write chronologically or all over the place?

I don't have a choice. I have no clue what's going to happen on the next page until I finish writing the page I'm on, and I don't want to know. Since I have no clue what's going to happen on that next page, let alone what will happen four chapters later, I have to write in chronological order.

But I think I would, anyway, even if I outlined. Doing it out of order and trying to make everything fit sounds like more work than I want to do.

BoltzmannBrain said:

Do you write your stories in chronological order, chapter after chapter?

Or do you jump back and forth, writing what comes to mind, and occasionally rewriting when something gets invalidated by a change in previous chapters?

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I'm writing in chronological order. I just want to get all the major points of the story together until I reach the end, then can go back and revise everything. I'm finding the best way to keep going and not get sidetracked is to just keep writing in chronological order.

I write chronologically. I've experimented with planning and writing all the fun bits first but I just end up confused.

In a way that isn't confusing. I typically do chronologically, however there are flashbacks or backstories. Write however you wish or whatever the story calls for just be sure it's easy to follow.

_Sian_ said:

I like brackets. So I'll start at the start, but whenever I desperately want to skip a scene because I want to write the cool one after that, I just go (insert x scene here) and move on. Then I go back and fill in the blanks.

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I try to write similar to this. I'll go chronologically and if I get stuck or something and I can't think of something or I want to get to another part I'll put a few blank lines to come back to so that my flow isn't messed up. We're all busy so I don't have the luxury to get hung up somewhere and miss out on a day or more of writing time.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't have a choice. I have no clue what's going to happen on the next page until I finish writing the page I'm on, and I don't want to know. Since I have no clue what's going to happen on that next page, let alone what will happen four chapters later, I have to write in chronological order.

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I write similarly -- each word literally follows from the previous, and often with no clue where it's going til it gets there -- but this doesn't seem to stop me from writing isolated scenes at various random points in the story's timeline, then filling in around them. In fact I often don't know how the fill will go until it comes up against the next scene.

The upside of all this is that I never seem to write any spurious or needless scenes.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't have a choice. I have no clue what's going to happen on the next page until I finish writing the page I'm on, and I don't want to know.

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Me too. But, oddly, my experience has been that writing generates ideas, and sometimes those ideas don't coincide with narrative chronology. And if I don't deal with them when they're fresh, I lose them. So, often, as I'm going along, I need to flesh out something that might could maybe kind of perhaps fit in later. So I divert to write whatever scene(s) that happens to be, at least in very rough form. Sometimes it gets jettisoned later, but more often it provides a target to write to, and is fitted appropriately.

But this is most certainly a thread that results in: Whatever gets you through the night, in your writing. There is no Right or Wrong.

caw

I try to write in order but if I get bored I'll write what ever strikes my fancy, something that's purely character development and not crucial to the plot for example. I'm allowing myself to deviate since my only goal at the moment is to write enough that I can feel out my setting and characters better.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't have a choice. I have no clue what's going to happen on the next page until I finish writing the page I'm on, and I don't want to know. Since I have no clue what's going to happen on that next page, let alone what will happen four chapters later, I have to write in chronological order.

But I think I would, anyway, even if I outlined. Doing it out of order and trying to make everything fit sounds like more work than I want to do.

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Ditto.

For me, one word leads to the other.

I really have to write chronologically, because it helps me keep steam. When I'm finished, I hate having to think about going back and writing things I jumped over, rather than just reading the entire project and editing.

It's all over and frankly an incredible mess. A word here and there, sentences that don't connect, chapter 1 immediately followed by chapter 16, etc. It takes me months (if not years) afterwards to put everything back in order.

But now I don't.
I used to write chronologically.

I write chronologically. However, when I get stuck, which is often, I might jump ahead and write a scene, or two, or three out of order.

blacbird said:

Me too. But, oddly, my experience has been that writing generates ideas, and sometimes those ideas don't coincide with narrative chronology. And if I don't deal with them when they're fresh, I lose them. So, often, as I'm going along, I need to flesh out something that might could maybe kind of perhaps fit in later. So I divert to write whatever scene(s) that happens to be, at least in very rough form. Sometimes it gets jettisoned later, but more often it provides a target to write to, and is fitted appropriately.

But this is most certainly a thread that results in: Whatever gets you through the night, in your writing. There is no Right or Wrong.

caw

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I take to a lot of writer who say more or less the same thing, and it works wonderfully for them. I wonder if I never get ideas fro later in the story because I force myself to look back continually? I simply don't let myself look ahead, and I force any idea about later in the story out of my head , should it dare enter.

