Writing: Chronological vs. Scene by Scene

Once you have an idea, the hardest part as a writer is to actually write it. How do you start? How do you continue? Will you ever finish?!

Things can easily get overwhelming, and the truth is - There Is No Right Answer!

Whether you are writing for Nanowrimo, for a fanfic, a short story or your school newsletter, it can be overwhelming to get things going. Once you have started to plot out your idea, it might seem like too big of a task to actually get the writing started.

Fear not! All writers feel this way. Some are incredible at the beginning, some write the greatest endings, while other still can write the middles like there's no one watching.

But, where does that leave you?

For me, I have found that the most honest answer is this: Every story, just like ever writer, is different.

Choosing how to tell your story depends on many things. In another post, we will look at the different advantages of different perspectives, but for now, just realize that whichever perspective you choose can also help determine how you're going to write the story itself.

If you're writing a historical piece, for example, it's probably in your best interest to do your writing chronologically. The cause and effect will then occur naturally, and you won't loose yourself between your story and the history.

If you're writing a romance, for example, in a contemporary setting, you can likely write the story scene by scene. You could even write it from the "happily ever after" backwards to the beginning.

If you're writing a time-traveling story, you can easily write the story either as it occurs, or jumping around - because calling it chronological order in this case is a bit of a stretch.

Here are some pros for each, to help you in deciding whether to write your epic masterpiece in chronological order, or scene by scene.

There are numerous reasons to do either setup. Most of my fanfics and dramas are written chronologically, and posted as they are done - usually chapter by chapter. My series novels and my romantic pieces are written scene by scene, because they involve me looking into different information aspects for the different pieces.

And if a story has more than one POV, I tend to write those scene by scene, except for the ones where the timelines are foggy. Those are the ones I really need to use the Plotting Sheets. Keeping a kind of "Story Bible" allows me to jump from one character or setting to another and still keep the same tone of the story moving forward. It's easy to get lost in one character's story, but the Plotting Sheets help keep me on track.

#Writing