When we write, most of us start at the beginning and chug through to the end, and we edit the same way. But sometimes, that might not be the best choice. In a post on Writer Unboxed, Dave King suggests that some scenarios require you to skip around a bit, particularly during the editing stage.
“You can’t really see what your opening scenes should be until you have the entire story in place,” King says. “I’ve often had clients work with me, editing through a manuscript, then ask me to take a second look at the opening chapters, to bring them into line with the changes we’d made further along. The end of the story no longer lines up with the beginning.”
Understanding how later chapters can alter your earlier scenes also can help with writer’s block, King suggests. “You’ll almost always get hung up mid story, when you’ve introduced your characters and presented them with problems,” he writes. “The answer may be to skip the middle and start writing scenes from later in the story. As you solidify your ending, you will give yourself a fixed point to work toward. This could let you write the middle you need to bridge between the beginning and the end.”
