all but giving up, i started writing a YA peice that incorporates a lot of jumping around in the order of events. the peice isn't something i'll ever do anything with--i use it now to get my creative juices flowing for "real" writing--but i think the lack of chronological order may work well for my novel.

does anyone know of a peice that has used this method successfully? also, if anyone else has been in a similar situation, i could use some advice. Thanks.

TTFN & lol

The purpose, so far as I could tell, of the jumping around was to show the motivation for the murder, and the effects it had later on the people of the village, all while the main storyline takes place on the day of the murder.

I've been told that this is called a "revelatory" novel because the sequence of events, not being chronological, is not to show "what happened next" but to reveal things about the people in the village over time.

Because skipping around is a relatively unconventional approach to storytelling, if you want it to work, you have to have a very good reason for doing it that way. So you have to think about how the various scenes relate to each other in ways other than coming in some kind of chronological order.

Another example is Ford Maddox Ford's THE GOOD SOLDIER, which is told more or less as if the narrator and reader/listener are a couple of old friends sitting facing each other in front of a fireplace and catching up on the past. The skipping around works more along the lines of "oh, I forgot to mention this part," and "before I tell you this, I need to go back and explain something," so the scenes relate to each other in a "that reminds me" kind of way.

(I hope this all makes sense.)

Anyway, skipping around works, but you have to be sure that you fulfill the three responsibilities writers have to their readers (according to Orson Scott Card), and those are to answer the "faith, hope, and clarity" questions:

Faith: oh, yeah? (you have to make it believable to the reader)

Hope: so what? (you have to make the reader care)

Clarity: huh? (you have to make sure it makes sense to the reader)

I just saw a movie that hopped around in a strict chronological order. Look up Memento if you are interested in seeing what timeplay does in the movies.

I skip around in it, though... not that it will be like that in the end, but i write the exciting parts first, the parts i'm interested in writing. Does this seem like a bad idea? I haven't had consistentcy(is that a word?) issues yet, but i'm thinking i might, if I get careless.

that's the best part of those "fluff" bits. you get to do the exciting stuff--basically, whatever you're in the mood for. mine actually helps me get off a particular "mood" when the piece is done with that section. i wanna keep going, even if that means switching gears. i can then move to my "real" work.

if you have consistancy issues later on, you can always scrap stuff, or start over with that or another piece. i wouldn't worry about it.

(Monty Python rules!)

all~

thanks for the references! i'm sure they'll be a lot of help!

TTFN & lol

Cosmi

In fact, if you write the parts that you find exciting, when you find them exciting, they are more likely to be interesting to the reader as well.

If you wait to write the exciting parts until you get to that point in the story, you run the risk of losing your excitement for that part of the story.

Since you ought to figure on at least one rewrite after you have all the scenes written down, you can write the scenes in any order you choose and let the rewrite be where you smooth them all together.

Sometimes, you'll find that once you have the exciting stuff (which is probably also the most important stuff in the story) written, there won't be much smoothing needed to get them to fit together after all.

So, yes, absolutely. Write the exciting stuff first. Then write the stuff that is exciting to you next, and so on.

When you are trying to convey a story, this can be particularly frustrating, because those poor words are never going to do a good enough job.

Anything you can do as you put the words on the paper or screen to help them do the best job possible is worth doing.

Anything that helps you figure out how to get them to do the best possible job is worth doing.

There is no One Right Way to write, and whatever works is the thing to do.

If you use a particularly unfamiliar format like nonsequential scene narration, then every sequence must must must be entirely able to stand on its own as a short, contained, enticing narrative that makes the reader want to read more, or you will fail.

I mention this particularly because in the beginning you say

quote:

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...spice up a boring, frankly introductory part of a novel i'm writing. it has to be there--it sets the mood and, hopefully, the readers mind a certain way...

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That being said, I would encourage you to explore writing in this fashion, it can be a very good way to gain inspiration. And if you end up with something that can be published in that form, you'll really make an impression on your readers.