remembering. . .

[marycatelli]

Some writers write individual scenes from their works in non-chronological order.  I don't.


Part of it is my tendency to sit down with a file and start to type away, but long-hand, for a time, I was doing scenes.  Which I found had its awkward aspects.  Leaving aside the way that tangents and subplots tend to grow, and early bit characters or even objects tend to assert themselves and take a larger role -- writing in order gives it problems sometimes about needing earlier foreshadowing or setup -- there is the little aspect of keeping track of what you have written.  Not writing the same scene twice.   And then organizing them all into the final manuscript.  Writing them without the connective tissue means it can be very hard indeed to graft on.

Organizing one that I did before I started to do longhand from front to end brings this all to mind.

Comments

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

The problem it presents for me is that I write the scenes I want to write, and the remainder that would tie it together, is then leftover drudgework and it's remarkable how many other, higher-priority things I need to do instead of drudging through all that.

The result is ficlets, not completed work.

[marycatelli]

How true.

Sometimes, to be sure, you find it's dead weight and isn't needed anyway, but it's unwise to bet on it.

[jennygordon.livejournal.com]

Nor me. Like you, I find that elements develop as I go, so by writing non-chronologically, I'd be missing the chance for them to evolve.

[marycatelli]

Sometimes an earlier scene even annihiliates the scene I wrote by its implications.

[jennygordon.livejournal.com]

... and means you have to go back and write the whole thing again ... I know! I've got way to frustrated in the past to bother writing scenes out of order any more. Even if I have a burning idea for a future scene, I limit myself to jotting notes and brief extracts in a notebook, as opposed to anything more comprehensive.

[marycatelli]

Wonderful things, notes.