There comes a point in every book, at least for me, where I run into a brick wall.
Like, from writing smoothly to dead stop.
Sometimes it’s the dreaded (and ambiguous) writer’s block, but more often than not, for me, it’s the sagging middle syndrome.
I only do a brief, skimpy outline. I have to have it, but I don’t like to get super detailed, and it’s never set in concrete. Which means that by the time I reach the 50-60% mark of the book, I find I’ve deviated so much, I need to re-track and see exactly how I want to get to the end (which usually writes itself for me).
This time, though, I’m at the 75% mark–which is usually where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the writing flows. Ya know, climatic fight scenes and resolution of the characters.
I couldn’t believe it.
I thought I’d skipped the wall this time.
Needless to say, my weekend plans of sprinting and *hoping* if not to finish the book, then to actually be damn close, went up in smoke.
It took me a read through of what I’ve written so far, and two days of muttering, wandering aimlessly, and trying to chisel brick, but I finally figured it out.
The pacing is off. My characters are doing things way too fast.
Which means, I need to go back and add quite a few scenes in what I have written.
And that means, yup, I am really only about 50% of the way through the book.
The brick wall hit at the right time, it just seemed wrong because I thought I was closer to the finish line than I truly am.
But at least now, that brick wall is a lot shorter. Short enough for me to jump over it : )
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