Writing Discussion: The Muddle in the Middle

[jpskewedthrone]

So today, since I DON'T have to go teach and DON'T have some pressing papers to grade or exams to design or lecture to write (hee hee!) I've decided to spend my morning hours writing a blog about *gasp!* writing! That hasn't happened for a while. But I've got a list of topics and things that I've been MEANING to blog about regarding writing and SF and Fantasy in general, and I hope to WILL start blogging on those on a more regular basis now that the day job is finished. It can't interfere with the finishing of the current novel of course, but I can only write so many hours per day on that without achieving burn-out. So, here's the latest writing-related blog post on:



The Muddle In The Middle

If you've been reading any blog by pretty much any writer, then at some point you've probably heard one of us mentioning that we're currently in the "muddle in the middle". This is the point in the novel when the fire and passion that got us through the first part of the book sort of bottoms out and it feels like we're floundering around, trying to find the plot, or the characters, or SOMETHING, in order to push our way onwards toward what we know is the spectacular end to the novel. This happens to all kinds of writers, both organic and those that like outlines and synopses. We suddenly and abruptly decide that the book sucks and that we should be shot because we are suddenly being exposed as the writer hacks we all know we are in our soul. This is where the true hatred of our own novels sets down little roots which will haunt us all the way through to publication . . . and beyond. So I figured I'd talk about this "muddle" and how meddlesome it is, and say why I think the middle always seems to be so troublesome and gray-hair inducing and pulling.

I think the reason we end up with such a "muddle" while writing is because at some point in the novel, there's usually a shift in the focus of the novel. It's this transition that gets us into trouble. At the beginning of the novel, we have this great idea or character and so we sit down and start writing and the idea is the whole of our universe and we love it and we're excited about it and we keep typing away . . . and then eventually that initial idea, that catalyst, is written and the "problem" the character had is resolved in some way . . . and suddenly we realize that in order to get from here to THERE, the end of the novel, we've got to move the characters. Their problem has changed, but in the process of solving their initial problem and getting to that end problem and resolving it, there's typically a lull. A breath, let's say.

And this is where the "muddle" sets in. In my current novel, my main characters were in one city and things came to a head and they were forced to leave. Literally. They were sent out into the plains, the unexplored plains, as a sort of banishment. And this is where the muddle set in. Those first four chapters were great, I love them, but then I hit the plains . . . and everything sucked. Because this was a lull. All of the initial problems had been resolved by the banishment and I hadn't yet established the new problems, the new focus, because I had to get them onto the plains to do that.

So I pushed them onto the plains, and I pushed and pushed and pushed, and it wasn't as exciting or as intense as the first four chapters and I sank into a mild depression about the book. I loved those first four chapters, but I hated the ones since then. Oh, there were a few scenes here and there that I liked and thought were good, but it just felt . . . boring. I began stressing. I began hating the book. I began thinking DAW had made a horrible mistake in purchasing this book and it was going to be a disaster and OMG! What would the readers think that loved the Amenkor books and then picked up this colossal mess! Gah!

But I kept writing, because this has happened before on previous novels (including the Amenkor books) AND because I knew I had a good ending in mind.

And there's the crux, the "muddle": what I was struggling with was the transition from the great beginning to the spectacular ending. How do I bridge that gap, and do it in an interesting way? At the time, I was building my bridge, but it was fat and ugly and unstable and had little branches that went nowhere, and OMG that whole section doesn't even have any supports! Bah! Shoot me! Shoot me now!

I eventually came out of it, found that connection that I needed to connect the beginning to the end, and intend to smooth out that horrible bridge I built along the way. That's what revisions are for, of course. This book took me much longer (and many more words) to find the connection than in previous novels, but it's there. That's why I'm going to have to revise so heavily. But in the end I DID find that transition. (In this case, it was a missing scene, a rather important battle scene, that sets up the motivations of a bunch of characters. I didn't know about this scene until I'd written about 50,000 words of travel through the plains, but now I see how everything in the second half of the book revolves around this one battle.)

So those muddles are the transitions, the connections between beginning and end. And how do you handle them? What do you do when the "muddle" sets in? You just keep writing. This is where the true test of whether your a writer or not comes into play, I think. You have to keep writing, with the belief that eventually it will resolve itself and you'll find that bridge. This is where alot of writers stop. They give up on the book, assume that it isn't going anywhere (because at that point it isn't) and decide that it just isn't working and so they ditch it and start another novel. YOU CAN'T DO THIS! You have to keep pushing until you get to that end scene, and then the connection you needed for the middle will become clear. And having written a few novels so far, I can say with experience that sometimes that connection comes quick (like it did for The Cracked Throne) or sometimes it feels like it will never come, like the current work in progress Well of Sorrows. It did eventually, but MAN it took alot of words to get there! And yes, I doubted myself as a writer through all 50,000 plus words.

