Linear and Non-linear writing

I'm a linear writer. When I say that, I mean that I write from beginning to end of whatever I'm writing, each scene following the previous scene in time as you progress through the novel, and basically never write scenes out of order.

A lot of writers work the other way around - write whatever they're thinking about at the time, regardless of where it fits into the book, then put everything together afterwards, like a film director does.

Each of these methods is equally valid, and work for different people for different reasons. I find it easier to progress through my story and incorporate character and relationship growth if I know exactly where I've already been and what has happened before the part I'm writing. Others find it easier to write whatever is most vivid to them at the time, to get it down on paper as fast as they can.

Today I wrote a scene that belongs two books in advance to where I am right now. It had been haunting me for days, and all the time new phrases and images were coming into my mind for it. Rarely has a scene come on so strong of its own accord, out of sequence. And so I wrote it down while the fire was still in me.

It's something to consider when you're writing, anyway. You don't have to start at the beginning and end at the end. If you're stuck, jump to a part you know you can write. Or just do it anyway, if the inspiration comes.

Nobody but you will ever know which bits you wrote first.

A little about myself and my work

I realised today that I've never actually written anything of any significance here about the novel I'm working on, what sort of writing I do, that sort of thing. So I guess I better had, huh? I hesitate to write too much about it, but I'll tell you a little.

My current WIP is called The Night Tower, and is a fantasy novel which is hopefully going to be somewhere in the region of 120,000 words, rather than any larger wordcount. I have a quartet planned, of which this is the first novel, and I am about 90% of the way through the first draft. It has strong elements of romance and crime/mystery, and is character-driven rather than fantasy-driven, by which I mean that magic exists, but within strict limits, and is not the true focus of the story, but an engine by which it moves along.

I have finished a full-length novel once before, and many unfinished projects, which I hope eventually to go back to and rewrite better than they were before. I hope to submit to agents by May next year. I was aiming for this year, until I realised that my dissertation will be hitting me hard from September onwards, and the clash might sink both my ships. So, once my degree is finished...

Look out for The Night Tower on the shelves, won't you?

TIHFU: something new I'm trying

So I'm currently reading through The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, and in the very first (introductory) chapter, the writer makes a point I thought was really good.

If you want to write about history and politics and mythology and belief, why don't you go and read the books you've never thought of actually reading, the ones that actually talk about all of that in deep and meaningful ways, that have survived for hundreds of years?

I mean, who knows politics better than Machiavelli? And who did mythology better than the Greeks? The more you read, the more you'll know and the better your writing will be.

Makes sense to me. I've always wanted to be well read, so why not make it now?

I haven't started on the books I bought yet, for the simple reason that I'm on a hospital placement right now in Devon practicing my future trade and kicking ass at testing patients. But once I get a chance, I'm diving in. Why not expand my horizons and see if that expands my writing, too?

Books I bought, for now:

The Qu'ran, english translation
Greek Mythology text (well regarded one)
The Prince by Machiavelli
A General History of Pirates
In the Company of Demons (Renaissance demonology, Key of Solomon, that sort of thing)
The Art of War by Sun Tzu

I think the guy at the bookshop must have thought I was nuts for buying that random an assortment, but I'm looking forward to reading these and moving on to even more. I just hope I don't expand my mind so much that it won't fit between my ears any more :)