Novel mid-point. Tackling the sagging middle

My word count tells me I am right at the midpoint but my storyline says more like two thirds. So do I need more story? Should I just keep on going or go over the first part. Is this crises a good thing?

I have written this novel in a particular way, after trying others that were less successful. And so far so good, the story seemed to keep chugging along so long as I show up regularly – almost everyday.

Maybe it’s because I was warned and brought it on through my own trepidation, maybe because it is inevitable, but here I am at the dreaded sagging middle. A very important threat has just revealed itself to my character and I am not sure how much I should develop it.

Up till now, I have just written, more or less sure of where it was going but I did agonize over one section when I had to get Elle (my protagonist) from one place to another and I was very resistant to do it. I wanted to avoid the whole move and come up with a compelling (read deus ex machina)  reason for her not to endure this dangerous trip. The great lesson that I learned was that I identified why I didn’t want Elle to go on this journey.

It was simple, I just didn’t want to write it. It was too complicated, tricky. In short, it was simply too much work and I didn’t know if I had it in me. Then I remembered something I heard from John Gilstrap, New York Times bestselling suspense novelist and a panelist at this past Sleuthfest Conference:

A storytellers greatest sin is to squander drama

So I wrote the scene and it became an important turning point in the novel. Thank you Mr Gilstrap. That alone was well worth the price of admission.

He said a couple of other things as well, but he was wrong because he did teach me something.

Was it tough to write, yes, until I forgot it was tough and just got on with it, imagining and reading about what the water was like a couple of days after a major hurricane. I can always fill in more details later, the point for me is to get the first draft done.

I know too much about how fear and laziness affect me to sell myself a lie about my motives. I am also tired of unfinished projects. I need to keep moving, like a tank, fearing that if I stop I may stay stalled forever.  So far so good, fear seems to be working for me. And then I get the bliss of having made it work, loving the thing I just produced, glad I stuck to it.

It may not be pretty or esoteric, but it works for me. I have plenty of time to rewrite, in fact I can’t wait to get there.

I go to lots of conferences, listen to writers who manage to publish book after book. It is not that important to me that I love their particular style or genre,  just that they get to the finish line, consistently producing quality work that does what it is supposed to do.

Amongst the many other gems I heard from John Gilstrap, about how to avoid the sagging middle is to stay out of your own way.

Write only if you cannot live without writing
Write only what you alone can write

38,386 words so far. A tough week and one in which I am experimenting with possible avenues, complications.