Linear or episodic writing?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Hublocker

Banned
Joined
Jun 28, 2012
Messages
210
Reaction score
13
Do you start at the beginning of your novel and write in a linear fashion until the end or write various episodes and even chapters out of sequence and then fit and stitch them together?

In my current project I wrote a few out-of-sequence scenes and even a couple chapters that I hope to include in the final manuscript, but just recently started at the beginning and have been writing in that direction to see what happens to my characters as they work together.
 

Katharine Tree

Þæt wæs god cyning
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Messages
1,768
Reaction score
371
Location
Salish Sea
Website
katharinetree.com
I'm a pantser and a linear storyteller. Once or twice I have written a scene out of sequence because I was just dying to write it--and it ended up being re-written many, many times because by the time I worked the linear narrative up to that point, the original version didn't work, but I was so attached to it I couldn't imagine any other way for the scene to work. Thus do I flounder.

So, I have learned my lesson. But everybody is different and many people write out of order.
 

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
7,655
Reaction score
913
Location
Seashore
I start writing the beginning of the story & keep writing what follows till I get to the end.
 

King Neptune

Banned
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
4,253
Reaction score
372
Location
The Oceans
I prefer to write a linear sequence of episodes, because not every part of the complete linear story is relevant.

I believe that's about what you described. At some point the various pieces have to be put together.
 

The Package

Cool. I get to write my own? How ab
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 9, 2010
Messages
284
Reaction score
61
Location
Canada
Linear, but sometimes I just have to skip a scene or chapter. Currently, I'm struggling with the opening of Chapter 2, and so I just wrote "(Dude fights and gets hurt...)" and then continued on with the rest of the chapter.

Sometimes I'll get stuck for days, and eventually I just gotta move on. I'll figure the rest out during the second draft (or tomorrow if I get an idea).
 

WriterDude

Writer?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 11, 2012
Messages
4,177
Reaction score
230
Location
The North West
I try to write linear but as my stories tend to come to me as a beginning and an end eg:

Once upon a time a man cycled down a country lane...foisted by his own petard. The end

I usually write those first and then try to make the middle worth reading. I have mixed results.
 

chompers

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Messages
2,506
Reaction score
384
I write out of order. My middle and end tends to be stronger, which also tends to be the parts I write first too. I do have a vague idea of how the story should start, but it's not clear enough for me to write it until much later.
 
Last edited:

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
23,079
Reaction score
10,775
Location
Where faults collide
Website
doggedlywriting.blogspot.com
I write in order as a rule, though of course, the story itself will skip things that happen between important scenes--hours, weeks, sometimes longer periods.

But I do skip scenes or chapters occasionally. Sometimes I know where my characters need to end up, and approximately when in the story they need to be there, but I'm really stuck on how to get them there. I'm doing this with a novel that's been bogging me down, because for it to progress, I need to have the two main characters separate for the central part of the story and go to different locations on separate story arcs that will converge again later for a climax that was set up by both.

But while I have plausible reasons for each of these characters to be doing their thing, having them happen so that character #2 is leaving on her journey shortly after character #1 leaves on his? It's not happening. So I'm going to have to skip that chapter and get on with the story.

Sometimes inspiration comes to me as I write a later scene.
 

kevinwaynewilliams

Be blunt: I appreciate it
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
555
Reaction score
53
Location
Phoenix
In general, I seesaw back-and-forth towards the end. Major scene, major scene, fill in between, next few major scenes, fill in between, repeat until I'm close to the end.
 
Last edited:

TessB

The Boxing Baroness
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 12, 2014
Messages
336
Reaction score
65
Location
East coast
Website
www.tessbowery.com
I'm a mixture of both. When I'm researching, I write down ideas and notes as they come to me, in one document. I get ideas for scenes and jot them down. I play out options for plot and character arcs in my head and see which ones feel like they'll work, and write them down. Character notes. Historical points that will be useful. I dump it all into one word file.

Second stage is the sorting out -- figure out what the order of the scenes will be and swap some things around where they might end up going. Research gets dumped in a second notes file.

Third stage is the actual drafting, and that I do linearly. I'll often get ideas for scenes or dialogue that will/might come later, and I'll jump ahead and drop those notes in what might be the right spot for later use. Or cuts, which also happens.

And then a lot of the time I end up reworking or re-outlining some of those bits that sounded great when I was researching, but really don't work anymore. (My latest manuscript, I ended up changing who got kidnapped, for instance, because the hero and heroine decided they weren't actually speaking to each other.)
 
Last edited:

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
3,584
Reaction score
979
Location
midwest
Linear.

I tried once to write the "good scenes" of a novel first and then go back and link them up. Never finished it.
 

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
18,889
Reaction score
5,029
Location
We couldn't possibly do that. Who'd clear up the m
Website
francisknightbooks.co.uk
Depends


I start intending to be linear

It does not always work that way
I once wrote a story from the middle outwards

My latest, I got to the end and realised I'd missed some out. Probably 50% was linear.


