Do you jump ahead when you write?

[lovecraft68]

On longer works when you come to a scene you either aren't feeling or are just stuck on will you go to your next chapter and go back and add the scene or will you stubbornly stay with the scene until you are done?

I'm in that spot for the first time since I've begun writing and wonder how other authors handle it.

 

[autoplot]

Sometimes, if a scene is messy (in a bad way) I'll skip over the end, or just limp it to a conclusion and come back later with intent to fix it, yeah.

Not that I'm suggesting this for anyone else, but one of the big reasons I outline is so I don't get in the "WTF is happening next" situation, because I really dislike it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Sometimes, if a scene is messy (in a bad way) I'll skip over the end, or just limp it to a conclusion and come back later with intent to fix it, yeah.

Not that I'm suggesting this for anyone else, but one of the big reasons I outline is so I don't get in the "WTF is happening next" situation, because I really dislike it.

I have no trouble with what next, its just that I am struggling with this "step" and don;t know how much time I should waste on it.

Also debating maybe even starting another story, but again, that would be a first for me, I usually can finish what I start.

 

[autoplot]

I have no trouble with what next, its just that I am struggling with this "step" and don;t know how much time I should waste on it.

Also debating maybe even starting another story, but again, that would be a first for me, I usually can finish what I start.

I would just say go to the next fun bit and come back and fix it later.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

On longer works when you come to a scene you either aren't feeling or are just stuck on will you go to your next chapter and go back and add the scene or will you stubbornly stay with the scene until you are done?

I'm in that spot for the first time since I've begun writing and wonder how other authors handle it.

That's how I deal with writer's block. If I get stuck, I skip ahead to a more fully formed section and then go back later to fix the problem area.

 

[sr71plt]

I keep going with what I'm working on and where I am in the story.

 

[lovecraft68]

I should have done this as a poll. I never think of that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I jump ahead when I get brain farts I don't wanna forget. Like this: At the end of the tale the judge is giving my PC whatfor and says to him, MISTER WHITEHEAD YOU IMPRESS ME AS A MAN WHO LIKES PLAYING GOD. Amos replied, THE JOB WAS VACANT, THE PEOPLE NEEDING KILLING WAS GETTING OUT OF HAND, AND I NEEDED A JOB DOING SOMETHING USEFUL.

 

[3113]

If it's not working, you may not need it....

In my experience 9 times out of 10 (or something like that as I really haven't kept count), when I'm trying to get from A-B-C and B isn't working, and I'm struggling, and I have the urge to just go onto C....In most cases, after much head banking, wringing of hands, renting of clothes and wailing over B I finally realize that I don't need B at all. The message of getting stuck on B and wanting to go onto C is usually that I should go onto C and forget all about B. If there's important info or events that the reader needs to know in B, I can usually find ways to get them across in C.

So, typically, I end up jumping to C and find that the story now continues on happily and often with a lot more impetus and energy than when I was trying so hard to make B work.

Now, of course, if I get an idea for an end or middle scene to the story, that's a different thing. I've written up many a chapter that I know won't happen till the middle or near the end. I figure it's always good to write down the idea for such parts when you have them, rather than lose them or lose your passions/inspiration for them if you wait. Of course, given how stories change, how unexpected things happen along the way, sometimes I get to that big fight scene I wrote up all excited so long ago, and it doesn't work at all. That's writing

 

[lovecraft68]

In my experience 9 times out of 10 (or something like that as I really haven't kept count), when I'm trying to get from A-B-C and B isn't working, and I'm struggling, and I have the urge to just go onto C....In most cases, after much head banking, wringing of hands, renting of clothes and wailing over B I finally realize that I don't need B at all. The message of getting stuck on B and wanting to go onto C is usually that I should go onto C and forget all about B. If there's important info or events that the reader needs to know in B, I can usually find ways to get them across in C.

So, typically, I end up jumping to C and find that the story now continues on happily and often with a lot more impetus and energy than when I was trying so hard to make B work.

