Do you write your story sequentially?

MsGneiss · Jun 19, 2009

What I mean is, do you write the beginning first, the end last? Or do you approach it in bits and pieces as they come to you?

With my first WIP, I wrote the beginning first, the end second, and everything in between last. No outline there, as the plot was a bit loose. More about ideas and dialogue than action.

Current WIP is going a bit more sequential for me. I wonder if it's because a) I outlined it, and b) the story depends more on a sequence of events and actions, rather than dialogue.

How do you guys go about writing? Does it depends on the story, or do you always follow the same plan?

seun · Jun 19, 2009

I write sequentially. I may have an idea of the end soon after I start, but chances are it'll be different by the time I get there. Nothing wrong with that. It's half the fun.

Caramia · Jun 19, 2009

I do.

Think my main motivation with that is I feel there is more reward when I reach that point, like the center of the lollipop moment, gotta work for it! The more powerful the moment is for me, the more I can guide the words to have that same impact, or so I hope

The other reason is that even figuring out the ending, not having written it, the thrill to write to that point lessens a little. I gotta keep some surprise for myself so that I'm inspired to get there.

Hope my nonsensical rambles aren't too hard on you guys, *taps her head* it's running on empty.

Bufty · Jun 19, 2009

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142660

CaroGirl · Jun 19, 2009

My first two (firmly trunked) novels I wrote in bits and pieces and then stitched them together. The novels I've written since, I've written sequentially and I think they're better. I'm not sure whether they're better because I've simply improved my writing, or whether writing sequentially is the better method for me (I don't outline). Either way, I think I'll stick with sequential since it seems to be working.

Aggy B. · Jun 19, 2009

I write mostly in sequence. If I get stuck on a chapter or scene I will skip ahead to the next, come back when I figure out how to fix whatever was keeping me stuck.

I do write little paragraphs of later scenes if something that's totally not in my outline pops into my head. That way I don't forget it. If I still like it by the time I get to the corresponding scene/chapter then I keep it. If things have changed by that point I put it in the scrap folder.

This works for me. But I've done a bit of the skipping around approach a few times. It worked okay, just not as well as the sequential method.

gothicangel · Jun 19, 2009

Mainly; but if I get stuck I'll bookmark it as [missing scene] and move on to come back to it later.

NeuroFizz · Jun 19, 2009

Write sequentially? Usually but not always. And the initial order of scenes/chapters isn't always the final order. And sometimes new scenes/chapters are written and inserted after the first draft.

In this, like all other aspects of writing technique, a writer should be flexible--his/her heels shoudn't be so firmly planted that one technique is used to the exclusion of all others, in all instances, now and forever.

MsGneiss · Jun 19, 2009

gothicangel said:
Mainly; but if I get stuck I'll bookmark it as [missing scene] and move on to come back to it later.

That's definitely an approach that works for me. With my writing, which has been mostly academic up to this point, I have a tendency to get hung up on "the next part," even though I'm quite ready to write "the part after the next part." I started inserting bookmarks, ala {Jack and Tom talk about the plan} and moving on to the next part of the story. I can't believe it never occurred to me to do that before!

Wark · Jun 19, 2009

I know what I'm going to write, then find things to insert to make it smoother. Sometimes these are written after their surroundings and sometimes they are planned and written sequentially.

But, I just rewrote Chapters 3, 4, and 5 into a new Ch3. Knocking 21k words down to 11. Now I'm rewriting the new Ch4 so that it has more action and the reason for being there is different.

My problem with my writing this way is not remembering who knows what when, and since this is a combat gore-mance, there's lots of relationship crap, so I have to know what's going on.

[and frankly, I'm ready to shelve this and write the one short I've been thinking about and then play video games for the rest of the year.]

scarletpeaches · Jun 19, 2009

Yes up until now, but not if I don't want to next month.

Why? See here.

scarletpeaches, thread pimpin', shamone!

Fox The Cave · Jun 19, 2009

Yep I do. The endings my favourite part - writing it is what'll make writing all the rest of that crap worth the while.

C.M.C. · Jun 19, 2009

I write sequentially to keep things straight in my mind. There's no way for me to feel comfortable writing as I would like to if I already have the ending predetermined.

