Middle Book Blues?

[triceretops]

It happens everytime. Right around 50 to 65 thousand words into the manuscript I sometimes find myself hopelessly blocked and uninspired to continue on. Actually uninspired is the wrong word--it is more like guilt and paranoia.

I've discovered what the phenomenom is. I know I get to the point where I have totally exhausted my vocabulary, and I fear repeating myself with favorite catch words and tags. I find myself looking for that "and" word and wonder how many times I've used it, along with too many commas, passive voice and other such nusiances. I don't feel my style is fresh anymore--I'm running in the same old boring style and I'm beginning to bore mysef, therefore I'll bore the reader.

I guess it is all an illusion. I know exactly where the story is going--there's plenty of action elements, and the plot is tight. I just lose that self-confidence that every writer goes through--"I've emptied my brain and poured out every clever trick I have in my bag."

Like I say, it's not the cannon but the ammo it takes to load it. I've heard of the middle book blues, or the 50,000 word wall. I believe it is real, but has to do with a complete knowledge drain (everything that you have learned in your life), every clever humorous anecdote, your description, transistions, all of the elements.

I notice that AW member Ben Mears hit a similar threshold, after keeping track of his writing progress every day here, and suddenly quit or put his project away. I haven't seen him back here for a while. I hope he returns and does finish that book. But it certainly justifies exactly what I felt when I reached that (sound barrier wall) again. and was afraid I didn't have what it took to fly past it.

And I have gotten through it 12 times in the past! Still, it harkens.

The only way I've had any luck getting out of this is to go and read another author and take a break away from this self-inflicted marathon. When I read I begin to like sentences again--it's therapy and usually puts me back on track.

There ought to be a law against this "wall." I think it is exclusive to itself.

Tri

[AndreaGS]

Yep, I've just run into that 50,000 word wall in my first going-to-actually-finish-this-even-if-it-kills-me novel. Right now it feels something like an attempted sprint through waist-deep mud. I don't get very far, and every little bit takes a lot of effort.

Here's hoping it gets easier in a few weeks!

[AdamH]

This is an actual phenomenon!!! I'm so happy to hear that it's just not me. I'm still relatively new here and don't know any writers in my area who have taken on writing novels. So I had no idea that this was common. I've been working on a novel for awhile now stalled because I thought it was writer's block. So I've put it away. But you pretty much diagnosed my problem to a T.
Just a couple weeks ago I came to the conclusion to close up my novel and decide it was too painful to finish it. Then last week while thinking about nothing in particular, in a moment of pure epiphany, I broke down that "wall". Now I'm excited about my novel again.
I had given up on it, put it out of mind, was about to lay it to rest when something saved me and it. I think it helped that I didn't think about it at all.

But I'm glad that I'm not alone in getting the "Mid-Book Blues" (now that I've got a name for it). Thanks for sharing Triceratops!

[James D. Macdonald]

It's the dread mid-book.

The only thing you can do is push on.

Entirely too many writers give up at this point and start writing a new novel. They have dozens of half-novels in their desk drawers.

There's a name for that kind of writer: Unpublished.

=========

I talked about this in the Uncle Jim thread:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=82802#post82802

[La Reine]

I've finished my first draft in longhand. In the process of transcribing it to the computer I find myself cringing at what I've written. Though I know it will be many more drafts before it becomes publishable, I find myself not wanting to work on it at all. I fear it's really bad even though the story is good (by my estimation and that of other friends). How should I neglect the part of myself that keeps wanting to condemn the work?

[maestrowork]

You've got to turn off your internal editor and march on... so what if you write less than stellar prose. So what if you're using cliches and your characters are flat, etc... this is just a first draft...

[GPatten]

It has been the same with me. I guess it is because I’m just tired. It’s useless to continue on at that time. All you’re going to do is provide filler, fluff, and you’ll only delete it once you continue again after a break.

I’ve been thinking about that and what I find helpful is to have several books in the works. Take a long break between writing in one, then read a little of someone else’s book, then try working on one of your other books. I seem to have a fresh idea, and a better style each time I go for it.

The trouble with me is, I have too many in the works, so I just work on two at a time.

At the rate I’m going, I doubt if I will have that small chance at getting mine published before they throw the dirt in my face. I should have started my task long ago, when I was younger.

