Cutting up a manuscript

So I cut up my stuff and THIS is what I get!?

So I tried this new exercise that had someone cut up one of my stories into slivers and then throw it on the ground, chant some incantation (added that mysticysm myself), and then put it back together in the wrong order. Well here's what I found out:

The order of a story is way more important than most people realize, not because there are forms that story should take and because there should be a general progression, but because you can surprise the crap out of people!

The way I learned this: I put together this story again and I thought in the beginning that it NEEDED to be told in that order because one detail built onto the next. But, when I re-built the story I noticed that when some details were excluded until later in the story, it made it surprising and unique.

However, sometimes this didn't add any effect except for confusion! For example, how would someone through a rock from inside a convenience store into the snow? Even though the minor details got hung up in the disorder, it showed me that maybe I could start things with a different scene (like one I used in the middle of the story) for dramatic affect.

The other thing I learned is that it's fun to destroy your own "masterpieces!" There was something satisfying, like "I don't need you!", in hacking my story to pieces, I almost wanted to keep going.