And we've talked about it before, but I think the best thing that can happen to me is losing an idea. If I can forget something, I'm glad it's gone because if it wasn't worth remembering, it wasn't worth using. That's why I write nothing down.

For whatever reason, looking ahead just doesn't work for me. I can't seem to make the parts fit, can't work toward the ahead part, while making the story flow.

I've often had to write detailed outlines for editors before writing something. but once I get a contract, I never follow the outline. I ignore it completely, and writing what I want to write, and write it my way. Editors don't seem to mind. The outline is really just an excuse to offer a contract, not something I really have to write. For me, this is a Good Thing.

Yes. I always right in chronological order and jump back and forth in the story. Well, I do!
I write in chronological order... always. Then I might hit a speed bump and I'm dragging. That's when I go back and do a re-read and adjust scenes or add a scene here or there.
There are also times when I am working on a particular scene and I start wondering how it meshes with something written previously. So I jump back and re-read/re-write one or two or four previous scenes.

So... Yes. I chronologically jump around in the story. Yes?

TheWordsmith said:

Yes.
There are also times when I am working on a particular scene and I start wondering how it meshes with something written previously.

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This is where very most of my focus is when writing fiction. I revise, rewrite, and edit each page as I go. I go over and over the page until it's as perfect as I can make it, and then I never read or touch it again in any way.

I concentrate solely on two things. The first is making sure the page is written as well as I can possibly write. The second, and at least as important, is making certain what I write on the current page meshes perfectly with everything that precedes it.

If it dos, I don't have to worry at all about what comes next. If the page I'm working on meshes perfectly with the preceding pages, then the story will be coherent, and have every facet I need or want, and each will be done well. I don't run into walls, I don't have to worry about writing myself into a corner, and I don't have to know or care what will happen on the next page until I get there.

I usually try to stick to chronological order, but if I have a really strong inclination toward some scene that isn't happening for a while I get the itch out and write it. The scenes usually end up better that way.

J.S.Fairey said:

I have to write in order, otherwise I get completely confused as to where I am in terms of character arcs and world building. However, I know excellent writers who write all over the place. They say it keeps them fresh and keen because they only ever write what they want.

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This. Me too.

I tend to begin writing chronologically, but will jump ahead whenever I get stuck. Or I double back to fill in some of the gaps. The further I get in a story, the less chronological my writing will become, and the more instances of "(insert scene/description/etc her)" will pepper my MS. Since I rarely outline either (at least, outside of my head), things can get mighty confusing quite quickly, but I've found its the only method that keeps my writing regularly.

The downside, of course, is that I eventually get to the point where all that is left to write are all of the scenes I've been continually putting off writing in favout of other parts of the MS.

I used to think that I jumped around but I find that I really do write chronologically and what I was doing when I jumped ahead was jumping over the bits that were boring me to write.

And if they were boring me, the writer, I can only imagine what they were doing for the poor reader.

Chronologically by character about 99% of the time. I have multiple view points, and its hard for me to do chronologically by how the book will be put together. Usually I pick a character that I'm going write for and do their story chronologically, then I properly allocate the chapters.

Every now and then, especially when dealing with writers block, I jump forward to a different character/different scene.

I write chronologically because the scene I'm writing is always the most interesting one. My stories also unfold pretty much chronologically.

I don't mind jumping around either, but since I'm interested in knowing what happens next, I also prefer chronological writing. I'm the first person who gets to read the story too. I wanna know what happens next, not what happens in chapter 10.

My first story happens over the course of five days but backtracks to the first day multiple times, from different points of view. The only hard part I had was making the events synch up and not contradict. It was easier than it sounds too, at least for me. When the story shifts to the first day again it is in a new point of view, so rewriting the events didn't feel like a chore, since a new perspective would reinterpret everything.

The closet I can think to compare this to would be the movie Pulp Fiction. Just like in Pulp Fiction one of my characters dies, but when the story shifts back again the deceased is alive and well. The reader follows the soon-to-be-dead character, learning the events leading up to the death.

I deliberately wrote it out of chronological order so maybe that is why it was easier for me to write.

I spent most of the morning planning my nanowrimo novel and I decided that I will write it chronologically, but edit into the order that will create the biggest hook.

I try to write in order, but sometimes if I am stuck, or if I have scenes which are super clear in my mind and just have to be written, I'll write those and then connect the dots in between, as it were.

Writing chronologically though usually works better at keeping me focused, because it forces me to push on through the 'boring' bits until I reach the exciting scenes I cannot wait to write.