[triceretops]

Yes, Jim, good link, and I remember that one well. We also have to remember that we are the ones who are writing, re-reading, editing, and redrafting this story. We get tired of reading the same old passages and scenes over and over again. What we don't realize is that the story is always perceived differently in another's eyes--it is fresh and it is new to a different perspective. "It's not crap", they tell you, "wherever did you get such an idea that it was that bad?"

The middle book blues should probably not be confused with the 50-page novel, which can be a nasty little bugger all by himself. That's where you believe you have a terrific idea, but no meat to fill it in. That, or the plot goes askew or unravels, or you hate your character and it's too late to change him, or you've chosen the wrong tense and POV, or it now seems implausible, etc. We've all got those 50-pagers and tossed them ruthlessly aside.

I fear working on another project will distract me and rob the first one. Some people can switch horses and work on many projects at once. Like refusing to eat vegetables I haven't tried that one yet.

At least I prevail and get the books done. But like Maestro says, that nasty little internal editor needs to be given the righteous smack down.

Tri

[David McAfee]

I've only written the one novel thus far, but I didn't bang up against a wall at 50,000 words. Part of the reason may be that the story has been kicking the inside of my skull for the last 7 or 8 years trying to force its way out. I just wrote, and wrote, and wrote.

[Nakhlasmoke]

I did start another book when I hit the dreaded mid-mark.

And then I came back to it about two weeks later, inspired.

Now I'm doing the same with the second book, while working on the third.

I currently have six projects on the burner, in various stages of completion.

Sometimes you need to give yourself a breathe -, just make sure you don't drop the original project altogether.

[Mike Martyn]

It took me six months to write my first novel. I hit the wall around 80,000 words and posted my problem on this site.

The responses I got were wonderful. I receive suficient encouragement that I finished it. Without you folks, I probably would have tossed it in the drawer and given up the whole project as hopeless.

This post reminded me of that and so I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank you all once again.

Since I'm 20,000 words into my next novel, I expect I'll be hitting that nasty old wall in about two months . Ouch!

[Mike Martyn]

One further thought; if we all hit the wall at 50,000 to 80,000 words on 100,000 to 120,000 word novels, what about writers like Steven King or Dean Koonze (sp?) who write those massive 500,000 word cider blocks? Do they hit it at 250,000 words or every 50,000 words or so?

[underthecity]

I'm currently working on a children's story, and am too stuck in the middle with you. Uncle Jim calls it "mid-book blues," but my personal term is "mid-book blahs." I know where I'm going with the story, but at the very moment, I'm not sure exactly what I want my characters to do. Plus, there are a few historical tidbits I have to research a little more so I can get it all right.

So, I've been finishing a project I've been putting off since March. It's a "creative outlet" audio sci-fi parody and a lot of fun to do. It's also a prequel to one I made in 1992. I'll be releasing it in September as a free download on my website. You can see the first one here (http://www.allensedge.com/galactic.html).

And while I finish up this project, I have been giving my children's story a lot of thought on what is going to happen with them. Plus I'm setting aside some time to conduct more research.

allen

[rowriter]

Oh thank you for this thread. It's comforting and motivating to know at any given time there are a number of us with the same problem.

Characters flat, plot barely moving along, questioning every single motive in the draft...yep, that's me. (Thanks to La Reine for responding to my post about this in the Goals and Accomplishments area of the board)

I'm trying to just keep writing, but it's getting harder and harder. (As someone mentioned, like trying to jog in mud!) I'm finding myself dazing off, staring into a corner of my room, getting annoyed at the slightest sound (because that incessant dog barking absolutely must be the reason why I can't think of anything!), returning to the page with a sigh.

I just have to be satisfied with whatever tiny progress I make each day.

[maestrowork]

Actually I get stuck usually at 15K all the way to mid-book (50K or so)... I am extremely slow once I pass the initial start (about 10K)... But once I'm past the mid-book, usually the writing just flows...

I'm currently at about 45K now... so I can't wait to get over that hump...

[triceretops]

I just made it to 52,000 and feel that all hell must break loose from now on until the end. It's been a struggle for my characters to define this haunting presense and they have prepared for an onslaught. Now it must come and 200 pages of Storm Trooper type war must take over the rest of the book.

Tri

[Euan H.]

One further thought; if we all hit the wall at 50,000 to 80,000 words on 100,000 to 120,000 word novels, what about writers like Steven King or Dean Koonze (sp?) who write those massive 500,000 word cider blocks? Do they hit it at 250,000 words or every 50,000 words or so?
Can't speak for them, but I finished the first draft of a duology (both books) about three weeks ago. I hit the wall at about 100,000 words in--about 3/4 of the way through the first book.

