: Re: Is writing in fragments bad practice? Occasionally, it feels easier to write individual scenes of a prose and later connect them somehow. Does this method have any significant benefit and/or throwback

@Kaufman555

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I think it's ok for the basic outlining phase and for the first couple of drafts, just to get your ideas down. If you lose momentum on a particular scene/chapter/whatever terminology you're using but do still have ideas on a different one, then in my view it's better to switch to that part you do want to write rather than try to force something out for the part you don't, or lose all motivation to write altogether. If it means you don't lose momentum then by all means switch from a scene you're not enjoying writing to one you want to write.

Having said that, if you keep doing that then you're going to end up with disjointed scenes, especially if you go back and write an earlier scene after writing a later one. You'll end up with later scenes that fail to make reference to earlier ones where it would be logical to do so, and then you're bound to get a disjointed mess.

Worse, if you keep putting off writing scenes you're not enjoying and adding new scenes instead you might never finish those scenes off at all. If they're pivotal to your story then that's very bad! While it's unlikely that the things that your story hinges on are also the things you're not going to have much fun writing it's a possibility.

For that reason I feel it's only a good idea to employ scene switching early in the process. Write what you want to write for the first draft and not worry about the order your write things in. Then you've got the basic story points you want to hit fleshed out, stop, read everything you've written from beginning to end, and write notes on how it gels (or more likely fails to gel) as a story. Use the knowledge gained for your later drafts, try to stick to a more linear story writing style and tie the individual scenes you've written together more tightly.

At least that's how I've been working. As with most other things when it comes to creativity it's all down to what you find works best for you personally. I've found that for me personally, once momentum is lost it's very difficult to get it back and all you end up with is another abandoned draft.

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