And here's something interesting: I think this explains why in some trilogies the second book always feels like a letdown. That second book is the transition from the great idea in book 1 to the spectacular ending in book 3. An entire book of transition, of bridge, of connection. Ugh. (This is why I think of each book as it's own book. I'm not sure I could survive and entire book of transition.)

In any case, that's what I think about the "muddle" in the middle, and why it's such a pain in the ass . . . and yet also why it's necessary for the book to work. To fix it you have to write. But it does help to have some writer friends (either in person or online) to whine to and fret with so they can help you push through that muddle and get to that connection and that end.

So what do you guys think about the muddle in the middle? Do you struggle with it? Have any other thoughts about why it shows up in most novels, or suggestions on how you defeat it?



And that's the latest writing entry. If you're in Binghamton, NY, today (May 14th) remember to stop on by the signing at the Binghamton University bookstore from Noon to 3pm, and if you can't make that there's also the Meet & Greet at Antonio's in Endicott tonight (May 14th) starting at 5:30 for an hour or so. Book to buy and get signed will be at both events.

Comments

[rugor.livejournal.com]

I remember struggling with the middle in my second novel (not so much my first because it was written more episodically so I had four mini-middles) and it was really hard to get past it. I'm still not sure what I can really do with it, but at least I got a draft complete.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

That's the ultimate goal: get a first draft completed. After that you can fix and change whatever you want, but that first draft is necessary.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I'm in it as we speak, I suppose, seeing as I crossed the 50,000-word threshold over the weekend - and unlike the fantasy novel that I ended up setting aside at 35,000 words (because holy cow! plot issues that have to be figured out before I can even think about giving it another go) - I pretty much think everything I've written is garbage. Very different when you feel as if nothing you've set down is worth a dime, and when you can't find a "darling du jour" to post to your journal to tantalize your readers to save your life. Basically, I'm flying by the seat of my pants, with one engine on fire, and no parachute.

Because I'm not published yet, I have no professional affirmation whatsoever that my writing is anything other than drek, so it's a different kind of stress than it is for someone like you, who are published. I suspect your stress is "OMG, I have no more books in me and my editors and publishers will ditch me!" whereas my stress is "OMG I was an idiot to think I could possibly write well enough to ever interest an agent, editor, or publisher!"

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

my stress is "OMG I was an idiot to think I could possibly write well enough to ever interest an agent, editor, or publisher!"

Oh yes. I know that stress. :)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Oh, when I talked about my experience with "muddles" in novels it wasn't just with published ones. I had the same experiences with the unpublished novels as well. But yes, knowing that you've sold the novel or it's likely you'll sell the novel does help push you to keep going, even when it seems hopeless.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

From my Book of Sayings:
There's a time for talking about what you want to do,
then there's the time when you have to shut up and do it.

So I suppose this is what separates the authors form the copywriters. The copywriting part is when you come up with the hooks and premises and synopses that give form to that great idea, while the authoring is the boilerplate text, the welding of the keel and the metaphor of your choice. My author persona hits a lot of these stuck-points; she comes up with a great-looking story scene then she goes on holiday and I'm stuck with turning it into something that looks like a book chapter. Then there's the downtime when I watch the ABC soaps until she pops back in with the next great scene. Pushing doesn't work because each scene needs time to cook, or else it won't be worth writing.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

When you're under contract, you've got to sit down and write every day, whether that scene is ready or not. Or at least that's the only way I can see getting the novel done in a timely manner. So sometimes you don't have the scene ready in your head and you just plow through. But that's what works for me. If you've found the process that works best for you, then great! Keep writing!

Muddling through

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

This is where alot of writers stop. They give up on the book, assume that it isn't going anywhere (because at that point it isn't) and decide that it just isn't working and so they ditch it and start another novel. YOU CAN'T DO THIS!

But I did :D For years and years and years. Not just on novels, either, but on short stories, plays - you name it. Classic lack of confidence.

I have stopped doing that, though - I now have the first drafts of two novels (no serious revisions, yet) and am in the halfway doldrums on a third ;-) I may have to brainstorm where to go next, I may just have to plod along and see whether a path shows up - I have finally realised that it can be one of the best bits of creating if you can relax and stop trying to know what happens next all the time.

It's absolutely true that you have to keep going. You HAVE to get a first draft before you have a hope in hell of getting a finished one.

It's a hard lesson, but such a valuable one.

