I have a bad problem that once I've imagined a scene, that's the way it played, it's history set in stone from then on. I write out of order, get a better idea and then I'm having to seriously retcon or get so bollixed up I can't go forward....

Yes. Yesyesyesyesyes. Oh gods yes.

(I will write chronologically, I will write chronologically, I will write chronologically...)

(Boggling at trying to develop personalities, storyline and plot, in pieces)

Of course, I have no math in me, which almost certainly contributes to that little issue.

OTOH, I finished rewriting Still Life. Bev, do you want to wait for a PDF, or shall I send an atatched word doc? And same for Anne, whom I believe also wanted to read it?

Attached word doc is great (Especially since I'll be here to get it, yay!).

Oh. And silly me, WooHoo you, for finishing it! You are the hardest-working woman I know.

I have a bad problem that once I've imagined a scene, that's the way it played, it's history set in stone from then on. I write out of order, get a better idea and then I'm having to seriously retcon or get so bollixed up I can't go forward....

I've just accepted the fact I'm going to have to do major continuity edits once I'm done. I really couldn't write any other way. I tried, and I never even came close to finishing everything. From the time I was fifteen or sixteen on, I've accumulated stacks of Chapters 1-3. Once I even got as far as Chapter Five. But never anything close to 65,000 words.

The hardest part of writing out of order for my current project is that it's all about the coming of age of my first-person narrator. Having settled into Lucy's woman-voice, it takes some mental readjustment to go back to her maiden-voice when I write earlier scenes.

Boggling at trying to develop personalities, storyline and plot, in pieces

The biggest project I did this with, I *knew* who the character would be (and this isn't totally off topic, because she was an OFC) at the end. Even though, in the parts I was working on in the other timeline, she didn't exist.

It's hard to explain. I went back and rewrote a whole section because I realized she was acting out of character in it, even though it was one of the first sections where we see her.

I just... hmm.

I have no time sense, as a person. I flash to moments, stuck in amber, connected by something I can't feel. It's the same when I write, you know? Moments, connected. A flip book, but the order doesn't matter when I write it, just when I join it. A quilt, really.

Are you talking about a linear piece, Plei?

Because your long Wes-Buffy piece was very linear, and seamless. The characters grew and changed as a result of what we read, what they experienced.

That's the sort of thing I find impossible to write piecemeal. As Susan said, switching "voices" for the characters is difficult--sometimes it's impossible (for me) to find that earlier voice with any authenticity.

But this:

Moments, connected. A flip book, but the order doesn't matter when I write it, just when I join it. A quilt, really.

sounds just as effective as something unspooling through time.

Because your long Wes-Buffy piece was very linear, and seamless. The characters grew and changed as a result of what we read, what they experienced.

If you're talking about Absolution (or anything but the new one) it was written in patches, here, there, everywhere.

written in patches

Then I salute you. As I said before, seamless.

(And really, really good.)

I have at least a rough idea of my plot before I even start writing. At least, I know where I'm going to begin, and where I want to end up. In between, I have moments--scenes that come to me vividly--and transformations--changes in characters and their relationships I know must happen for me to get from Point A to Point B. And what seems to work best for me is to work on whatever moment or transformation is most vivid for me at any given time.

For example, I just finished a scene maybe a third of the way through my book. It's the one I hashed out on Natter, where Lucy, my heroine, and James, the hero, end up walking back alone from a picnic because her horse is lame. A lot is going on. I make use of future bits I've already written, having James hint at a backstory he'll describe in detail after they're married. I have him make a philosophical statement against hasty marriage when he's pumping her for information about her cousin who's courting his sister, because he's going to propose to Lucy, who he's known for all of three days, in about a week, in order to rescue her from financial ruin. I figure the fact that he offers to marry her out of a gallant impulse contrary to his stated principles is fodder for useful conflict, though I haven't decided how I'll make use of it yet. And I tried to show her sexual attraction to him in subtle ways, because she's nowhere near understanding or acknowledging it herself yet, but it needs to be clear to the reader.

So, with that done, I decide what to write next. The scene now stuck in my head is the big ball scene, perhaps the most plot-packed day in the entire story. It's a week after the scene I just finished, and I'll need at least a few small scenes to bridge the gap. I know the rough outline--snatches of conversation that need to happen, that sort of thing. But I can't visualize any of it yet. Instead, I'm visualizing Lucy coming down the stairs for the ball, all in virginal white trimmed in seductive crimson, and the look in James's eyes when he sees her. I've got dancers whirling in their Regency elegance in the gothic setting of a 14th century castle's great hall. I've got the worst of Lucy's cousins picking the worst of all possible times to tell her he's gambled away the family fortune and can't do anything more to help provide for her younger brothers and sisters, of which she has many. And I've got James coming to her rescue, and all the fallout that ensues.

It's so vivid in my mind I feel like I can touch it. So I'm going to write it while it's still so strong.

I know that feeling, Susan. Write! Write while the images are strong and almost tangible!