Systems and methods are disclosed for adaptive writing behavior for a system having non-volatile memory (“NVM”). A memory interface of a system can be configured to determine whether a write preference of the system is skip-sequential. In response to determining that the write preference is skip-sequential, the memory interface can sequentially program data to a first set of pages of a block of the NVM. In addition, the memory interface can sequentially pre-merge gaps between the first set of pages with one or more pages of a data block. Moreover, the memory interface can be configured to switch to an alternative programming state in response to determining that at least one condition has been satisfied. For example, the memory interface can stop programming data sequentially, and instead program data in the order that the data is received from a file system.