You know how they always told you to do all of the hard problems on a test first and then go back to the easy stuff? Apparently it's supposed to be exactly the opposite of that when it comes to writing. Write every scene that comes easily, that you see in your head, in whatever order you feel like writing them, and then go back and put in connecting writing later.
It seems I'm just too "OCD" to do either.
Maybe it's just because I'm used to publishing chapter by chapter, and usually at a pace that wouldn't allow me to jump around if I wanted to. Maybe it's my need for a sense of completions—I'd rather write a finished chapter than a disembodied scene.
In any case, other authors advise working like this, and it does seem like a good idea to churn out what wants churning out. Just the other night, I was held hostage (i.e. awake) by a variation of a future scene in The Long and Winding Road. Is that when I'm supposed to cast away the bedsheets, run for the computer, and write it? I think that would have been possible, but I'm already wary of editing a normal amount—having to go back through the earlier scenes that I would write later to go back to the future scene and adjust some mindsets, wounds, etc. would not be a lot of fun. And it would probably be as confusing as it sounds. I don't mind challenging myself, but... shall I mention again that I am "OCD" about these things?
I'll never know how much this kind of technique would benefit my writing until I try it, though, so I may experiment with one of my less serious New Fiction Ideas. If it turns out to be too conducive to writer's block, I can always scrap the idea and start at the very beginning (a very good place to start, might I add).
How do you do your writing? Follow the inspiration? Take it chapter by chapter? Utilise some other odd technique that works for you?
Hmm, maybe if I did that (jumping ahead to write future scenes) I would actually get stuff done. As it is, I normally force myself to go chapter by chapter, even if the present one is terribly boring or I'm suffering from writers' block, instead of jumping ahead to a more interesting scenario. Occasionally, if a future scene really jumps out at me, I might write a bit of it, but that's pretty rare. Normally I just sort of 'write them in my head.'
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have started jumping forward within a chapter - i.e. moving ahead to a more interesting part when I'm stuck and adding in a note like "come back later." That's actually been really helpful, especially with recent parts of Unstained and the chapter of Break Out you let me write. I'm the kind of person who gets stuck a lot on tiny details - I'll stare hopelessly at the computer for five-ten minutes straight because I don't know which particular adjective to use - so being able to write in [adjective to be added later] and move on really helps me use my time well. For example, I was having trouble writing Italy agreeing to leave the island without Romano, so I just wrote in [Italy agrees to leave the island] and kept writing from there. Then later, when I was in a fresher frame of mind, I went back and wrote how Italy was actually convinced to do so.
Yeah, I do my advance writing in my head as well.
DeleteI don't know if I could do ten, but I could probably manage five minutes quibbling over an adjective, ha. I'm thankful for my Camp NaNoWriMo experience with TL&WR because I know I just have to push forward and I'll edit later. The intra-chapter jumping seems like a good idea. Maybe I'll be able to manage that much.