Now, of course, if I get an idea for an end or middle scene to the story, that's a different thing. I've written up many a chapter that I know won't happen till the middle or near the end. I figure it's always good to write down the idea for such parts when you have them, rather than lose them or lose your passions/inspiration for them if you wait. Of course, given how stories change, how unexpected things happen along the way, sometimes I get to that big fight scene I wrote up all excited so long ago, and it doesn't work at all. That's writing

That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to re-run this thing through and see if I can live without this. Maybe that is why I'm stuck, maybe subconsciously I know I don't want it.

Now one question, you rent clothes?

 

[_Lynn_]

That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to re-run this thing through and see if I can live without this. Maybe that is why I'm stuck, maybe subconsciously I know I don't want it.

Now one question, you rent clothes?

Renting . . . tearing a hole in something

 

[lovecraft68]

Renting . . . tearing a hole in something

Ahhh, should that be rending? I've never heard that expression.

 

[_Lynn_]

Ahhh, should that be rending? I've never heard that expression.

I don't think it's very common in modern works.

 

[PennLady]

Ahhh, should that be rending? I've never heard that expression.

It definitely should be rending, but like MLynn says, it's not the most common usage, at least not in modern language. If you were doing something historical, that would probably work.

 

[Bill_S]

I know the whole story before I begin writing.

 

[lovecraft68]

It definitely should be rending, but like MLynn says, it's not the most common usage, at least not in modern language. If you were doing something historical, that would probably work.

Well, you learn something new every day.

 

[PennLady]

Well, you learn something new every day.

"There was much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments as the old gods visited vengeance." That sort of thing.

As to the original question, I don't think I do jump ahead although if I had a scene or an idea I wanted to remember, I'd write it down. I see no reason not to jump ahead if you need to.

 

[_Lynn_]

"There was much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments as the old gods visited vengeance." That sort of thing.

As to the original question, I don't think I do jump ahead although if I had a scene or an idea I wanted to remember, I'd write it down. I see no reason not to jump ahead if you need to.

Webster's gives this as a definition of rent (noun): an opening made by or as if by rending. So I think it can be either word.


As for the OP, I've jumped ahead and gone back to fill in the spaces later. But not all ideas have to or will make a complete story, so if I'm really struggling, I put the whole thing into a folder of discarded documents and start something new.

 

[slyc_willie]

I've found I am incapable of going back to write entire scenes. I'll go back and change a few lines here and there, but when it comes to writing, I tend to do each scene sequentially. I can't get to the next one until I finish the current.

With that said, however, in my current work I am actually planning on adding entire scenes once I'm done with the main part. But those scenes won't be directly related to what I've already written, so it doesn't offend my overwhelming writing OCD, if that makes any sense.

 

[sr71plt]

Webster's gives this as a definition of rent (noun): an opening made by or as if by rending. So I think it can be either word.

The problem is with the verb. Present = rend; past = rent.

 

[lovecraft68]

The problem is with the verb. Present = rend; past = rent.

Hmmm, Learned two somethings today, very profitable thread.

 

[_Lynn_]

I've found I am incapable of going back to write entire scenes. I'll go back and change a few lines here and there, but when it comes to writing, I tend to do each scene sequentially. I can't get to the next one until I finish the current.

With that said, however, in my current work I am actually planning on adding entire scenes once I'm done with the main part. But those scenes won't be directly related to what I've already written, so it doesn't offend my overwhelming writing OCD, if that makes any sense.

My OCD wouldn't let me move on if I didn't like a sentence. Or a word even. Another author challenged me to change that. I struggled, big time, but I completed a story . . . Trapped. Not my best work, but not the worst either.

 

[_Lynn_]

The problem is with the verb. Present = rend; past = rent.

Yeah.

 

[PennLady]

The problem is with the verb. Present = rend; past = rent.

Thanks. I should have known that. I am just not all here today.

 

[HeyAll]

My story lines are fairly simple, and split up into section, so I have no problems skipping around and writing different parts.

I write whatever scene I have ideas for. One time I wrote the ending before I wrote the middle.