I've been working on a novel that pretty much wrote itself very smoothly for the first half. Suddenly, at about 40k words, I have no clue as to what the characters do next. I've tried a few dead starts, deleting them when they either go nowhere or in an entirely new direction that seems obviously desperate. Any suggestions?
Dead end!
- Thread starter Tony_LaRocca
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Try skipping way ahead in your thoughts. Think about where you want to end, and work backward from there. Remember that you don't have to invent the plot in perfect order. That helps me sometimes.
Can one of your characters tell/show you something that, until now, you have not been aware of? Look back at what the characters have done and see if someone's hiding something.
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The long, dread, dead desert of the middle...
I'm not sure this particular Dark Night of the Soul is avoidable!
The only useful advie I've ever had on middles is from someone who noted thatthe standard dramatic form--I mean, like Shakespeare--is five acts. That means Act I is the setup, Act V is the grand finale...
And there are three acts in the middle, each of which needs a shape and flow and everything else.
I don't know if it's "true", but it has helped me get through a few middles; put some intermediate climaxes in there.
MIddles suck.
I'm not sure this particular Dark Night of the Soul is avoidable!
The only useful advie I've ever had on middles is from someone who noted thatthe standard dramatic form--I mean, like Shakespeare--is five acts. That means Act I is the setup, Act V is the grand finale...
And there are three acts in the middle, each of which needs a shape and flow and everything else.
I don't know if it's "true", but it has helped me get through a few middles; put some intermediate climaxes in there.
MIddles suck.
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This usually works well for me. When I come back to the one I was stuck on, the problem is almost always crystal clear.
I agree with tricky. Write the end, and then fill in the middle! Even if you have to change the end again later, it takes the pressure off!
I had this exact same problem with my WIP. What I did was to go back and reread it and begin revising the beginning. This helped me to reclarify what I was trying to accomplish, and what I had to go on, and I discovered that it's right around the last few chapters that I started to go off path. That part of the novel was rushed and forced. It didn't fit with the rest. I sat down and did some brainstorming, tried to summarize the story I wanted it to be, including the next major plot point that needs to happen and the ending. Now I figure it's a matter of bridging that. So this is what I suggest: Reread your story. Try to determine where it's going, where you went off path (if that's the problem) and fill in the logical sequence between the section just before that and where you want to go.
When this happens to me, I usually find that I've lost sight of my character's goals and story arcs. Try looking at your character's goals and what stage of their journey they're at. Maybe you just need to throw another obstacle at them, or let them solve one problem to open up another. Chances are you know where you need to go premise-wise, but your characters no longer have a goal and a obstacle that sends them in that direction. When you're stuck, it's almost always a character goal issue. They're the ones driving the plot 
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Double space, then type: Suddenly, without warning, a naked woman screamed!
Go from there.
Or, put in a line-break then type: Four years later....
Continue from that point.
Go from there.
Or, put in a line-break then type: Four years later....
Continue from that point.
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