Hello! I need help with the order of events in my science fiction story. I know what I want to do, but not the order in which I want to put the events. Of course, each one except the first will be affected by the previous one. This is what I am confused by. How do I want the other events to be changed by others? Each of these events involves meeting new characters. Here's what I have so far- the main character and her friend know each other before the story starts, they see a spaceship and that's how they meet the third character, who's kind of a mentor now. These characters are established. The plot so far is described in more detail in my Workshop post. There's a new character, let's call him A. The main character is traveling through his home city, where a chemical has been released that will make everyone kill themselves. The main character will not be affected by said chemical, so she continues on her way but runs into A who failed his suicide attempt, and now she takes him back to her friend and mentor. Now there's B (meet him in my Workshop post!). He's a drug addict but turns out to be the brother of the main character. Lastly there's C. The main character, her friend and her mentor are at her house. C pulls up in his car. He has a strange condition that the mentor has seen before. Said condition is usually fatal. The mentor goes to their research facility. It takes a while but the main character never leaves C's side. The mentor returns and C is saved. I didn't know if the names being included would be relevant?
The 35 year old drug addict who turns out to be the YOUNGER brother of the main character who's 13? Don't you mean older? And 13 and 35 is quite a range unless it's a blended family. I know this isn't what you asked. My suggestion is write the story. Let it sit a bit, then go over it and re-write and re-write. You will not write the perfect story on the first try. It will go through multiple re-writes before it starts to come together.
Yes, I mean younger... long story short, fountain of youth stuff. I probably should have clarified that, sorry. Also I'm no stranger to completely re-writing things!
I don't really understand what you're asking. It might be helpful to have a timeline of essential events. (The incidental ones fall onto the line automatically.) You can start by writing down the first thing that happens in the present story - page 1. and then draw a long line and put the conclusion. Write a complete list of characters. Which ones are still with us on the last page? The ones that are not: Put their departures in chronological order, and their names on the story line approximately how far along in the narrative they die or leave or disappear. The cause of each departure goes directly before that name on the line. So, whatever caused the event that absented each character has to happen before that point. (If there are flashbacks, that's where I'd put the relevant one: just before the fatal event.)
Sometimes the most important thing is the order in which information is revealed to the reader. That can powerfully affect the way they receive the story. You might keep that idea in mind and see if re-arranging things would change what the readers know and when.
I don't see a problem with the order you have all ready. Write each scene on coloured post card thingies (don't know the real name) but you can get them easily enough, even online. Number them in order. Then on different coloured cards you can write in additional scenes for that course of events. Play around with the order and if you find one you also like. Write the order down and add new scenes for those events on a separate colour. That's how I order events. Sometimes physically seeing the events laid out in front of you can be helpful.
3 x 5 cards, or Index cards. You can also get a plastic Recipe box to hold them and divider cards with little tabs sticking up to keep them organized. This is a way of making what's called a Step Outline or Beat Sheet, for organizing story events. I found a way to do it in Evernote using Tables. <— That link should take you right to the relevant post about it. Evernote is free software that works on PC and Mac I believe. If you do download it and need a little help figuring out how to set it up just PM me, I'll be glad to help. It's pretty easy once you know a couple of basic things, mainly just how to make tables and how to create the links.
There is another handy writing program called Scrivener that has all those cards index thingies on your screen. I have tried to use it, didn't like it (I'm rubbish as technology; more comfortable with the backs of old bank statements) but the writer who recommended it to me finds it very helpful for keeping track of characters and event sequences. You can try it out.