I don't think it has to do with the number of words, as such. I would think it's more to do with the swap-over from throwing threads out to gathering them in.

[Mistook]

I hit the wall a few months back. I guess I was at 60K words by that point - up to chapter 23. What sucks is that just before I got there, I'd been writing like mad for about seven chapters.

Like others have said, I know how I want the later chapters and the ending to pan out, but I hit a snag. There's a bit of a gray area that I need to bridge before I can get over the hill and start coasting down the other side.

But truth be told, the whole writing of this WIP has been like stop and go traffic. I coast for a while, then I hit a red light. I have to sit and think about what's been happening and where I'm going. A week or a month goes by and suddenly I'm writing again.

By the time I hit mid-book, I'd been at it for over a year, and was so severely sleep deprived, and burnt out that I needed a month just to get back to normal. After that I became obsessed with the opening chapters, and have been re-writing them for the past few months, while I mull over my strategy for getting over the mid-book hump.

It's not the smartest way to get through a first draft, but I'm still writing, so that's something. By the time I finish my retro-fitted first three chapters, I'll have figured out how to get past mid-book and on to the end.

I swear, I'll get there one way or another.

[Garpy]

A tip I can offer is to design your story so that you have some mid-story climax, action sequence, or some cool revelation occur roundabout your midway point. That way, you'll be looking forward to that milestone, and not daunted by that approaching wall....and by the time you've finished writing that action sequence/revelation/climax....you'll find your several thousand words past the halfway point, and you'll be thinking in terms of 'counting down' towards the ending.

There's a classic tension-delivery graph that us screenwriters mostly adhere to....I say mostly....not every story fits the template. Basically it's a gently rising curve of tension that spikes upwards 1/4 of the way into a story, 1/2 and 3/4 and again at the end. I've emplyed that technique into my WIPs...and it's helped in that I'm never too far away from some exciting dramatic sequence...either I'm working up to one, or tidying up the loose ends from the previous one.

Hope that helps.....works for me anyway.

[cwfgal]

When I hit that brick wall, I don't push my way through it by writing anyway. I stop and pick up several books to read. I indulge myself in a little reading marathon and inevitably some little thing in a book I'm reading will spark an idea for the stalled WIP. It's a bit weird how it happens but I've come to realize the WIP is always there in my subconscious and I can often work through the problems I have by simply NOT focusing on them. Once, but only once, the solution was to abandon the WIP and start on something new.

I'm not one of those writers who writes every day. I give myself permission not to write at times but it's only because I know I will come back to it at some point. I don't recommend it for everyone because a lot of writers need the discipline of writing every day. I'm just not one of them.

Beth

[Mike Martyn]

Can't speak for them, but I finished the first draft of a duology (both books) about three weeks ago. I hit the wall at about 100,000 words in--about 3/4 of the way through the first book.

I don't think it has to do with the number of words, as such. I would think it's more to do with the swap-over from throwing threads out to gathering them in.

I'd never thought of it that way but that's probably it. My 80,000 word brick wall was exactly that, now that I think about it. All these characters, plot and subplots, where I go from here? Argh!

[Sharon Mock]

A tip I can offer is to design your story so that you have some mid-story climax, action sequence, or some cool revelation occur roundabout your midway point. That way, you'll be looking forward to that milestone, and not daunted by that approaching wall....and by the time you've finished writing that action sequence/revelation/climax....you'll find your several thousand words past the halfway point, and you'll be thinking in terms of 'counting down' towards the ending.

You just end up hitting the wall at the 2/3 mark (between the mid-story climax and the start of the endgame) instead.

Why, yes, I do speak from personal experience.

Stupid book.

[rowriter]

You just end up hitting the wall at the 2/3 mark (between the mid-story climax and the start of the endgame) instead.

Why, yes, I do speak from personal experience.

Stupid book.

This is what is happening to me. I knew something major was going to happen at the mid-way point, so I didn't have much of a problem writing up to 50k and a few thousand after that. I've struggled all through 70k to 80k. However, that technique did get to me 50k and several thousand words after that, so it did work. I just need a new technique now (or I just need to keep writing, writing, writing). The goal of "the end" seems so far away and I'm not sure how I'm going to get there.

And as Mike Martyn said, realizing all those aspects of the story that now need to be tied up is stressful; it is making me say the same: Argh!!