I try for linear, I start with linear

Then I do what the story needs


This course may not be for everyone.
 

gypsyscarlett

Ma fin est mon commencement
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Messages
1,202
Reaction score
420
Location
mostly in my head
Episodic.

I start at the beginning, and also write down what I know of the ending. (though the ending may change, the feel of it is usually the same).

Then at some point, my dominant right brain takes over and I write as different scenes or points in the story come to me.

I go back and forth sewing everything together.
 

BethS

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
11,708
Reaction score
1,763
Do you start at the beginning of your novel and write in a linear fashion until the end or write various episodes and even chapters out of sequence and then fit and stitch them together?

I'm pretty much a linear writer. But since I have several storylines going at once, I can often switch between them if I get stuck. I have written the occasional scene or partial scene out of sequence. Once that was by accident--I thought it was the next thing, but it turned out not to be. Other times, it was because I could feel or see the event so strongly and the words were there to tell it. But then when I reach the point where I might actually use that scene, sometimes it no longer fits.
 
Last edited:

Sonsofthepharaohs

Still writing the ancient Egyptian tetralogy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
5,260
Reaction score
2,673
Location
UK
I'm a pantser outliner and a linear storyteller. Once or twice I have written a scene out of sequence because I was just dying to write it--and it ended up being re-written many, many times because by the time I worked the linear narrative up to that point, the original version didn't work

Just change that one word, and this describes me too. I don't suffer so much from the other problem, of not being able to envisage the scene any other way and therefore getting all floundery, because in the course of rewriting my novel a bajillion times, I've learned to just let go of the original concept/vision if it don't work, and try something else. So, writing out of sequence doesn't really hamper me, but it doesn't create a lot of progress in the long run either, because most written-ahead scenes end up being changed by the time I catch up.
 

King Neptune

Banned
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
4,253
Reaction score
372
Location
The Oceans
I thought I was writing linearly and got to the end only to discover the story was low on word count and suffered from "bare spots." Now I'm backfilling. Does that make me an episodic writer?

No, that means you're adding as you do a rewrite.
 

Reziac

Resident Alien
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
7,451
Reaction score
1,177
Location
Brendansport, Sagitta IV
Website
www.offworldpress.com
I write out of order. My middle and end tends to be stronger, which also tends to be the parts I write first too. I do have a vague idea of how the story should start, but it's not clear enough for me to write it until much later.

Have you stolen my brain? Cuz it sounds like you've stolen my brain. :D I write in no order whatever, tho it's more likely that middle and end scenes (usually better stuff) will get written before early scenes. And generally I have to back up to find the beginning.

And when I do 'reach a scene and find it no longer fits' that's because it belongs in a later book. So I just need to write more stuff between 'em.
 
Last edited:

MerryR

Registered
Joined
Aug 20, 2014
Messages
19
Reaction score
4
Location
Ohio
Scenes just come to me sometimes and I write them down. Then I start on a linear outline, but whenever I get another idea for a scene I have to write that next even if it doesn't occur until the end of the book. I guess you could say I'm episodic at first then I throw it all into an outline and write the book in a linear fashion.

So the short answer is a bit of both. :)
 

TGrace

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Messages
63
Reaction score
4
Location
NY/MA
Usually I'll come up with the idea for a scene, which I write out in its entirety, and then planning the rest of the story in the form of an outline. I try to write linear, because if I start to write it scene by scene, I risk falling into a trap where I only write little individual pieces and never wrap it up into a larger narrative. (It's difficult, though, because I tend to drag in the middle of the story and want to skip over some scenes.)
 

Chasing the Horizon

Blowing in the Wind
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
4,288
Reaction score
561
Location
Pennsylvania
I could never write linearly because that would mean starting with the beginning and beginnings have always been brutally hard for me. Besides, how would I know what to introduce if I didn't know what was going to be important later?

My process is to sketch out all the interesting scenes as they come to me, and then string them into a detailed outline. I then write the actual draft working on whatever random scene strikes my fancy and jumping all over the place (inevitably ending up with only the most difficult scenes left to write at the end, lol). The only time I work linearly is when I'm editing, because that's the only way to make sure everything fits together and is consistent.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
I largely write in story order, but am not averse to moving pieces around when the situation dictates, and to jumping ahead to other scenes if I hit one that stumps me. I figure it's better to continue writing the story, as long as I know things I'm going to include, than it is to sit and fume over a place that i can't get to work immediately. Continuing to write ahead usually unsticks me for the trouble spot.

caw
 

reiver33

Monolithic
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Messages
967
Reaction score
94
Location
Dumfries, south-west Scotland
With the only full-length piece I've written (120k) I started with a clear idea of the beginning, a scene from the middle, and the ending. I wrote these first then set about fleshing out the somewhat nebulous stortyline I had (in my head) that connected them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.