I might have an ending, or think up a couple scenes before I even start. If they're any good, I usually jot them down somewhere and just wait till I reach those parts.

If I reach a part where I'm stuck, I'm stubborn so I never move onto other parts.

That's almost exactly what I do. Especially the being stubborn part. I'm stuck right now and I refuse to skip this part. That's why I wrote about 500 words in total last week. xD

[Alice Glitterhorn]

Yeah, I get stuck, and don't move on because then I'm afraid I won't finish. And then I don't finish anyway :P

And I am constantly writing scenes and thoughts down that I want to use later, but they almost never end up getting into my story. >.> I'm terribly inconsistent.

[Iridescence]

I have this thing where I feel like if I don't get through the beginning, the rest of the story won't come to me, because I think up the story as I go along. Then, as the story continues to make itself apparent to me, I go back and change things in my beginning. Occasionally as I'm writing, I might get a flash of a scene that doesn't happen until much later, but I have no idea where it would fit because I haven't gotten there yet. Sometimes I do write out of order, though, like when I might think up a scene where I'm introducing a character, and I feel the need to get that out.

Generally, though, I don't write out of order. If I don't have the beginning, or at least the scenes around the beginning, the rest of the story sort of flops.

[miss_smiley]

It depends entirely on the story - some of my stories, the unplanned ones, mainly, are completely through-written. The ones that I do plan, though, tend to be written in chunks, with the biggest moments being the usually the third section I work on - so I have an idea of just who the characters are and how they really operate, so I don't bungle everything up. But that way, I can come back later and edit them before putting them into the actual novel-word-document thingy.
Also, I find it much more interesting and it keeps the story fresh and interesting to me - otherwise I'd give up on it and leave it to gather dust.

[Jaraix]

I usually fill in the plot lines with a couple of footnotes should a scene pop up in between, and keep going on until the end. Especially for earlier drafts, where I'm gunning more for the end, and where changes in the later chapters tends to wonk up the overall story. Still, the next pass is fairly linear, going along and filling major/missing scene changes.

One reason I prefer writing chronologically is because a fair bit of unplanned interaction, thoughts and feelings tend to surface as the pages go along, which then changes the content in which the later chapters occur. So, to save myself the trouble of endless minor modifications, I usually write in chronological order. On the other hand, pressing on to link the story up with the next important scene resulted in meandering and un-noteworthy chapters in between that mostly got scrapped. That's the flip side I've encountered.

The only exception was when I had my previous draft somewhere else :glare:, and I decided to move on.

[Weirdside]

Ted Chiang writes the random scene way. I tried it, and it does help to break writer's block, but I write best when I just sit down and go.