Some writers are able to write in strictly chronological order beginning to end non-stop. (Possibly because they can actually write to an outline. I cannot. For me, outlines are more like “vague suggestions that I might or might not eventually follow.”) I am not one of those writers. If I get stuck, I jump ahead to the next scenes before going back to where I got stuck. Sometimes on a smaller scale, I realize that a paragraph that’s at the beginning of the chapter actually belongs at the top, or I need to reorder scenes.
This makes things particularly complicated because I essentially write in serial format. (I have mostly written fan fiction, which tends to be in serial format.) There are lots of bumps and pauses that can occur when I get stuck. (Because sometimes I’m a fool and I try to write chronologically when I know darn well it will be easier and faster to write the next scenes and then go back to the problem scene.) This can lead to long hiatuses which are not ideal for growing an audience when writing a story. (Such as most of my poor fan fiction WIPs and all of my original fiction that isn’t tiny little ficlets.)
An example of this is the most recent chapter I’ve been working on of Lord of the Black Mountain. Chapter nine has been moved to chapter ten because I need to follow up on a plot point relevant to Joris. (Joris has been warned to keep an eye on anyone Caris makes friends with. He needs to talk to students Caris has been put in a study group with.) The former chapter nine is an interaction with Joris’ baby apprentices, who are Absolute Gremlins and have been playing pranks and “tattling” on him. This is mostly an excuse to stick in some more backstory and also some worldbuilding details. And it’s funny. Also, Caris finds out about his sister’s situation.
This is to say, yes, there is going to be a slight hiatus as I figure out how the new chapter nine is going to go. (I also need to do some additional editing of the version on Royal Road. So I won’t schedule chapter eight until nine and ten are finished and I’ve made some headway on chapter eleven.
(I will post a link to chapter seven of Lord of the Black Mountain when it updates on Royal Road.)
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