Author:
While I’m at work, I’ve been thinking about the story I’m working on. I’ll come up with several good ideas, and when I get home I write them so I don’t forget. Only problem is it’s every-other chapter.
I need to write chapter 4, but I’ve already written chapter 5. Afterwards, I’ll still need to write chapter 6, and I’ve already written chapter 7. I can’t skip chapter 4 & 6 or the story won’t have good continuity. This is the first time it’s happened to me. Normally I have a rough idea of what I want to happen in 3-5 chapters and trudge my way there. These well polished alternate chapters.
Just curious if this happens to anyone else. Now that I’ve put my good ideas on paper maybe I can focus on chapter 4 lol. Thanks for reading my rant and look forward to hearing from you.
Comments
Really?
I can't even begin to imagine writing a story with interleaving chapters and have any hope of it all meshing. I put in breaks where they seem logical.
Melanie
Not exactly...
I know what events will happen in the next chapter, the storyboard is mapped out well enough for that. It’s just the character’s mindset: the words they’ll say and the emotions they’ll feel. Since I can’t figure it out and am doing a brain-numbing job, I let my imagination run wild with the aftermath.
Basically, I know what the rising actions will be, but I’m not sure what words I’ll use to describe it, so I jump to the climax. Since I come up with a bunch of good lines during my shift, I save them. Before I know it, BAM the chapter’s done. Obviously it’ll need editing once I finish the earlier chapter, but I’m left with a solid rough draft.
Thanks for commenting, I figured it was pretty strange. I’d never done it before this week lol.
Out and about
When I'm driving by myself I 'write' by talking through stories out loud. As odd as it sounds, I try to be in the same mood or emotion as my characters - like rehearsing a play. And writing more than one story at once or shifting back and forth between perspectives in different chapters gets challenging, but so far, so good.
Love, Andrea Lena
Exactly!
This is exactly what I’m doing. Instead of daydreaming about nothing I listen to some good music that’s not heavy on vocals and get into the story. I know what events are going to happen in the next chapter, but I can’t get into their mindset for that point in their lives, so I think about the aftermath. Glad I’m not the only one :D
write write think cut & paste write delete revise think post
My writing isn't linear. I 'create' in spurts with a general idea of where I'm going. I've made notes & ideas as I drove just to avoid losing the thought of the moment. I've made notes in the middle of the night because if I don't my "great" idea fades & is lost.
I've written a few paragraphs for one story and then used that in another story. Haven't we all?
I put the story into a general order and tweak it as needed. I let it sit and return to make changes, improve clarity or insert/delete things. So glad to have a laptop which helps a lot.
I don't follow a strict writing procedure. I've written the last part first. I've started with a story line and have veered in another direction as the characters and my muse tug me. Eventually the jig saw becomes complete.
What's important for me is that I write... putting thoughts on paper is a good analogy. The process can be challenging! I find that letting the story wait to be completed or posted helps. I come back to it and I see things I missed.
Here's a question. How many times do you read & re-read your story? I'd guess we all read our efforts many many times. It's good to have a hobby... glad I'm not under any formal deadline.
Regards, Dee
Donna
Good comment...
I normally read each paragraph around 1-3 times, each section 2-4 times, and the finished chapter 3+ times. These readings are cumulative, so I’m normally reading every sentence 8+ times before I post it. The last review takes place until I can read through the chapter without finding anything I want to change.
Like you were saying about taking a few days away, there are normally still things I’d like to change when I see it with fresh eyes, but I often post before I have the chance.
I like the way you described your writing process. That’s how mine normally works. Most of my stories have several scenes I really want to tell and everything else is a narrative to get to those sections. There’s a rough outline, but it happens in sporadic spurts subject to my whims. Kronos is different in that regard; I feel like I’m getting in sync with the characters on their journey.
Fresh Eyes
It normally takes thirty to ninety days for me to have fresh eyes. By "fresh eyes" I mean the ability to read my story as if I'm a naive reader.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Patience...
