“Do you write books sequentially?” A writing tip.

Alle C. Hall
2 min readDec 22, 2024

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Also: no word yet about The Millennium Book Award. (Chews nails.)

The question that gave me this morning’s ponder:

Do you write your books sequentially (first scene first and so on) or out of order?

I’ve only completed two novels. Each happened in its own way. The first, As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back, is a chronological progression of a childhood trauma survivor traveling in Asia. Chronological because that’s how it … came out?

As Far as You Can Go contains a grand total of two flashbacks. Each is told as the MC un-represses the memory. That moved the plot forward while further developing the character. I didn’t plan this as a technique. It made sense, as that’s how memories come up.

When will we know? When?

I failed for years to write the second novel, Crazy Medicine, chronologically.

Flashback and changes in POV turned out to be too critical to the story’s structure to write it chronologically. I had to uncover each character’s backstory and character arch, to see how those elements clarified/affected/responded to the MC’s journey; all while struggling to move the plot in a revealing direction. That turned into writing lots of crap that I cut to maybe one or two sentences, dropped in here or there. But I knew the information about that character. That knowing shaped things that happened later — or earlier!

(Let’s hear it for revision.)

The next step was to futz around with chapters and scenes before Crazy Medicine began to solidify. Draft 18 and counting. Sweat emoji.

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Alle C. Hall
Alle C. Hall

Written by Alle C. Hall

Author, teacher, speaker. Novel: As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back: 16 honors, incldng Nancy Pearl Book Award finalist & two #1 Kindle spots.

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