Write from beginning to end or write easiest/favorite scenes and then fill in the blanks?

[sephiroth2004]

For those who employ either style, how does it work for you and why'd you pick it?

I started writing scenes in the first arc and am now filling in the blanks. I feel like it wouldn't be unusual for an author's favorite scenes to be the easiest and most enjoyable to write.

[Mr. Tines]

While never actually written down, I start with an outline of events first; then with that in mind, start at the beginning and actually set words down. Some scenes only expand when I get to that point - for example in my Telzey Matuček/EoE crossover fic*, I didn't have the details of Asuka vs the Eva series, other than it should happen, until it was the next scene to write, and I remember** walking around with a silly grin on my face when her tactics became obvious to me.

Whichever approach taken, the tricky bit is making sure they all tie together. My last long form (subtle) fanfic*** stalled almost 20 years ago because one of two characters I expected to join forces would go out of her way to avoid the other for reasons that only became apparent when I was at around the 2/3 mark - so it's probably just as well I didn't have an orphaned "when they resolve the plot together" scene already written.

* I must update the art insert, as it's months old and I can do a much better likeness than I did back then

** because some person pushing religious**** texts from a stand in New Square asked me how come I was looking so happy, so I explained in detail, much to his bewilderment.

*** Telzey Matuček and the Weirdstone of Brisingamen

**** some Krishna thing, for a change, IIRC

[jeffythedragonslayer]

I definitely go with easiest/most fun scenes first. I stop writing when I stop having fun.

[Allansfirebird]

I typically start out with the rough sketch of the stand-out scenes or particular story beats that I know will occur over the story arc I'm planning. Next step is gradually filling the blanks in when I hit the various stages of writing my chapters/episodes:

1) Initial notes - figure out where in the chapter and roughly how the major beats or significant character events happen.
2) Story outline - prose version of the episode structure and general indications of dialogue.
3) Script stage - first, second, and final drafts
4) Revisions - by now, the story structure and most dialogue is set. All that's left is polishing the dialogue before publishing.

[Blockio]

I'm not sure how actually useful that is for advice to an aspiring writer; it's generally hitting all the things listed as good practice, but is also very formulaic and a rather substantial amount of not particularily creative work, so I'd generally advise against following this methodology too closely so as not to burn oneself out. Not everything needs dialogue outlines and multiple drafts before actually being written; in my own experience, if I sit down to outline a dialogue, what usually ends up happening is that I simply write what ends up being almost unchanged for the final product.

It's good and important to plan for things substantially longer than a one- or twoshot, but too much of it, and you won't be doing a lot of writing, much less actually finishing things

[Allansfirebird]

Everyone's got their own process, and this is what's worked for me over the last couple years as I've gotten back into writing regularly. I work best in stages, and it's nice to have a reference of a previous draft in case I prefer the way a scene read in an older version.