Starting at the Beginning
Starting at the Beginning…
Once upon a time… how many book and stories have started that way? Countless, I’m sure. And really, a story should start at the beginning, continue through the middle, and finally reach an end. It’s the logical way to read a story, but what about when writing it? Do you always start writing a story from the beginning or do you perhaps start somewhere in the middle or even the end? It has become well known that Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight originated from a dream. The dream was the meadow scene that when the story was all written turned out to be chapter thirteen in the book. Thirteen? That’s a long way from the beginning, but for her that’s where the story began: the middle. She started writing Twilight from what she had seen in her dream and continued writing it through to the end. She didn’t go back to write the beginning until after the rest of the story had been told, and she realized she wanted to know how Edward and Bella got to the place in her dream. What happened to bring them to the point in chapter thirteen? For those of us that have read Twilight, we know a lot happened before that. Can you imagine starting that story at chapter thirteen the way it was revealed to SM? I can’t.
For a lot of writers, that kind of writing process doesn’t seem unusual at all, but for me it’s almost impossible to imagine. I have found that no matter how I try, I am unable to write a story out of order. I can’t start at the middle and work my way backwards. Nor can I skip around and write a chapter at the beginning followed by a chapter towards the end. Even though the scenes might play in my head out of order, or are all there for my own viewing and listening pleasure, I have a brain freeze that prevents me from being able to write them as they come to me. And believe me some chapters or scenes are much louder than others and want to be told right away, but until I get to where they belong in the story I just can’t get the words out. It’s downright frustrating at times.
For example, I’ve nearly completed writing a story that I had only two chapters that I knew about when I started writing it. Nothing else except those two completely fleshed out and ready to go chapters. One of them turned out to be the very first chapter and therefore it was easy to write out. The second chapter that I knew about wasn’t chapter two. I didn’t know quite where it went in the story, but I did know it wasn’t close to the beginning. In fact, it turned out to be chapter twenty seven. That’s right: I had to wait until twenty five other chapters were written after that first chapter to finally get the second chapter out of my head. I knew about it, heard it in my head, and could see it every single day between when I wrote chapter one and finally got to chapter twenty seven. But I couldn’t write a single word of it. And believe me I tried, if for no other reason than to shut the dialogue in that chapter up for good.
I sometimes envy people that can write out of order, but for the most part I’m happy with the way that my process works. Sure, I have to follow the progress of the story the same way it will be read when it’s finished, but for me it also makes incorporating the little tweaks and changes that pop up during the writing process easier. I often joke that my outline tends to get stolen by one of my characters and that he colors all over it with a green sharpie because he doesn’t like being the fact that I write in order. He thrives on making my story a bit chaotic by changing things up. If I wrote it in the order that he wanted me to, his antics would really make me crazy because chapters would have to be completely re-written simply because of him. As many of us can understand, our characters don’t always do what we want them to, but rather develop a life of their own. A few of mine do their absolute best to keep my on my toes, and if I didn’t write in order I would lose the plot of the story getting sidetracked by their continual growth and development – and yes, outright mischief. That’s right, the voices in my head love to be mischievous, and I do realize how that makes me sound a bit off my rocker. I’ve accepted that about myself.
Getting back to that chapter twenty seven? If I had written that chapter out when it first came to me it would’ve been a completely different chapter. So much had happened between when I first heard that chapter and when the story actually allowed for me to write it that there is no way it should’ve been written right away if I wanted to get it right. And honestly, the chapter was better for it. Patience is not something I’m always graced with, but I’ve found that at least in my writing I have no choice but to be patient. I’m just not blessed with the ability to write the chapters as I see them and put them in order later. And as frustrating as that can be for me at times, in the end I’ve learned that it’s really okay. The end product is always better when I stay true to what works for me, even if the voices in my head disagree. ;)
Until next time,
~Lisa
Lisa, I’m the same way. I can’t write out of order, I have to do it linearly. There was only one time when I wrote something out of order, and it was only because I couldn’t write anything else until I wrote that chapter. I too am jealous that I can’t write what comes to me and put the pieces together later.