Alpha Echo · Jun 19, 2009

seun said:
I write sequentially. I may have an idea of the end soon after I start, but chances are it'll be different by the time I get there. Nothing wrong with that. It's half the fun.

Ditto. I have no idea how anyone can skip around. I mean, I think it's great if that's what works, but my mind just doesn't work that way.

scarletpeaches · Jun 19, 2009

Alpha Echo said:
Ditto. I have no idea how anyone can skip around. I mean, I think it's great if that's what works, but my mind just doesn't work that way.

I don't outline, so I don't know what's going to happen ahead of time but I can jump back and insert chapters. (As I did with my previous WIP so it was a slight untruth to say I always write sequentially).

Cyia · Jun 19, 2009

Nope. I write the major scenes that are clearest in my head, then go back and fill in the gaps to get the story from one point to the next.

ChaosTitan · Jun 19, 2009

Yep. If I get ideas for a future scene, I'll jot down a few notes so I don't lose it, but I rarely write out of order. The story is unfolding for me and my heroine at the same time, so it'd be hard to jump ahead six chapters when I don't know what's happened in between.

dawinsor · Jun 19, 2009

It depends on what you mean by "writing" it. I build up a book in multiple passes. First, I outline, and at that point, I get lots of scene ideas out of order that I record on index cards and eventually organize. I write a first draft from start to finish, but lots of it is very rough. I always have to completely revise the opening after I've seen the whole story. So what a reader would eventually see hasn't been written sequentially at all.

Team 2012 · Jun 19, 2009

At work, more or less. Most TV writing is actually re-writing, re-thinking and hair-pulling, though.

Literarily, our project is rather famously non-sequential. A fact which gets mixed reviews.

SarahMacManus · Jun 19, 2009

Cyia said:
Nope. I write the major scenes that are clearest in my head, then go back and fill in the gaps to get the story from one point to the next.

That's what I usually do. I need to get the "big ones" out of the way before I forget them. Taking notes isn't enough, because usually I'll be inspired by the flow of dialogue or a scene-setting or series of words that work perfectly together. I know I'll forget it later. I take it when I can get it.

Lisa Cox · Jun 19, 2009

Personally, I always find if I've written a later chapter, I'm under pressure to make the chapters before it line up and go a specific way so that it all fits together. I don't like that kind of restriction, so now I write in sequence and can take my plot in as many different directions as I want.

Although that's not to say I won't skip ahead half a scene or so if I'm stuck, and then go back later. But that's not quite as drastic as writing the end before the middle.

Salis · Jun 19, 2009

I write sequentially. Very, very rarely, if I just cannot make the "next up" part flow, I'll write something out of sequence just to make sure I write that day, but it's a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of thing.

cwfgal · Jun 19, 2009

I do a fairly detailed synopsis before writing and then I write sequentially for the most part, though I also go back at times and add in or delete scenes to keep things in flow with what comes later. Since I use my synopsis as a guideline rather than a carved-in-stone map, I often take detours along the way as new ideas come to me. Often that requires going back and changing some things. As others mentioned, I make good use of bookmarking.

Beth

SilverBirch · Jun 19, 2009

I'm with Cyia and SarahMacManus - I have to write the big scenes (the reasons I'm writing the whole thing in the first place) before I lose the spark they give me. I fill in the rest from there. My biggest problems came from A) not figuring out the plot of 'the rest' ahead of time and B) having to make the whole damn thing fit together into one coherent whole. But hey, aren't first novels supposed to be learning experiences anyway? :Headbang:

Izz · Jun 19, 2009

Last novel was written non-sequentially, and i really enjoyed that process.

This novel is being written sequentially, and i'm really enjoying that process.

I find some stories are easier to write sequentially, some non-sequentially. With both of the above novels the endings have been worked out before i began writing, though i didn't write the ending for the first novel until i was about halfway through, and i haven't written the ending for this novel, though i have sketched out the basic scene i want.

As to wondering whether outlining has much to do with it, well, i can only answer for me, because everybody writes and creates differently, but for me it doesn't really matter. First novel in my examples above had a detailed outline, second novel has a basic outline. Perhaps in general i find it easier to write non-sequentially when i have an outline, but that's not always true, because i've written a few shorts non-sequentially without having an outline.

Do you write your story sequentially?

Horror Man

Alliteration Afflicted

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