Linear Writing

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I mentioned last week that I enjoy hearing other writers’ book-writing processes.   I share a variety of writing-craft tips on Twitter because although something may not be useful for me, it might be useful for someone else.

But sometimes, I think, it’s helpful to hear how others write.  Although I’m pretty set in my ways with my process, sometimes I need to try something new.  And sometimes I think I need to try something new because I’m so set in my ways.  It helps to keep my writing fresh, even though I may be working on book ten in a series.

I read a post from writer B.E. Sanderson’s Outside the Box blog on linear writing … working straight through scenes to reach the end of the story.   

I’m a linear writer almost to a fault now, but B.E.’s post reminded me that I haven’t always written that way.  There was one book that I wrote backward from the end to the middle (the middle was where I’d gotten stuck).

Another book I wrote completely out of order.  I’d gotten ideas for different sections of the story  at different times and had written whatever scene I’d gotten the inspiration for.

I don’t know how many of you are mystery readers, but I can say from experience that the second book was a disaster in edits.  Mysteries follow a particular pattern and mystery writers must track clues, red herrings, suspects’ lies, and alibis.  Hopping around through a mystery meant that it took me longer to edit the book than it did to write the first draft (where ordinarily I edit in about 3 or 4 days before sending the manuscript to a freelance or publisher’s editor).

Not only were the elements of the mystery in a mess, but the transitions between scenes were either extremely choppy or missing altogether.  The book ended up becoming Progressive Dinner Deadly and worked out fine and dandy … but I would never try to write a book completely out of order again.

But I might try writing a book from the end to the middle again, if I were stuck.  It worked last time.

As someone who has written both ways, here are my thoughts on both approaches:

Pros to Linear Writing:

You’re writing it as the reader will be reading it.

You have a better sense of where you are in the story.

Transitions are (usually) neater.

If you’re writing a complicated story (like a mystery), it can be less confusing for you to edit later.

Pros to Writing Scenes Out of Order:

It can be extremely useful to jumpstart a story when you’re stuck …particularly moving backward through the book.

Sometimes when you’re not in the mood to write a particular scene (you’re feeling down or discouraged and you need to write a lively scene, e.g.) it helps to write a scene that better matches your mood.

When you’re full of ideas and dialogue for a future scene, the draft of the scene can be more animated when you write the idea as you get it.

If you’ve written a lot of books and you’re getting tired of your approach (or it’s boring you), writing out of order can infuse your story with new life.

When I’m tempted to write out of order now:

I make a note…either on my outline or in Track Changes right there in the margin…mapping out the scene or noting the ideas I had for it. Then I continue with the story in my linear fashion.  For the most part, I just don’t have the editing time to write a book out of order anymore.

Have you ever written a story out of order?  How did it go?

Pros and Cons of Linear Writing:
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