Should I write a book straight through?

[M. R. Mathias]

I would suggest writing a book straight through. I wrote The Wardstone Trilogy straight through. I do limit my writing time per day so I don't burn out. My personal formula is half a chapter a day. This gives me time to contemplate. Ending each chapter so that it compels the reader onward is important to me. That is what I try to do. :-)

[E_Moon]

I love that italicized "try"...because one of the things writing books teaches is how pear-shaped the process can go at times. Just about anything a writer is absolutely, bone-deep certain about, in the writing process, is a target for his/her current or next book to shatter into itty bitty pieces. Outliners discover they have to leap off the outline, character writers find they have to gag a character, discovery writers like me realize that this time only an outline will get them out of a complete mess, plot writers suddenly need a complex character so the plot doesn't look like a random walk, etc.

[Steven L Jordan]

I detail everything about the story in an outline and character/background notes; when I finish that, I can use it to write what is essentially my final manuscript, with minimal rewrites or wrestling. I've used that method to write over a dozen novels, and it hasn't failed me yet.

[M. R. Mathias]

I wrote Wardstone in a prison cell, so I just wrote it. I delved into that world about 5 hours a day (3k words goal met 95% of the time) I didn't think much. The story wrote itself. I was reading 300 pages a day. Scott Lynch, a lot of Wizards of the Coast books, and Hobbs.

The Wardstone Trilogy is like those, Feist, Eddings, Tolkien, Jordan, Moon, and Robert E. Howard, all twisted into one story. Oh, and Starwars was a big influence, too.

I have never outlined. I stop at about two thirds through and read up to where I am. This helps me figure where all my threads are going to tie.

I am learning from the shadows, though. :-)