Having just flailed through the middle section of my current WIP, I totally feel for you, man! It's the worst. 
Yep. Like this. My trick is to read through the first section slowly for clues as to what my people actually want. But the second half is slower going. Yep.Stephanie Marks said:Oh my god I haaaaaate the middle. I think of my books in thirds as my goal is 75,000 words for a first draft. The first 25K is pretty good. Introducing characters and intrigue, etc etc., totally easy. 3K words a day? Bring it! Then I get to word 25,001 and I'm foaming at the mouth and screaming at my monitor, "What is the f*cking point of you!?!? Where is this going? Why do you hate me!? Whyyyyy?" Then I don't write a single word for a week. And then maybe I feel creative and come up with something... "Oh look, I wrote 436 words today, champagne and caviar dreams!" Then nothing for a week. Then I eventually crawl my way to 50K words, dragging my broken and bloodied body over the shattered glass of my artistic dreams. Bawling my eyes out with every key stroke.
Then I get to work 50,001 and it's like. "Oh look, only 1/3 of the book left. Watch me FLY!" And a week later I'm done, having laughed maniacally as I tore through the last 100 pages like a hampster on speed.
About 10 minutes ago I passed word 40K so this thread was like a glimpse into my bruised and battered writer's soul. Very timely.
I've made a separate document with these questions on it, over and over, and answering them has really helped me to keep the POV focused and lay the groundwork for upcoming plot twists.What is the POV character trying to do in this scene? (the goal)
Why is she trying to do it? (the motivation for that goal)
What's in the way of her doing it? (the conflict)
What happens if she doesn't do it? (the stakes)
What goes wrong (or right)? (how the story moves forward)
What important plot or story elements are in the scene? (what you need to remember or what affects future scenes)
I'm a pantser down to the tips of my toes. I've tried outlining but it does NOT work for me. The story comes as I write it and if I'm lucky I may get a bit of a flash of what's to come. The middle would be so much easier if I had a solid outline to work with. But honestly half the time I don't even know who's making it out of my book alive until the last page.YodaRead said:This is why I outline. I never really have a "middle." Five days a week I have to get through five chapters (10-000-12,000 words). It doesn't matter where I am in a book. I know what has to be written and I just go. I rely a great deal ony outlines and they do help me a great deal.
But got over it quickly, because I'm new to writing, I saw the word count and thought, wow... I wrote that many words? Go me! Awesome, high five! (with the dog).Perry Constantine said:"wait, all that work and I'm only HALFWAY done?!"
This.MyraScott said:The middle is why I have so many WIP's. I have to figure out a way to get past it.