I'm writing scenes that are not in any sequential order.

[BlueLucario]

Let's see if I can explain this to you.

I'm having this major problem. I would normally write the story in order from beginning, middle, and end.

Somewhat like this.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

But all of a sudden I'm writing like this.

1-2-3-4-6-5-8-7-9-10

It's starting to get annoying. Everytime I have an idea, I just write the scene down immediately, but it distracts me from the chapter I'm currently supposed to be writing. (I'm not finished with my fight scene yet. Grrrr......) I'm writing a scene that would occur in chapter 15 when I'm supposed to be writing chapter nine. And by the time I finish writing the future scene, it would probably stink anyway.(and I hate stink.)

Advice?

[Birol]

What advice is there to give? Not everyone writes sequentially. Everyone writes in a way that suits their needs, the needs of the story, and their own thought processes. If it is annoying you to write this way, that is internal to you. It is about you and your personality, not the story and not the writing.

[Tirjasdyn]

Write it down.

A: you're closer to done

B: You won't forget it.

My current novel has 4 pov's They change per chapter. So I'm writing all the chapters from one pov first eg: 1 2 5 8 13, then the next 3 11,14, 17 etc.

Nothing wrong with it. Changing it later is no big deal.

[blacbird]

Nothing wrong with what you're doing. What Tirjasdyn said.

caw

[James81]

My mom (of all people :rollseyes) gave me an idea that I thought was fantastic. Get a mini tape recorder and record your thoughts on it and then go back and play it when you are looking for ideas.

I'm going to give this a shot as soon as I get some cabbage to buy one.

[Use Her Name]

I write like that, frankly. I write scene 10 first though. The climax is where I start. I then decide how to get there. I then create 4-5 juicy scenes that are mini-climaxes. Then the rest of the writing is "Rising action," Leading to those scenes. When I first "Envision" my story, it is usually the Ending I see. For example, the "murder" is not the beginning of the story, it is the end of it. Someone got murdered, someone murdered that person. My job is to create a path to the ending, find who the characters were, find out what went through their heads and what made them do what they did. In fact, I find it easier to act as though the incidents are in the past as well.

I call it "Island" style writing, where you have these "land-marks," and then all you need to do is get across the little stretches of "water." There's probably some real name for it. The steps are usually based on the internal logic of the story. Right now, I am working on the bad guy who is to try to defeat the good guy. He believes what he is trying to do is logical and sound-minded. The "battle scenes and most of the good guy scenes are written. The bad guy needs his set of logical scenes.

I've tried to write in various different ways, and find that it works best for me.

[tehuti88]

You could always just jot down notes for your ideas for the future scenes, if writing them out of order is truly irritating. (There's nothing wrong with writing out of sequence, except that a scene might not fit in properly once you actually get to insert it in the story.)

[Charlie Horse]

Maybe your actually writing the scenes in the order they're supposed to be and you just don't know it.

Whatever, don't fight it. If you're writing and it's good then no worries.

[windyrdg]

I say, don't try to fight the muse. She might get pissed and decide to stay away.

Whenever i start a book, the first thing I do is open a spreadsheet and put down the chapters that I'm sure will be part of the story. For instance, 1. Jack's mother says go get water, 2. Jack grabs the bucket and heads up the hill, 3. He runs into Jill, 4. They get to the well...and so on. Then I start writing whatever chapter seems to want to be written at that particular moment. (I store my chapters as separate documents.)

Now, suppose when he meets Jill she says, "Hey Jack, your mom can do without that water for a little while. Why don't we slip behind this bush and we'll..." Insert a new row for 'Jack gets a little on the way to the well' and renumber the other chapters. Lo and behold, Jills husband catches them at it. New row: 'Jack gets caught with his pants down.' Before ya know it Jack ends up killing the husband, in self defense of course. Another row for the fight, and one for the arrest and another for the trial. You get the idea.

The beauty of this system is that if I decide he doesn't run into Jill until after he's gone to the well, a quick re-arrangement of the spreadsheet is all I need to do.

[SPMiller]

I often write the first scene, then the last scene, then I fill in the middle scenes in completely random order.

(For this loose definition of scene I'm also including sequel.)

It works for me, so I don't see what could possibly be wrong about it.

[Mumut]

If it worries you, don't do it. I find I get an idea but later, when I get to the place to insert that idea, I need to vary my first thoughts. Had I written it straight away, it would have been a waste of time. But the main thing is, do it the way it suites you best.

[~grace~]

I write totally out of order. That's not really advice, but...well, just so you know it does work.

[sportacus]

I don't write out of sequence, but I have a tip that may help. I like to keep a tape recorder around when I'm writing. It means I can quickly record my thoughts for later scenes. Just to be a bit safer, I jot it down in point form, but I find that the audio conveys my line of thinking a bit better.