How to Write a Novel in 4 Years or Less

Two half-finished attempts at a novel later I've gained a new appreciation for just how hard it is to write one of these behemoths--which makes me wonder how some great authors manage to put out book after book, year after year.

Fortunately there are resources available for an aspiring novelist. How to write a novel in 100 days or less offers daily nuggets of writing wisdom and encouragement over 100 days, aiming to inspire writers and push them through the peaks and troughs that come with writing a novel. I'm also fond of Kurt Vonnegut's 8 rules of fiction writing.

These are all general points on writing, but it's the technical aspects of the biz that have me wondering what I'm doing wrong. Is it generally a bad idea to write bass-ackwards and all over the place, perhaps writing the ending before the beginning, or Chapter 4 before Chapter 3? I can't help doing this sometimes, as I have ideas for different scenes and events I want to happen later on in the novel. These are often defining and important twists or developments in the story and I'm anxious to get those written and fleshed out. All this can make for an editing nightmare of cutting and pasting and revising later chapters due to changes in the story in a more-recently written earlier chapter, if that makes sense.

I guess it's just how my brain works, and I'll have to learn to work through it. Or maybe I should stick to short stories.