The Place For My Writers Notes

Writing Out Of Order

This is probably most important for the pantsers, but the plotters may want to consider it too as they bump that word count for Nanowrimo. One of the points that I bring up in my class on research methods is that the order of parts in a research paper starts with the abstract, then goes to the introduction, problem statement, background, study and results, and conclusion -- but that's not the order that you write it in. In fact, you probably start with the background, then write the problem statement, than a draft introduction, and part of your approach -- that's the proposal. Then after you do this study, it's time to write up the results, write the conclusions, go back and rewrite the introduction, maybe update the background, and at long last, write the abstract.

The key point here is that you don't have to write things in order. Despite what the King told the White Rabbit, you do not have to begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end. Or perhaps it is the Red Queen, or even the March Hare? No matter who said it, you don't have to do it!

Indeed, you probably shouldn't. Let's suppose that you are writing your story, and you have just had the hero propose to the young lady of his dreams. So they will be married. Now you can continue writing forward, day by day, until the day of the wedding -- or you might jump ahead and write the wedding scene right now. It's the big scene that you know is coming, and maybe it's exciting to you, so go ahead and write it. Then you can think about what you need to build up to that big scene. Maybe at the wedding, the bridegroom was still trying to get comfortable in the purple tuxedo? So perhaps you need a scene where he tries to rent a tuxedo at the men's store in town, only to be run out of the store by the sheriff when he admits that he doesn't have a credit card or even a mailing address. So now he's got a problem -- where to get his wedding outfit? And you can write up a scene or even several scenes where he goes into the nearby big town and talks a priest into loaning him the purple tuxedo from the wedding diorama.

Pick out some of the big scenes that you can see ahead -- the climax, maybe the heart rending commitment scene where the hero decides to go through with it no matter what, or whatever other scenes are out there. I think someone called them the "candybar scenes" because they are like candy for the writer. But at this point, they are also likely to be the most clear scenes, and like high points in the mountains, you can use them to guide your writing. So go ahead and make a list of them, and write them up. Then take each one and think about the scenes that you need to build up to that big scene. What introduced that notion of buying his own store that leads up to the day when he opens the first art store in Dodge City? Okay, what were the complications in the middle between that inspiration and the big scene?

Write the ending. Then write the beginning. Then write some of the scenes in the middle. Hopscotch through your plot, and don't be afraid to write the pieces that you can see right now. Once you get them out of the way, just like packing, you'll start to find the other pieces that need to be included. And just like your suitcase, once you get everything piled on it, you can take it out and rearrange it so that it fits nicely. Call that one of the benefits of electronic editing -- rearranging the scenes in the right order is a whole lot easier on the computer than in paper.

Especially when you're doing quota writing, first draft and keep going for the word count, nanowrimo style work. Take the pieces you can see and write them. Don't try to fill in the parts that are hard to see -- focus on the parts that come easy now, and trust that the other parts will be easier later. Kind of like doing a test back in school -- go ahead and fill in the answers that you know off the top of your head, then go back and work on the ones that are harder for you.

'saright? Don't worry about the order, just get the big chunks, the ones that you know are ready to write out of the way. You can go back and fill in the fine details later.

tink
(About 800 words . . .)