Since I've finished two short stories in the last month I've decided to start on one of my many novel ideas (get it?). Because I've laid the groundwork over many years and already have a dearth of material to draw on, I'm finding that I tend to write chapters haphazardly as the mood strikes rather than forcing myself to stick to a strict regimen of start to finish. So far I've written a chapter almost in the middle of the book, one closer to the start and another about two-thirds through. And the chapters I have lined up ready to go in my head are in no particular order either. So I was wondering how others go about the process? Do you attempt to write from start to finish? Do you write in some sort of logical order, like a beginning, middle and end before finishing all the bits off in-between? Or do you just write whatever, whenever, and figure that you'll stick it all together like a jigsaw puzzle later on?
I do them haphazard -- well, I try to write in chronological order (which is how my stories generally have gone) but sometimes a scene will strike me and I'm not at the place yet where the scene would fit. So I go ahead and write the scene. Occasionally, it turns out that the scene doesn't really fit into the story, and I can't put it in. But that's okay. It just makes for background info on my characters. Other times, I know that I need to have a particular scene, and I'll write it whenever it strikes me.
I write in order, mostly because until I've written "A" I have no idea what "B" should be. I might make notes on ideas I come up with for later scenes, but that's no guarantee they'll actually go into the story when I finally get there.
"Haphazard" is a loaded term. It implies that in the absence of planning to the last detail, there's no process at all. However, there is a stickied thread for this very topic, in this same forum. It's called, "What's Your Writing Process?"
???... 'dearth' means 'scarcity/lack'... are you sure you didn't mean a 'wealth' of material?... and what do you mean by 'material'?... research notes?... bits and pieces of scenes?... actual written chapters?... or what? in re writing 'haphazardly' which l take to mean not starting at the beginning and writing to the end,but writing here and there in a higgledy-piggledy fashion, i don't see that as a good method for turning out a novel that will hang together coherently...
I write haphazzard usually when I'm stuck for an opening - I've written four scenes - about three to ten pages each that will go into my novel - but they're disconnected.