Re: Muddling through

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

It is a hard lesson to learn, but you have to make writing a habit, like going to the gym. Once it's a habit, when you DON'T write, it feels weird. And that muddle is usually where most people figure they aren't "cut out" for writing and call it quits.

Back at Nin90 today. Need to get my ass in the chair and start writing again. *grin*

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

My muddle in the middle lasted over half the book. Then on page 300 (of 500 finished) I realized I was working with the wrong theme. On page 325 I knew I had the wrong villian. All of a sudden everything fell into place and I knew what was missing.

So I wrapped the draft at page 379 knowing I'd add at least 100 pages in the 2nd draft. I could have gone back to the beginning, but I also knew that not finishing the draft with this new knowledge short changed me of even more revelations. Going back to the beginning before finishing is an invitation to quit the book altogether.

You have to plod along, sometimes 1 sentence at a time until you hit that connection or revelation.

Good essay.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

That's what happened in this novel. I have 175,000 words and a good 100,000 of that is the muddle. Some good stuff in there, here and there, but certainly alot of it needs to be excised. Some of it was necessary for worldbuilding background, just for me. It certainly doesn't need to be in the book.

And I never allow myself to "start over" before the book is finished. I need that first draft done before I can figure out everything that needs to be fixed.

[o-yannik.livejournal.com]

I've read some place that in the middle of the book happens something that changes-it-all. Before then your character can go one way or the other, after that point, there's no turning back. Like on a chute. You climb and climb and climb. Then on top you can still hesitate, maybe go back down the ladder. But once you cross some tripping poin, you can only slide toward the inevitable.

When plotting the story I try to have this point specified as much as I specify the great beginning and spectacular end. Maybe even more so. And it makes writing the "muddly middle" really exciting.

Another thing altogether is common tiredness and I do experience it after few weeks of working on the same story and characters. But that's a different beast entirely.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Oh, I knew the point where everything changes. I was extremely excited about that scene. But the part before it (crossing the plains) and the part after it was the muddle.

And you can get just . . . exhausted with characters and stories. Especially if they're emotionally draining. Some of the scenes in the Amenkor novels were like that for me.

[kathleenfoucart.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, thanks for this post! I just hit the middle-muddle in one of my WIPs and I thought I was going crazy. Time to just push through, I suppose!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

That's what works for me, and a few other writers I know. Hopefully it works for you!

[vcmorris.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm... with Our Lady of Pain there was never really any muddle. Perhaps because the thing had sat around for so long, over 5 years, trying to be an unassuming short story - it had plenty of time to perk while I worked on other things. When it finally dawned on me what the story was REALLY about and I picked it up again, I just flew right through it.

The Civil War erotica stories proved a challenge more for the historical research I had to keep doing than any sort of muddle. I'd get chugging along, visualize a scene and then suddenly have to stop to ask myself such questions as "When was the elevator invented?" "Did they use coat hangers then?" "Would that canning jar really have a screw-off top?"

As far as the current murder-mystery... I've not yet hit the muddlesome part. I tend to write in spurts. I've been cranking out the chapters at top speed (for me) this month but eventually, something will happen and the page will sit empty for weeks. At first I'll rationalize that "I needed a break." Then guilt will set in, "I shouldn't be sitting here stuffing my face with popcorn when there's a novel to be finished!" Eventually, they start whining - you know who I mean - the characters, the dialogue, the scenes in my head. The "voices" I like to call The Muse, kick in and shove me along, through the muddle, somehow having figured it all out on their own. I think a helmet and a pair of goggles are always best to wear at this time, especially the goggles... it keeps the muddle out of your eyes.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I didn't hit a muddle in every book (Cracked Throne never had a muddle that I remember), but this past one was rough, to the point where I began to seriously doubt the book would work. But I see where all of the problems were now. Good luck with your current WIP!

[ruthannereid.livejournal.com]

This is an EXCELLENT post! *shoves into memories* Thank you for sharing this.

I've discovered that "muddle in the middle," although I hadn't know what the official phrase for it was. ;) More times than I can count, I've ripped out whole chapters or even just sighed and started completely from scratch.

It's really, really encouraging to see "real" writers such as yourself struggling with this, too (i.e., it's not just me! I don't suck!). In my case, I actually found it wasn't beneficial to keep going in a direction that I could feel did not work. All I ended up with was pages and pages that I simply won't ever use - although I do usually keep all of it in separate files, just in case. For me, what works is reading it over from the beginning, feeling out the part where it starts to... well, not work, and then starting over from that point.

