Writing a novel out of order is a mug’s game.

Feeds:: Posts; Comments

Writing a novel out of order is a mug’s game.

April 9, 2016 by Danielle de Valera

I’ve spent the first three months of this year finishing off the 1st draft of the sequel to the cat book. (See right.) I’m now at around 80,000 words, and I’m embroiled — no other word for it — in arranging the scenes in chronological order. You see, I write novels out of order, just picking one scene from the story line as the mood takes me. I don’t do this with short stories, which I plan out in advance, but I do it with novels, god help me. Now I’m the proud possessor of around 80,000+ words, roughly 85 scenes — all out of order.

To get a book out of this is no mean feat. When I saw the extent of the problem, plus the fact that I still had three critical scenes to write, I thought of lying down on the railway tracks.

But the train doesn’t run in these parts anymore.

How to proceed from here? My method was to buy a packet of catalogue cards, write the name of each scene plus a brief description on a catalogue card, and then sort the cards into piles representing the main characters. I then sort each character pile into their journey arcs. After that, I shuffle the cards until they’re in what I hope is the right order for the novel, interpolating the main character cards as I go. This takes time. Quite a bit of it, in fact. When that’s done, I take the printout of the novel and put the printed out scenes into the order I obtained via the catalogue cards. Then I read the printout to see if it flows, where bridges need to be added, etc.

It’s madly time consuming, and I’m only at the catalogue card stage at present; I have a fair way to go yet. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of thing that can’t be hurried. Glitches in the plot will always appear at this point, and it takes time to work through them, for something to occur to me that will solve the problem.

Writing a novel out of order is a mug’s game; I don’t recommend it to anyone. But that’s my way with novels; I just take them on, one bite at a time, until eventually they’re done.

So here I am with my catalogue cards wrapped around with a rubber band. I get up in the morning, put on my dressing gown, feed the cat, make a cup of tea, and shuffle the catalogue cards.

I predict it will be a while yet before I have a properly organised printout that I can use to arrange the scenes in the right order in the computer version.

As the late Bob Ellis used to say, “So it goes.”

PS If you’re wanting to catch up on any of my short stories, the easiest way to do it is to go to http://www.amazon.com/Danielle-de-Valera/e/B00H286LXI There’s a list there of all of them.

Posted in Australian writers, Bob Ellis, books about cats, Danielle de Valera, e-books, Far North Coast of NSW, Fiction, fiction authors, fiction editors, Fiction writers, Humour, Indie authors, Indie publishing, madness, manucript assessments, manuscript appraisals, new writers, new writing, north coast of nsw, Short stories, struggling writers, the writing process, Writing | Tagged Amazon KDP, anecdotes, Australian humour, Cats, Danielle de Valera, e-books, far north coast of NSW, fiction writing, How to write a novel, indie authors, north coast of nsw, the writing process, writing a novel out of order | 4 Comments

4 Responses

on April 9, 2016 at 10:43 pm | Reply Catana

No idea who Bob Ellis is (and I’m *not* going to google him), but even if he said it, it were Kurt Vonnegut what wrote it.

I don’t always write strictly in order, but 85 scenes? That way lies madness. Just thinking about the continuity problems you’re going to have to deal with makes me shudder. I’m guessing it will be sometime next year before I get to take a look at it.
on April 9, 2016 at 10:55 pm | Reply Danielle de Valera

Thanks so much for the thumbs-up on Vonnegut; I knew Ellis was quoting someone, but couldn’t remember who – and I’m so inept with WordPress blogs, I didn’t dare leave the page to check in case i lost the lot! I wrote the 1st cat book the same way, out of order, so I guess I’ll get there in the end. It really pushes your creativity to the limit; and with long works, I prefer that to writing to an outline, which I find too predicable to hold my enthusiasm. Of course, I do have the whole story in my head, so I know where I’m going, as it were.
on April 10, 2016 at 1:32 am | Reply Pam Tsu Lih

“I thought of lying down on the railway tracks.” Good thing you didn’t. It’s already been done and, the adulation of the literati not withstanding, the novel (Anna someone) was as boring as batshit.

On another note: “No idea who Bob Ellis is…” Congratulations, Catana. Consider yours a fortunate life. Ellis was the most self-indulgent bore of a generation… and that’s saying a lot, considering he was up against Clive James and Robert Hughes.
- on April 10, 2016 at 11:50 pm | Reply Danielle de Valera
  
  Well said! Re the railway tracks, I was thinking more along the lines of Neal Cassady, Keroac’s buddy, who was the model for Dean Moriaty (sp?) in On the Road.