I’ll make this short and sweet. But from my research and writing experience, a lot of writers get stuck in the middle of their book. It can be caused by loss of momentum, or just not knowing where to go.
I don’t remember how I overcame this obstacle when I was younger (that novel will never leave the bottom of my drawer), but I can share how I overcame it on this go-round.
I always thought I was a pantser (flying by the seat of your pants while writing your novel). Turns out, I’m more of a plotter. (Or maybe a combination of the two: a plotser? Plantser? )
When I made a pretty detailed outline of my novel, I no longer felt trapped by the unknown in attempting to fill the blank page with a great scene.
I also stumbled upon a type of drafting that some people call “zero drafting.” It’s where the writer writes with no care for proper grammar, dialogue tags, or descriptions. Almost like a stream-of-consciousness that goes straight onto the page.
This helped me A LOT because I have always been a perfectionist when it comes to my writing. But without the pressure of having everything perfect, it’s much faster to get something onto the page. After all… no one but me will see this “zero” draft. No one’s going to see the first draft, either.
A few more resources that really helped me figure out where I needed more in my story was the book “Save The Cat! Writes A Novel” by Jessica Brody. Using her book to help me plot the outline also helped me fill in the ending, which I was struggling with.
Looking forward to blowing past 45k – the halfway point – soon.
Thanks for reading, and don’t stop writing!