Coffee and chronological order...

Coffee!!

Let's just start there - with this writer's beverage of choice! I don't know about you, but I could really use one of these little havens in my pantry! Coffee!! It is my "focus juice," the ADHD medication that doesn't raise my blood pressure to the point of needing a higher dose of those BP drugs. :O Hanging in my closet is a shirt that reads: "Instant writer, just add coffee." It really should read - "Instant writer, just add coffee and full time nanny/housecleaner." Seriously. I believe the first blog covered why "just adding coffee" just isn't enough for this momma! However inspiring it is to don that cute shirt, it just isn't true.

Coffee. I think I need another cup of it to remember why I opted to start today's writing blog with that topic instead of the one I am really getting to…writing in chronological order! Oh! It is said that the personality of the writer can be seen in at least one of the characters they write - and this is very true when it comes to the love of coffee. The main character in my first book drinks coffee. A lot!

Now to the topic at hand - chronological order and why I just can't seem to write in that way!

Limiting myself by writing in chronological order - that was my both my chain and stumbling block. 

I started many novels, some of which I penned 50 - 100 or more pages before setting them aside. With an outline of where I was going, I would begin to write. Then, I would get to a section that I wasn't in the mood for and would would try and force through it. Sadly, I would eventually either give up or put the story aside so long that I forgot why I was ever interested in writing it in the first place!

When I began my first completed novel, I began as I had many times before. This time, I had more drive and more details. It wasn't merely a grouping of ideas and general plot I had knocked around enough to want to try and write, but a story that I needed to write. An entire story, full of colorful characters and purposeful meaning. After penning the first chapter, and then the second, I realized that they wouldn't be the first two of the book. Instead, they fell somewhere into the middle. Most likely, I was aware of that fact, but ignored it, still believing things needed to be in order. But it was the mood that I was in, the passion of that moment that possessed me, and caused me to disregard the fact that the section I was writing wasn't the beginning. I realized that I had been going about it all wrong - trying to write in chronological order was limiting me and any possible progress I had ever made in writing.

My advice in completing a book, whether with intentions of publishing or reaching a goal, write the part that matches your mood. If you are sad, write the sad part. When excited, pen that chapter. Of course, with desires of completion, there are connector parts that must be pushed through, regardless to mood. However, in my case, so much was done by that point that I was much more motivated to do the needed pushing! Consider where I wrote so much of my first book - in the carpool lane, with loud kids in the back seat. I can honestly say that no intimate scenes were penned in that car or witty dialogue, for that matter. But a couple of cranky toddlers arguing over a toy - that is perfect for an irritated mother scene, is it not?!