Thread: Novel Writing: Chapters/Scenes vs. Chronological?

In working on the plotline of a novel, a writer may discover there are scenes deeper in the story that are ripe to be written, while other scenes/chapters still need to be fleshed out or researched more thoroughly.

What is your opinion on writing scenes, or even entire chapters, out of sequence (as opposed to beginning the writing journey on page one, and continuing chronologically until the end)?

How do you move through the creation of your novel, and what insights have you discovered along the way?

There is no rule that says you must write in a linear fashion. By all means, if you think you would be better off starting in the middle or at the end and working from there then by all means do it.

I started my novel by writing what would eventually become chapter 2. After completing it I went back and inserted another chapter about midway through.

I write mostly in a linear fashion. Sometimes I'll write four or five chapters out of sequence or come back and write a filler chapter or two. Depends on the book and story for me.

It's gotta depend on the story, surely. If a non-linear narrative is suggested by the nature of what you're writing, then that's the way to go. I think sometimes people mess with anti-linear narratives just for the sake of it or to show how clever they are.

In the current draft of my story, I started with the prologue in the middle of the first half of the story. And from chapter one until the end of seven, I detail how the characters all came to know each other, and what happened to two of the characters that were only mentioned in the prologue. Chapters eight and eleven explore certain aspects of the two characters' past. Everything else from then on is linear. But this is still the first draft, and bound to change when I go back and rewrite it.

I write mostly linearly. But there are times, like when I am stuck on a particular chapter, that I will skip ahead. I do this especially if there is a later scene that is really bright in my mind and I know what I want. It helps me often get unstuck. Then I go back and fill in the timeline as needed.

I go in order, mainly because things can, and often do, change with the story. Most of these changes aren't plot changers, but significant enough that they can effect the details later on in the story. Maybe I'm just too lazy to want to fix the other pieces when I get there...

Now if you'd like a prime example of a novel that is written in out of order scenes, Charles deLint has a couple. The onion girl was done in jumps back and forth in the story. It was....strange, but done well enough I had to admire the ability he has to pull such a thing off.

I tend do you both, at times I with going from point A, to point B, to point C. At other times I have certain scenes that just scream 'WRITE ME NOW!' so I do. Even if I have to change it later on because of earlier events the original scene provides a lot of detail, framework, and a good basis to help me quickly fit it into the rest of the story. I also stated this in another post, but I'll do so here as well. Sometimes writing out of order can actually help a story as well, sometimes when you write out various scenes it can help flesh out a story. It can also cause the scenes to start pulling themselves together, they may well work out details on their own, and from time to time surprise you with details of their own.

In the end I think it really boils down to what works best for the individual writer. When I first started writing I used to use first person perspective, telling the story through the view of the main character. Now I write in the third person because I find it easier.