Why Writing Is Like Doing a Puzzle

I love doing jigsaw puzzles. And I don’t mean 300 pieces or 500 pieces. I gravitate toward 1000-piece monstrosities. When I’m not working on my puzzle, I just put the dining room table pad over it. That keeps it safe from the cat and we still have some place to eat. 

I started this beauty while the boys were at the lake. As I stirred the pieces around in the box looking for red that could be either the cardinal, the house finch, or berries, I mused that working a puzzle is a lot like writing. 

Plotters take their time and sort out the edge pieces. They put each corner in place and then build the frame before turning to the interior. That feels a lot like starting with the key moments in a story, then listing scenes before you start writing. 

This time around, I decided to be a pantser. That’s why I was stirring the pieces looking for red without first assembling the edges. 

If you write fiction, you create characters and plot. You piece together the setting. You raise the stakes. 

If you write nonfiction, you may start with an idea. Then you do research and pull together facts. Then you start to sort until a picture becomes clear. 

Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction or working on a puzzle, you work for a while. Then you get up and move around. You come back to it and add a few more pieces. Slowly the picture becomes clear. 

I had about 20 percent of my current puzzle assembled when disaster struck. Our new cat, Newton, is a 15-pound beast that loves to thunder through the house. He launched himself off the dining room table, taking off the mat, and sending the vast majority of assembled pieces to the floor. 

Well, poop. 

It felt a lot like when I get a massive rewrite letter from my editor. “Really, we like everything you’ve got. We just don’t like how it has come together.” 

I write primarily nonfiction, so when this happens, I’ve done the research. This means that I’ve got the pieces. I just need to knock them apart, with no help from Newton, and put them back together. 

Perhaps your editor has suggested a nonlinear timeline for your story. You've got the majority of your scenes but you need to split them apart and find a new narrative structure.  Or the suggestion might have been to use multiple points of view. Or introduce your characters in a different order. You’ve got everything you need. All you have to do is put things back together. 

Writing, like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, requires patience. Sometimes you find yourself reassembling a your work be it fiction, nonfiction, or a jigsaw. In spite of the slow progress there is nothing else that you’d rather be doing. 

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 35 books for young readers.  To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog, One Writer's Journey.

The next session of her new course, Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work will begin on February 6, 2023).  Coping with rejection is one of the topics she will cover in this course.

Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins February 6, 2023) and Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins February 6, 2023).