Oh, middle problems! You know what I mean: When you are stuck in the middle between two feuding friends. Or half way up the hill you’re pedaling. Or struggling to swallow the mouthful of meatloaf you’re in the middle of choking down.
If you are trying to write a novel, that middle is the place where the cake falls, where the piano slips out of tune, where you put your mittens on and start walking for home.
But don’t give up! Whatever you are in the middle of, there is a way through. It’s all about pacing and adding fun.
A number of years ago, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I set a goal of 25,000 words (a decent children’s book length goal and more realistic than 50,000 for a working mom). I wrote something entirely out of my usual—a fantasy novel—and instead of not showing it to anyone until every sentence was nearly perfect, I let my daughter read each day’s output, as a serial novel. She begged to know what happened next. She kept me focused on story and writing daily for 30 days. It was liberating.
So for all of you out there writing, it’s mid November. Are you stuck in the murky middle? Here are a few things that may help:
- Power through. By writing every day or at least three to five days a week, you remain in your story more. You won’t have to waste time rereading to remember where you left off.
- Raise the stakes. If your interest is flagging, do something outrageous to your main character. Add a car crash! A fire! A ghost! Make your character run away. Lose the one thing she wants. Or get the one thing he wanted—only to find it’s not what he hoped.
- Revise later. Don’t get caught up in lyrical prose—now is the time to tell a story. If you can get down the bones of a story, you can redo language and scenes in the second and third drafts.
- Write out of order. Be zany! No one said you had to write the middle after the beginning. Write the end. Maybe you will then see a path from the first chapter to the last.
- Community matters. Relying on other people—even virtual ones—to egg you on is a fun way to stay committed. Enlisting a reader will keep you going.
Whatever you produce by Nov. 30, just remember that the best thing you are doing is exercising your writing muscle. Writing is work, and the process of putting one word in front of another is just like pedaling up a hill. You have to keep huffing. You can’t stop in the middle and not reach the top or roll back down. Where you are going is up.
