McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Where do you start?

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13x13:
When writing a story or novel where do you start?  I've got scenes in my head that aren't necessarily part of the beginning of the novel. Do you write in a linear fashion or do you write by scene and jump about?

Craz:
I tend to write in a linear structure usually, though I might pre-write scenes depending on inspiration and such. Though if I do write out of order, I usually have to spend some time making sure I kept everything linear.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
You start as late as you possibly can in the actual story, because that teaches you how to do solid backstory and incluing without long infodumps*, and how much of the story you think you have you actually need.

I write pretty much exclusively in order, because it's a rare couple of thousand words that I don't find out something new about the characters or plot or world while writing, and if I did that out of order it would drive me mad trying to go back and keep all the incluing straight.

That doesn't, mind, have to mean that the story as presented to the reader needs to be in chronological order.  There's no law says you have to write in the order you want read.

*Unless of course you are really good at making long infodumps cool and fun; but most of us aren't Neal Stephenson.

Suilan:
I write my scenes and chapters in sequence too (just scribbling down notes when I have an idea for later chapters), although in the latest version of my trilogy (after workshopping the beginning at OWW), I added 3 chapters to the beginning.

What neurovore says is good advice and I thought that I had started at appropriate point -- as late as possible, at the moment where everything changes for the main character but the reader still catches a glimpse of the character's old life. I still start at that point, just three days earlier, on the journey to her new "home." The reason was to have more action at the beginning and to introduce my story's main theme earlier.

Only once did I write a later scene (a love scene) but when I came to that point in the story, the characters had developed quite differently and the tone of the scene did not fit one bit any more, so I had to toss it and write a completely new scenes.

Richelle Mead:
I write in a linear way, but it takes me a while until I can get to that point.  I start by writing plot ideas randomly all over a white board.  Then, I group them and start placing them in order in a loose chart.  When I finally have a good idea where it's going, I write up a chapter by chapter summary in MSWord.  That's the part that takes the longest because that's when I actually have to flesh out the ideas.  But, if my outline is solid, I can then just write the manuscript front to end.

Sometimes, though, I'll find that the outline was flawed, and then I'll have to revise the manuscript.  That gets complicated because then I do have to jump into the middle to add and delete scenes.  Lots of slicing and dicing!  That's hard for someone like me--I much prefer going in order--but I know that's how some people naturally work.

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