The beginning has gone fine. Filled with enthusiasm, I am having
difficulty tapping the keys fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. This is
going great! All I have to do now is fill the pages between that wonderful
beginning and what I know is going to be a simply spectacular ending.
The first three chapters have hooked the reader: she is not going to be
able to put the book down.
The characters are beginning to take on a personality of their own, the
heroine is coping with everything I throw at her and the hero is strong and
manly enough to win her love in the end.
Although the first few chapters looked pretty good to start with, I know
they are really a load of rubbish. No one is going to want to read a book that
is so boring even the characters have given up and gone to sleep. Their names
are all wrong too, they keep telling me that, and the setting is dull and
uninteresting. The plot? I have no idea what possessed me to think an idea like
that would make a readable novel.
I have come to the middle.
I know I will get over it. At least I think I will get over it because,
somehow, I always do. I can leave the bit in the middle and write the end, then
try and fill in the middle bit. That might work. Or I can scrap everything I’ve
written so far and start again. That is probably the best idea. But it won’t
help, because the next story is going to have a middle as well, and I’m going
to get stuck all over again.
Now that sounds familiar. A saggy middle! Why does it happen? You'll get through it, Fay, and produce another wonderful story.
ReplyDeleteThis happens to me in everything I write - last year I wrote between 10000 and 20000 words of five separate novels and gave up on them all for the reasons you wrote above. I just could not get into the middle without losing heart. I think though, that I've solved the problem. In my latest effort I simply ground on, hating the book and hating writing but doing it anyway! Once I hit the last quarter, I picked up speed once more and got back my enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteWhat does anyone else do to get round 'the wall'?
Thanks for your comments, girls. I am just plowing on and I hope I can produce something halfway decent. I shall let my characters do what they like for a bit before I reign them in. They know what is going to happen next better than I do.
ReplyDeleteI find if you get to the middle and get stuck, pretend you are at the beginning again. It sounds strange but it sort of works for me. Also grit your teeth and keep going. Whatever you do, don't stop. You can always rework your writing but you can do nothing with an empty page.
ReplyDeleteI always remember Freda Lightfoot at a conference panel when asked what to do about soggy middles, in her broad Lancashire accent saying "Put in a rape". I always laugh at the memory. Obviously she was joking as DCT would never acknowledge that! Love Chrissie (anon again!)
ReplyDeleteThe middles can be such a mental hurdle to overcome. But I find the only way is just to keep on writing. Don't be distracted to do other things :) just plough on because, as we discover each time, it will all come together in the end.
ReplyDelete