How do you write your story in terms on timeline?

[Remedian]

Just as the tittle says. How do you write your story down. Should i write In a linear timeline first and then you edit it around so in the order that i want. Like on the first chapter id write the future situation of the characters, like fighting a dragon as a form of hook for the readers then, later on go back to the current situation of where everything started?. Right now on my fist chapter i created which i posted in critique i went with the first every situation. The incident, but i feel like it doesn't have much hook for the readers? Should i change it later on when ive wrote down the page where theres a climax and make that the opening statement.?

 

[pmmg]

Most stories would be in a linear fashion. My own stories have some non-linear pieces to it. I wrote them scene by scene in order, but I have a pretty good outline in my head.

BUT...there is no wrong way to do it.

My advice for opening a story is begin at the moment when everything changes.

 

[minta]

You can write linear first and rearrange later.

 

[ThinkerX]

My 'Empire' series is linear - mostly.

I use a 'one POV character, one chapter' format. There are four main POV characters whose tales are told in a linear fashion, apart from the odd flashback.

However, there are other POV characters, and their chapters are always set in the past. Sometimes, this is the recent past - a year or so earlier, but others are set thousands of years before the main story. (They center on characters who are effectively immortal whose actions sha[ed the present.)

 

[skip.knox]

You just need to write. You can start with timelines or a scene. You can write the ending or the beginning or something in the middle.

Right now you are worrying over how to arrange something you have not written; therefore, all possibilities open up and everything seems both endless and overwhelming. Once you start writing, the story gains substance, and then you can start wondering about how best to arrange (or re-arrange) it.

 

[xena]

If your opening feels weak now, you can always swap in a stronger moment once the big scenes are written. Nothing is permanent in a draft.

 

[Bracokey]

I've always built the world so i can understand the mechanics that would influence my story. Without doing that I feel like i'm swimming in blue water. very little to ground yourself in. Not even sure which way is up, -figuratively speaking. if you dont want to make a map or create a basic history of the world, you could stick to just the region your characters will be operating in. King X of Fillinthegap rules with a kind heart. etc

 

[Prince of Spires]

Just write in whichever way gets the complete story down on paper.

Once you've finished, check where things stand and see if you began in the right place. Plenty of writers rewrite their opening after they've finished simply because only then they know where they actually need to start. But you can't really see the complete picture until you finished it.

So don't worry too much about maybe starting in the wrong place. Just write it and see where you stand at the end.

 

[skip.knox]

I second the Prince. I have never started a story in the "right" place. Every novel and short story I've written has started in the end in a different place than when I started.

I have learned that when I start asking questions along the lines of "should I do X or Y?", that's a sure sign I need to write something.