Writing Styles: Chunk or Linear?
Add comment January 22nd, 2008
I’ve been reading the Fangs, Fur & Fey LiveJournal community for a while. One of my writing goals is to become a member of that community. 
Currently, they’re doing a writing meme. One of the questions is about writings styles/methods: does the author write in a linear fashion, or do they write in chunks and piece it all together. So far, the majority of the people who have participated in the meme are linear writers. To be honest, I’m not all that surprised. When you think about a story, it’s in three parts: beginning, middle and end. You know where the story starts, and you pretty much have an idea of where it’s going to end. You just fill in the blank spots in between, and half the fun of writing the novel is the journey that gets you there. Of course, I’m now reminded of Ardeth Bey’s line in The Mummy Returns “only the journey is written, not the destination”. Don’t ask me why I thought of that. probably because I watch those movies way too often.
So, am I chunk or linear? Well, I’m a linear writer but a chunk planner. What does this mean?
When I’m working on the outline for something, be it a novel or an adventure for a role playing game, scenes pop into my head. I write notes for that scene down onto an index card and set it aside. Once I’ve finished writing down all the scenes I’ve thought of, I take a look at all my cards. I move them around, trying to figure out the flow of the novel, the basic order of the scenes. Once I’ve done that, I create scenes to fill in the blanks, to get the characters from one scene to another. Then I number the cards so if I drop them (or someone or something else gets into them and messes them up) I can get them back into the proper order again. After that’s done, I pull card number one off the pile and start to write.
The writing continues in order, one card to the next, until I reach the last card. (I put a line through the writing on each card when I’ve finished with it, so I know at a glance if I’ve used the card.) Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t take any side trips. Chapter 10 of TMA was a perfect example.
The second half of Chapter 9 had Alex going to the hospital to check on her brother (well, brother by choice and circumstance, not blood or marriage - it’s explained in the book of course :)). That wasn’t in my original notes. I was going to skip over the visit, only have it mentioned in passing. However, when I got to the point where I was going to gloss over it, I realized it was going to be an excellent opportunity to explore some of Alex’s past and weave in a thread of a subplot.
I couldn’t pass that up, so I write the hospital scene. Alex ended up getting very angry, and she decided she was going to take off to - and that’s where things got interesting. Where was she going to go? Alex ended up taking another little side trip in the plot that resulted in something I hadn’t planned, but I think it really worked out. It has upped the stakes, and has resulted in Alex learning more about herself (including an important plot point, and the answer to an important question) before I had originally planned. But hey, that’s fine. It’s the natural evolution of the thing. Certainly, it means some things will need to be changed in subsequent scenes, and I may have to go back and add in some more clues to previous chapters, but that’s what revisions are for.
So. Are you a chunk or linear writer? Do you use a bit of both? Leave a comment and let me know!
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