...and I don’t have the much of it. I can normally read it with fresh eyes, where mistakes I repeatedly overlook like weird sentence structure, passive voice, etc. don’t slip by. But I definitely know what you’re talking about, it’s apparent when I read my older works.
I can understand the problem.
In nearly every story I write, I know the ending before I choose the title. The early chapters are easy to come by. Introduce the characters, add a little back story to set the mood and then...
Well, and then is where the rubber meets the road. Everything I write after that goes to driving the story line toward that end. I should be simple. Describe a lot of emotion and a little stress and some opposition, not to mention some action. What stymies me is I sometimes find the story which has been great up 'till then at a place when I stop writing and look at the ending, I just can't get there from where I am.
The answer, of course is that I have to go someplace else first, but where??? It's the unplanned venture down the rabbit trail in order to bring the story back around and get it headed in the right direction again that makes for the difficulty. I sometime need to insert a couple of chapters to do the trick. It's almost like writing a story within a story.
I can't imagine having only one chapter to make that kind thing happen.
I've never had any formal writing training, at least not for creative writing. I run on pure, raw talent, or lack thereof. My best work writes itself. I'm just along for the ride and to punch the keys that record the story. Sometime when I find myself in the place indicated in the previous paragraph, I lay the story aside for a while and then when I come back to it, I can read through it and get inspired to write more of it.
All to often, I reach the end and find myself staring at a blank screen with nowhere to go. :o(
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
The Writer’s Paradox
I love your comment, it beautifully describes the problem I also face. It’s probably what separates us amateurs (not making money) from the pros (getting paid). If you have stories on here, I’ll have to check them out. Keep writing the curvy path to a straight destination :D
I do write ahead, but...
When I get ideas for chapters that I haven't reached yet, I write them down. Most of the time it's just a series of one-line notes, often with lots of detail. Sometimes a scene will be particularly vivid to me, so I write it without worrying where it fits in the story. If it's flowing, I just go with it.
I've got a complicated process that I won't bore you with, but part of it is a big NOTES file. It starts off with three formal sections: (1) possible titles, (2) character names and place names, and (3) brief descriptions of events that happened before the start of the story that influence the outcome.
After that, comes what Louis XV affectionately called le deluge. It's a disordered collection of notes and already-written chunks of story.
Every time I begin a chapter, I wade through the file, pulling out relevant pieces and notes. I shuffle them into order, and move them from the notes file into the chapter file.
However, I've never used the chunks that I've already written. Rather than take them and edit them into shape, I write them anew. It seems faster and cleaner to do it that way. I refer to the chunks and re-read them several times to make sure I didn't leave anything important out.
- io
You’re as bad as me
I build massive excel sheets when I’m writing with character info, used or planned place info, and driving events outside their area of influence. Sometimes I’ll do more, like the prequel that’ll never be seen, but whenever I do I never write the actual story.
For Kronos, I’ve been doing physics to get as much right as possible. I can’t calculate orbits and couldn’t find a website that went to 2187 so I took the orbital period and divided it by the days till that occurred. Pretended they were all circular orbits and figured out roughly where they’d be compared to where they are today. I’ve been researching real futuristic tech and scaling my stuff to that. Heck I even did a displacement calculation to figure out how long the Atlas Launch System would have to be.
Another book is trapped in backstory and lore building, but if I ever finish that it’ll turn into a good 3 book universe. Keep geeking out, even if your readers don’t know it’ll make the world feel more organic.
I used to jump around
I used to be somewhat linear, but would sometimes skip a particular chapter if I wasn't feeling it. I'd just leave a note for what I wanted to write and skip ahead. There have been a few times I've written the ending or at least a version of it, before I was even close to finishing things. Nowadays, I write serials on my website, so it hasn't been a habit I can afford indulge in, but have a weekly deadline seems to keep me going where before I would have found myself dead in the water.
Have delightfully devious day,