I used to write my stories out-of-order. I am a planner and had an outline of my book, so when I sat down, I’d write whatever scene I felt like that day, anything from the opening to the climax.
Now, I avoid writing out-of-order and here’s why:
Now, I avoid writing out-of-order and here’s why:
- It ruined my pacing. Pacing refers to the intensity level of a story. It’s best to alternate between high-intensity and low-intensity scenes, but when I was writing whatever I wanted, I ended up with a string of slow scenes followed by non-stop action that exhausted my reader. If I had been writing the scenes in order, I would have caught this while writing.
- It’s harder to develop new ideas. Let’s say I discover an interesting concept while writing an early chapter and want to include more of that concept into my story. Writing in-order makes it easy, but if I’ve already written later scenes, I have to cram that new concept into my preexisting chapter.
- I lost cause and effect. Many chapters in my sci-fi book could be switched with each other because they were disconnected from the scene that came before and after.
- Reading in-order is how your story is experienced. When I was bouncing between my favorite scenes, there were only a few times I read my story the way it was meant to be experienced: In order.
Note: I am not saying you can never re-order scenes in the editing process, but even when it’s necessary, it often takes extra effort to tie it into the flow of the story, and some of that extra work can be avoided if you’re writing in-order to begin with.
However, there are two times I will write out-of-order:
- If I feel stuck, I’ll sometimes skip ahead to a more exciting scene, get into the writing groove, then return to the original point.
- If I’m writing a subplot, I’ll write those scenes in one go. Right now, I have a prisoner subplot from that prisoner’s point-of-view, and I’m writing his scenes back-to-back.
Do you prefer writing in-order or out-of-order and why? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
