write nonconsecutively. I always have, starting with my first FanLit entry. I usually write the beginning. Then I write the end. Then I write a good bit in the middle that I have planned. Gradually, the whole swells.

I haven’t been able to write a whole chapter linearly either. I know what needs to happen, and I skip about like a crazed drop of water on a greased skillet.

So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I can’t write a book in order, either. It turns out that I wrote chapter 1. And then I wrote what I thought was going to be chapter 17. It turns out, after much plotting, and after much discarding of really stupid ideas (anguish: why oh why did I think that it was good to write a hero who has difficulty talking to women? This leads to crap dialogue), I realized I had really written chapter 7. Okay. So I wrote chapter 2, and then chapter 3. I started writing chapter 4. I know exactly what needs to happen in the chapter.

So why is it that I’m writing chapter 17–something that really is chapter 17–instead? I’ll probably write chapter 9 after this, just for the heck of it. The real problem, of course, is that projecting that far in advance will necessitate more revisions. I do not need to spend more time rewriting. If nothing else, I’ll probably have changed my hero’s last name by the time I slog through another few chapters. In fact, I know I will have done so.