a question for writers

[cellio]

This question is directed toward two groups: people who have completed fiction works, and people doing NaNoWriMo (national novel-writing month).

How do you structure your writing? Do you write your story linearly from beginning to end (not counting editing passes)? Or do you jump around, leaving place-holders for things you'll fill in later?

My impression, based on only a few data points, is that people doing NaNoWriMo tend to start at the beginning and write the story in order. (NaNoWriMo is all about cranking out the initial draft in a short period of time, so editing is discouraged.) I write fiction rarely and as a hobby only, but I've found that I tend to jump around somewhat -- I may start out writing linearly, but then I'll insert something like "[wild night in bar goes here]" so I can write the next part, because I'm not feeling inspired to write about wild nights right now but I do have inspiration for the aftermath. Do people who write fiction more seriously do that, or am I just quirky?

I find myself wondering whether NaNoWriMo builds productive habits, encourages destructive habits, or is just plain orthogonal to conventional writing.

Comments

[kyleri]

I'm doing NaNoWriMo too, and I'm writing linearly though I've done enough of an outline that I probably could jump around if I wanted to.

With any luck (okay, with a lot of luck and a lot more work) I'll be able to tell you in a few years that my style works for getting published. I _do_ know that it's working to get the book written - I'm over 30,000 words already. I _think_ I'm going to produce something that I'll be able to knock into shape with a bunch more work, but right now I'm far too close to it to have any real idea if I'm right. :/