Writing Through the Mess - Surviving the Mid-Novel Muddle
The messy middle, the muddled middle… for an author, writing the middle of the book is a notoriously hard slog.
I found that to be true when I drafted the first book in my series. When my initial draft was completed, I had about 30,000 words that just meandered all over the place, purposeless and weak.
That was a big problem I needed to fix. And it’s a common problem, especially for pantsers (aka discovery writers) like me. Unlike the well disciplined plotters, who outline meticulously and know exactly what they’ll write every time they sit down at their keyboards, we pantsers follow our characters.
There’s no right or wrong way to do it, there’s only the way that works for you. And so far, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool pantser.
Now that I’m into the messy middle of my second book, I’m finding the same thing. I keep trying to find a magic bullet, some outlining or mind-mapping technique that will allow me to wave my hands around, shout, “abracadabra!” and clear the path in front of me. Of course, while I’m looking for the magic answer, I’m not actually putting words on the page.
I’ve come to realize that I need to face this part of the process and charge into it full tilt instead of tiptoeing around it. Yes, I’ll have the painful job of revising the hell out of my messy middle once my draft is complete. Yes, it will be painful. But that sucker won’t write itself, and you can’t edit a blank page.
Starting tomorrow, I’m just going to write. (Well, after my warmup of scribbling ideas on my whiteboard, that is.) And it will be cr*p. And that will be my process for a while.
What I’m Reading
Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series
I’ve been re-reading an author and a book series I greatly admire, Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series. If you haven’t discovered Amelia, you’re in for a real treat. One of the things I most like about this series is Amelia’s voice. Peters has written it in the first person, and Amelia is an interesting, sometimes annoying, complex character with a very distinctive voice.
We first meet her in Rome, where she’s gone as part of a travel itinerary she’s embarked on following the death of her father (Crocodile on the Sandbank). She’s a spinster (32 years of age) at a time when a woman was considered unmarriageable past the age of 20 or 21. She’s independently wealthy, she’s opinionated, feisty, and doesn’t believe in marriage. She was on her way to Egypt to explore the pyramids when her companion let her down (!!) by succumbing to typhoid.
She finds another companion, continues her journey to Egypt, and falls in love with Egyptology and with the notorious Radcliffe Emerson, known by the locals as the Father of Curses. He’s also the finest archaeologist of this or any other age, according to Amelia (or Peabody, as he addresses her most of the time).
Together, or sometimes in opposition to each other, they unearth bad guys and solve crimes, all while advancing the understanding of history through their archaeological endeavors.
There’s never a dull moment with Amelia, and this is one of my favorite heroines, and series, of all time.
Notable Quotes
One must recognize the limitations of the military mind, as I later pointed out to Emerson. After a certain age— somewhere in the early twenties, I believe—it is virtually impossible to insert any new idea whatever into it.
- The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters
Amelia has strong opinions about many things, including military and male persons. And she’s not shy about expressing them.
He was nearly six feet tall but with a slight build for a Minnesota farm boy, sandy hair, plain blue eyes, and a face like Norwegian food: white, bland, and comforting.
- May Day by Jess Lourey
Snark! Who would think to describe someone’s face as, “white, bland, and comforting?” This description had me laughing out loud. As did this, from the same book:
When to plant your peas, how much water to give your corn, where to bury your tulip bulbs, how to fertilize your roses—if it could grow in dirt, Johnny could advise, and there was something erotic about a man with a green thumb. If he could coax blueberries to grow in low-alkaline soil, what could he do with a prematurely jaded woman on a Sealy pillow top?
- May Day by Jess Lourey
This book is billed as a “rom com mystery,” and it lived up to its billing.
Buy Me a Chai
Some of the links I include in this email may be affiliate links. What does that mean? It means you pay the same — or in some cases a little less — if you click and purchase, and I get a small commission. It’s not a lot, but it helps me buy a few chai lattes here and there. . . Or, if you like what you're reading, you can Buy Me a Chai right now. Thanks! (If you really like what you’re reading, you can upgrade to a paid subscription and buy me a chai every month!)
Wise Words
It’s time to play “what’s that word” again, our chance to show off our prodigious prowess with vocabulary by choosing the better word to fill in the blank.
Maybe I should have ______ her of that notion, but I could not dash all her hopes.
- Murder on the Golden Arrow by Magda Alexander
Pick your preferred word and submit the poll. I’ll print the answer next week.