100 Things #48 - Writing backwards

[jana_denardo]

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}



Some stories insist on being told. Behind Blue Eyes (very tentative title, as in I had to call it something so I could find it but have no real intentions of using it) is one of those. Also, if it could, it would be told backwards.

the last scenes want to be told first. I do NOT do well writing out of chronological order. I've tried it. I often get lost in the middle or literally can't figure out where to seam things together. It's good to know where this is going but I'm not sure I'm the person to write it from the end forward.

Have any of you tried that? Did you like it? How did you handle it?

In the end I might have to write at least one scene from the end so it will leave me alone.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I'd write it, so you have it. Otherwise, you might lose it somewhere in your head.

[bay115.livejournal.com]

I too would write and save it for later. I've written out of order all the time and I manage to get my scenes together (then again, I'm used to doing that).

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

and I may do that just to get the word count. My fear, since it's happened before, that by the time I get to the end, what I've written is no longer relevant.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I write out of order a lot, especially when I'm just getting started on a project. It seems to be a necessary part of the brainstorming process for me -- nailing down my thoughts on scenes and characters by writing them while I'm working on the project as a whole. I used to jump around through the whole writing process, but at some point I stopped doing that -- there is just too much wasted effort, having to rewrite scenes or discard them as the plot changes. So now I mostly do it at the beginning of the process, and then write chronologically for the rest of it. Sometimes I end up throwing out most of these early scenes, but I regard it as a necessary part of getting a handle on the characters and their world.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Sometimes in the beginning I do write down some of the most insistent later scenes but for the reason you stated, having to do too many rewrites, I try not to do too much out of order