Yuffie's Writing How-To's

Should you write in order or skip around?

Someone asked me: "When you write, should you write from beginning to end? Or how can you facilitate it? Before I could just write it in line with how I perceived the plot to me, but now, since I've planned it out more in detail, I just want to write the climactic scenes! And the "filler" or "background" is getting neglected, though it is still important...."

All great questions! Here are my thoughts (which, remember, you don't need to agree with):

1. When you write, should you write from beginning to end?
You absolutely don't need to write in order. Write backwards if you'd like. It might actually help you to write out the ending first so you know what you need to build toward. Some stories aren't even written in chronological order. Write in whatever order you feel comfortable with. I personally like writing from beginning to end because otherwise I'd have a terrible time linking scenes together.

I actually wrote the scenes of the last chapter of VENGEANCE out of order, and as expected, I got a headache trying to link them together properly. I had to go over it almost 10 times before I made smooth transitions. This problem never happened when I wrote it in order. But then someone I know finds it easier to write out of order and fill in the gaps. Try it out for yourself and see what feels more comfortable to you.

2. Before I could just write it in line with how I perceived the plot to me, but now, since I've planned it out more in detail, I just want to write the climactic scenes! And the "filler" or "background" is getting neglected, though it is still important....
Something really important to understand is that if you're bored with a scene, your readers will likely be bored by it too. I'm completely aware there might just be a couple scenes in the whole novel that have a heavenly spotlight pointed at them and make you giddy with pride, and you're dying to write them.

But come to understand that EVERY scene should do this. You should be excited about every scene, so if you're not and you're itching to skip a scene in order to write a climactic epic one instead, REEVALUATE that first scene and make it something you want to write. The same goes for when you're rereading your story. If you find yourself skimming over some paragraphs or even entire chapters, go back and rewrite them so that you won't want to skip them.

This is just the ideal theory, though. I know for a fact not every scene or chapter will have you jumping with pride (some may even have you go "dafuq did i just write", but it should be what you strive for.

Also, there shouldn't be any filler in a story. Every scene, every word should be vital to building the story, characterization, and world/setting. If you can cut it and everything still makes sense, cut it! Filler is just extra padding, so cut it out or rewrite it so it includes something vital to telling the story you want to tell.