Writing Saturday; Help! I’m stuck in the middle of my book!

The halfway point in any book is often the most challenging to write. Many people come to the middle of their story and get discouraged and end up not finishing their book, so today, I would like to address some of the common problems that people have.

“I just don’t feel like going on.”

Sometime, after finishing the first part of the book, the initial excitement wears off and the amount of works seems overwhelming. One of the things that keeps me going is to keep something around that reminds me of the essence of the story. For a long time, I kept a small wooden carving of the fish symbol in view. For me, that reminded me of an important part of the story. You might also trying doing some writing warm-ups (see Jessica’s post) to get you started every day. In the end, some of it is just keeping on track, even when it’s hard.

“I just don’t know what to write about. I’m stuck!”

Often the middle of our books is a bridge from the beginning to our build up to the climax. That bridge is often the most boring to write and to get ideas for. One of the things you can do is to think about what information needs to be in those chapters. Another thing that might be helpful is working your plot backwards. Last but not least, you could try to taking a short break from writing. A few days sometimes helps clear your mind

“Is it okay to start another book and then come back to this one?”

This is a harder question to answer because there are so many variables. In general though, I tell people not to abandon their projects. Have only a lot of half finished books laying around can be very discouraging. I know that there are things that sometimes you would rather write about, but there is a lot of value in sticking a project out.

Do you have any ideas what you can do if you are stuck in the middle of your book?