this is interesting and helpful advice. i remember approaching the middle of my current novel-in-progress and having that feeling of "uh oh, now what?" there was a scene i knew would skip ahead in timeline (i generally write chronologically), but it felt "hot" to me, so i wrote it—and having that energy helped push me past the paralysis. whatever we can do to trick ourselves. now i'm super close to finishing, but even tho i know the ending, i have a different kind of paralysis—a very inconvenient, 11th-hour surge of doubt whether i can pull the whole thing off, whether the threads are tied up enough but not too tightly. curious if you've ever had that feeling, and how you trick yourself there?
Thanks Chin-Sun! I find endings so hard—both short stories and novels. I always feel as the perfect endings thread that needle of being "tied up but not too tightly" as you said, and I find it hard to be objective about that when I get there. Jamel Brinkley writes the best endings, I think, and sometimes I go back and read some of his stories to capture the way that those endings feel. Not that I could ever duplicate what it does, but I do think reading someone else can often be helpful.
oh, i haven't read him!—must add to the TBR pile. someone, maybe brandon taylor, said he doesn't even start a story/novel unless he knows the ending. it's all over the place for me: sometimes i don't, sometimes i do, sometimes it's only an inkling. but knowing a thing still isn't the same as writing that vision. at a certain point, i really feel it's a matter of faith; like, okay, i've done all this work, the ending will come if i stay in the story. one time, writing toward what i knew would be the conclusion (but not knowing what it would be), the perfect solution came to me. it was glorious—like the clouds parting—but those moments are rare.
This comes at exactly the right moment for me. I, like you describe, have been stuck at the middle, right around 90 pages, of this second novel. I've been inspired by what you wrote to think about structure differently. It's already taken one shift--from alternating pov chapters, to moving one of those characters into an earlier scene in the first section. I'm thinking now, this character will have the entire middle to herself! We'll see where that takes me. Also, been consumed with preparing for my book launch. Another distracting factor, albeit a fun one.
Thanks, Kathy, glad it was helpful! So hard to focus on the next book when preparing for your launch, I think! I like the idea of one character having the middle all to herself.
“I feel stupid that I didn’t remember how I had tricked myself with the first novel”—I love this. Some things you just have to learn (*I* have had to learn) again and again
this is interesting and helpful advice. i remember approaching the middle of my current novel-in-progress and having that feeling of "uh oh, now what?" there was a scene i knew would skip ahead in timeline (i generally write chronologically), but it felt "hot" to me, so i wrote it—and having that energy helped push me past the paralysis. whatever we can do to trick ourselves. now i'm super close to finishing, but even tho i know the ending, i have a different kind of paralysis—a very inconvenient, 11th-hour surge of doubt whether i can pull the whole thing off, whether the threads are tied up enough but not too tightly. curious if you've ever had that feeling, and how you trick yourself there?
Thanks Chin-Sun! I find endings so hard—both short stories and novels. I always feel as the perfect endings thread that needle of being "tied up but not too tightly" as you said, and I find it hard to be objective about that when I get there. Jamel Brinkley writes the best endings, I think, and sometimes I go back and read some of his stories to capture the way that those endings feel. Not that I could ever duplicate what it does, but I do think reading someone else can often be helpful.
oh, i haven't read him!—must add to the TBR pile. someone, maybe brandon taylor, said he doesn't even start a story/novel unless he knows the ending. it's all over the place for me: sometimes i don't, sometimes i do, sometimes it's only an inkling. but knowing a thing still isn't the same as writing that vision. at a certain point, i really feel it's a matter of faith; like, okay, i've done all this work, the ending will come if i stay in the story. one time, writing toward what i knew would be the conclusion (but not knowing what it would be), the perfect solution came to me. it was glorious—like the clouds parting—but those moments are rare.
This comes at exactly the right moment for me. I, like you describe, have been stuck at the middle, right around 90 pages, of this second novel. I've been inspired by what you wrote to think about structure differently. It's already taken one shift--from alternating pov chapters, to moving one of those characters into an earlier scene in the first section. I'm thinking now, this character will have the entire middle to herself! We'll see where that takes me. Also, been consumed with preparing for my book launch. Another distracting factor, albeit a fun one.
Thanks, Kathy, glad it was helpful! So hard to focus on the next book when preparing for your launch, I think! I like the idea of one character having the middle all to herself.
“I feel stupid that I didn’t remember how I had tricked myself with the first novel”—I love this. Some things you just have to learn (*I* have had to learn) again and again