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Q&A How to write from the middle?

There is an alternative: force yourself to write from the beginning. Use the giddiness to reach the scenes you have fleshed out in your mind as a motor to build awesome introductions. It's like e...

posted 12y ago by SF.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:44:59Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7344
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar SF.‭ · 2019-12-08T02:44:59Z (about 5 years ago)
There is an alternative: force yourself to write from the beginning. Use the giddiness to reach the scenes you have fleshed out in your mind as a motor to build awesome introductions.

It's like eating a dinner: starting with the ice cream and leaving the greens for last. Ick. Eat your greens like mother told you and get the ice cream last, savor it, remember fondly what you ate already and it will leave you with a great after-taste.

One of significant problems I face is that as the story unveils itself, in these slow moments, new ideas happen, new motives arise, and so the climax mutates, often turning out far superior to what I intended. An insignificant throw-away thread from the introduction resurfaces halfway through, returns in a strong cameo near the end, and then provides a heart-wrenching plot twist in the climax, unplanned and plugging a plot hole you realized only a chapter away from the climax. It really works better that way.

Eat your greens first. They are healthy.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2013-02-22T09:15:22Z (almost 12 years ago)
Original score: 6