Writing Blog

20231025 How I Wrote The Latest Work

October 25, 2023, 10:00am

All right, all right... I'll stop.

No more personal crap except where it relates directly to my writing. I thought this was a safe place; oh well...

So... writing.

I was asked how I write the flashback stuff for a story like the semi non linear work I just finished. Good question.

Okay, I have the main through-line story, in this case the rescue of the 2019 girl in the crystal. However, the first thing I wrote was the opening 1994 chapter, the post-fight scene.

So I would write, and I knew I wanted to have a flashback every second chapter. But I wrote the 2019 story. About halfway through I realised that I needed some set up for things in 2019 that would relate to the past, so I would write a flashback and then insert it where it felt right. Then go back to the main story (the joy of being a pantser!). I changed the order of flashbacks a few times to add the foreshadowing in a better manner, and even got rid of one flashback because it felt superfluous when I had something better to add. That happened yesterday, meaning said novella (short novel... whatever) is now 49k words.

In a proper non-linear narrative, which I have tried a few times, the order is more random, especially the way I write them, and I just write the sections/chapters as the ideas come to me, past, present or future. This was different because there was a definite through-story that needed to be told in order; the flashbacks add context and characterisation.

Yes, I know it is difficult for people to understand what I mean without reading it, but this is just an insight into how I write. To be honest, I don't really get how plotters work; how can you plan out an entire book when the characters have minds and lives of their own?