Writing out of order (Read 210 times)

[Kpatch]

I have talked about this technique before. Writing out of order helps me move forward in the story, freeing me from the constraints of writing chronologically. The downside is, when I am ready to start putting the out-of-order chapters into the story in some kind of order, I can't remember what comes next and often I don't know where the scenes I wrote and I have to hunt for them which is not the best use of my time. I know there are better ways of being organized but I don't have patience to start new processes. Double-edged sword.

[heroicmuse]

Kpatch What if you named each file with a description of the scenes that are in it? Like Chloe Asks Philip About the House.doc

That way you can write out of order and still find your scenes without a lot of confusion.

[Kpatch]

I like that idea a lot, heroicmuse. I do that to an extent, for example, I have a New Year's Eve document, but it has expanded beyond NYE. If I did one or two chapters per file I'd have a gezillion files, but yes, I'd be more organized. Thank you.

[greta2242]

So I have a 100 real books under my real name out and this is a very, very common way.
In writing, there are plotters and there are pantsers.
Pantsers can write an entire novel because a scene comes in any order. These authors are also scenes that come to them in any order to name a few...

Diana Gabaldon, author of Outlander
Matthew Hughes, author of What the Wind Brings
George R.R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones
Isaac Asimov, author of I, Robot (and many more)
Rex Stout, author of the Nero Wolfe Series
Sally J. Ling, author of Frayed Ends and Unraveled
James Joyce, author of Ulysses
Stephen King, author of IT, Carrie, The Shining, and many more
Mark Twain, author of the Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn
Ernest Hemmingway, author of A Farewell to Arms
Dean Koontz, author of Odd Thomas
William Gibson, author of The Peripheral
Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris
Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale
Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and The Light
Jami Gold, author of Stone Cold Heart
Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods