Mid Manuscript Blues . . .

A couple of possibilities:

1. Put it down for two weeks, then read it from start to finish without a pen in your hand (so you don't get distracted by making wee edits).

2. Give it to someone you trust and ask, "What do you think happens next?" If it's going in circles, as you suspect, the person will say "Eerrr" but if not, he/she won't.

I'm curious to hear you are writing in a style that isn't "you", I don't know how you even get 40k into a novel doing that! But it sounds like you need to step away, maybe let the juices that provoked you into writing it coagulate and solidify into a blob of.... crap, metaphor is failing.

But you know what I mean.

This is such a familiar story.
Happens to me with every piece I write whether it is a novel or a short.
Trust your vision, keep going and FIX IT IN THE REWRITE

I was thinking about this some more (yes, slow day at the office) and wondered if perhaps you were looking too much at this is a plot issue. In other words, instead of thinking like the author put yourself in the place of the MC, or another character, and let them lead you a little, let them suggest something to you. Hell, sit down and have a chat with one of them.

I would, but then it's a slow day at the office.

Go somewhere out of your normal writing zone and try to write from there.

alternatively read something in your genre

I'm in the same predicament. My WIP is getting less thrilling with every word. Too much angst and human drama, not enough action. I suspect members of my writing group are encouraging this. I'm going to try not sharing for a while, and try to figure out a way to pump more action in. Sigh.

Yeah, my last one was written in basically the opposite style that I typically write in. I was very uncertain about it for much of the first half of the book. I'm still not entirely happy with all of it.

I think it's easier to second-guess ourselves when we're doing something new and unfamiliar. I agree with the give it some time idea. I know for me typically just taking a break and looking at it again tended to help. And you can always take out the police stuff if you decide later on it's not necessary, but you might find once you've finished that it really belongs there after all.

I know something else that helps me is to read something fun and completely different from what I'm working on. It helps me reset, if that makes any sense at all.

What about coming at things from a different angle? This is a break from writing chapters, but still part of the project: write the back cover of your book. It's surprising to see what a boost of energy--and new flow of ideas--you get from doing this. Honest. Commit to spending a half hour on it and see what happens.

MarkEsq, you just solved my problem for me. I'm having this problem not because of writer's block or the lack of excitment for the story... but because I literally have no stinking time to write!!

I have a almost 7-month old son; my football team that I volunteer coach for is playing three games in 8 days just for a chance to make the Florida High School playoffs; and I'm training for a career change to become a police officer. So I haven't written a word in about a week. I feel like I am about to lose this story...

But thanks to your advice, Mark, I feel my hope coming back.

I feel for you Todd. When my career was going full steam, I devoted 12 hours a day, six days a week to work and commuting. Add normal household duties to that, and I was just too exhausted to think about writing.

Just keep writing! You can fix it later. Why do you think they put erasers on the end of pencils?

The first go thru is mostly crap anyway - lots of time and rewrites to fix it.
Have patience.