I've considered taking some time off, as some of you have mentioned, but I am definitely one who needs discipline to keep going. I need to know that I will be finished sometime in the near future because rewriting is the heart of my work - that's what I want to get to. I guess this is what's motivating me to finish it...so I can stop thinking, "Gee, I wonder if these twenty pages I spent six hours writing is going to survive the rewrite!" Plus I want to start writing the next one and I don't want to get caught writing two first drafts at once; I think that would make it that much easier to ditch what I started working on first. I know this works for some people but I don't think it would work for me.

[triceretops]

That's the way I feel--I'm very afraid of starting a new project when there is the possiblity that I'll ditch the big book in favor of the "new thrill." It will have to be one thing at a time for me.

Tri.

[britwrit]

Wow. What a wonderful thread. I'm 2/3s of the way through a projected 80,000-word crime thriller (or "thriller") and I'm starting to find it hard going as well...

I've actually outlined the whole book, I know where I'm going and what's going to happen, but it's getting to be a slog to just produce serviceable prose. Not especially crisp writing but decent paragraphs which are at least fit for revising. I know. "All first drafts are ----." Still, it's maddening.

[triceretops]

Congrats on that page count and pace, Britwrit. You sound like you're on the downhill slide, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I know what you mean about not forcing the writing, but wanting something decent there to play with later.

Tri

[Niesta]

I've been stuck too, for nearly a month, and hatin' it. I have just, in the last week, found a way to cross the great divide (it was the 2/3 mark for me, 63K words). And now it's like rolling downhill.

[dawinsor]

The novelist Elizabeth George says that she keeps a journal for each book she writes in which she records how she's feeling and how things are going each day. She does it because it reminds her that she felt this terrible while writing the last book too and got through it. I thought that was a good idea. It's a way to get some perspective when you hit that "everything I write sucks" point.

[Dru]

Britwrit:

If you have the piece plotted out, is there any particular reason to write scenes or chapters sequentially? I find that if I have something that has lent itself to plotting, that I can usually hit a good stride if I get some "good scenes" under my belt and then just flow through the rest.

[triceretops]

Just for your information we have a topic thread called THE WEEKEND PROGRESS REPORT over in the humor thread, where we decribe and list our weekly word counts. This has been going on for a long time and many novels have come about on that thread. I can go back in the older dated archives and see my struggles and just where I was at at the time of fear and woe. But as the weeks followed, I could see myself struggling out of that nose dive. It's fun to time-travel in the past and see your very own running blog.

I would invite anyone to go participate in that thread for the sheer pleasure and fun of exploring your own dicipline and aggravations.

Triceratops

[britwrit]

Dru,

I have to agree. In retrospect, that would have been the better way to tackle this baby. My idea - which doesn't seem to be working out - was that having outlined the book pretty thoroughly, down to roughly how long each section was going to be, writing it sequentially would allow me to further fine-tune the rhythm as it went along. Like - long section, long section, then shorter sections as the story hit its various high points.

Maybe it's simply the first-draft blues. Oh well - live and learn.

[triceretops]

I also think there ought to be something called the "Third Rewrite Crazies." It took me nearly a month to fine-tune and edit my 404 pager, and at the very end of it I was ready to turn mother's picture to the wall and get out of that dog!

Tri

[Andre]

I never heard of this phenomena till just now! Middle Book Blues... I am going to use it from now on. I am working on a book for about 4 years, it is my first book so I had to figure out a lot still, but some 1 year ago I couldn't work on it anymore for some reason and only recently, I started to write on it again. Now, counting the words, I have 61.000 of them, so probably hit that 50.000 words wall before. There is the reason! The writing is going very good now, I feel inspired and write about 1000 words every day.

During the break of the first book, I started another one and finished it in one writing. It is a children book and is going to be published in about 3 weeks from now, I am very happy about this! Publisher's site is http://www.freemusketeers.nl/html/harenandrevan.html (http://www.freemusketeers.nl/html/harenandrevan.html)

I write in Dutch, so maybe nobody will understand what the page is about, lol.

Btw. I hear people talking about have written 15k, etc, what is a k?

Greetings!

André van Haren, Sweden


visit my website at www.andrevanharen.com (http://www.andrevanharen.com)

[triceretops]

Andre--congradulations on your upcoming book. I believe "k" stands for one thousand, so 15k would be 1,500 or 15 thousands words.

Tri

[Andre]

thanks! I am looking forward to the moment I will have it finally in my hands, me and my whole family with me! We are going to have a big party!