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

[amergina.livejournal.com]

With me, it was a combo of both. I usually had a pretty god idea of a starting point and an ending point, but I didn't always write liniarly. Often, I would write the pivotal stuff first, then sit down and figure out how the characters got to that point from something that happened earlier. Sometimes scenes got shifted about, then connecting bits were written.

...

I miss creative writing. I would have done NaNoWriMo if it hadn't been for that whole "closing on a house" thing that is EATING MY NOVEMBER LIKE A MONSTER FROM HELL.

Er yeah. Not stressed. Not yet. Nope.