Sometimes it takes a lot of re-writes. I'm 16,000 words into my second book (not that the first has been picked up yet, but hey, a girl has to have hopes), and that first chapter was a transition one. I had to get my character from Scotland to Germany via dragon. It just... wasn't... working.

It works now - but it took seven from-scratch tries, and never mind the in-file rewrites.

Again, thank you so much for sharing this.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Well . . . I don't know if it's an "official" phrase, but it works well. *grin*

I keep everything I cut as well, although I haven't gone back and used any of it later novels. At least, not as is. I may use the IDEA from that scene, but not the scene itself. But it's good to have, just in case.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Great post - especially the all caps, bold statement in the middle.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm sure you've never had a muddle in the middle though. *grin*

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm sure you've never had a muddle in the middle though. *grin*

Truthfully? I get the middle-of-the-book blues, in which I feel everything is flat & uninteresting & I am worthless as a writer all of the time, and I find them paralyzing because at the point I question every single word I've written, except two (my name).

But if I'm writing 200 pages of stuff that has to go, it's going to be at the beginning, as I'm trying to find my way into the book with six or eight different chapter ones (twice! this time, once for prologue and once for the actual chapter one), or it's going to be 600 pages and almost a white page rewrite if I'm trying to force a book to an end that it can't actually get to because I'm trying desperately to tie things up so as not to annoy people (Sea of Sorrows).

This is possible because: I start a book and I know what the end is. And then I write half the book and realize that the end is not actually only half a book away, but I know where the end of this one is now. And then I phone Sheila and I grovel.

There's always an overall arc to the book I'm working on - but it often ends up being the mid-point arc, if that makes any sense, because the end I was aiming for can't actually be reached in the book I'm working on now (most any book; Riven Shield was part of Sun Sword until the manuscript was, ummm, already way too long (and before I had finished the whole thing -- I think it was 2000 pages when I accepted that, even though I'd been telling every single one of my readers that I was writing the last book for a year and a half, it wasn't quite only one book >.<)

But: I love endings.

ETA: too many typos >.<. Need coffee >.

Two, Three or Four Books from One

[vespican.livejournal.com]

When I sat down a few years ago to write what has become BEYOND THE OCEAN'S EDGE, my goal was to rewrite, revise, and edit a book I had written decades ago while in high school. This time through the overall story, I reached more than standard novel length before I was even a third of the way through the original. Now, having finished the first draft of the second part, I find that I'm still only half way through it. And as I've been working on it, I find that I'm creating new elements, subplots, and additional secondary story lines. At this point, who knows how many books it will take to tell the basic original story. In addition, I've finally figured out where the story will eventually end up. How many sequels it will take to get to that final point, I cannot safely predict.
Dave

[miintikwa.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Hope it was helpful.

[miintikwa.livejournal.com]

It really is. It explains why I have been so dissatisfied with the book I'm working on (book 2 of a trilogy) even though I really feel like my writing is improving.

I know I'm a better writer, but this book is made of suck. Except maybe it's not made of suck, maybe it's just made of transitions. :)

Befuddled or Muddled?

[vespican.livejournal.com]

I can't promise that the subject line I've selected will have that much to do with what I say regarding "the Muddle in the Middle." As I consider myself to be a fairly typical aspiring writer, and having finished two novels, I'm not sure if I experienced that situation. I probably did, but perhaps I'm such a blockhead that I didn't realize it.

At the same time, I may have experienced it in a somewhat different way, such that I didn't view it in those terms. Based on your use of the term, I believe I'm an "organic" writer. I have an idea and start out. Sometimes I have no more idea of what will happen on the next page as would anyone reading the story. We'll, that's not entirely true, as I usually have a vague idea of where the tale is heading. Sometimes the events occur that will steer the story off the planned track. Once in awhile things happen that will change the entire aspect or direction of the story. A lot of my "creative" process is done in none writing situations, such as sweeping the tennis courts at work at 5 AM. That's when I realize that the story will probably be fairly boring if it keeps up as it is, and that I'll need to include some twists and turns to enliven it a little.

I've always seen a story as equivilant to a road trip. While we like a nice drive with good roads, good weather, moderate to light traffic, such a journey doesn't make for very good telling at work on Monday morning. Much better if it rained, traffic was crazy, and you had to detour for 600 miles on a 200 mile jaunt. At least your co-workers will be listening with rapt attention to your tales of week end misadventure, rather than nodding off with boredom upon hearing of a typical predicably perfect excursion.

My advice, if I am to be offering any, would be: That if you run into that MUDDLE IN THE MIDDLE syndrome, take a little detour with your plot line. If you can't go through it, go around it. As a navigator of the written word and fields of fertile imaginations, you can always find your way back to your original course.
Dave

Re: Befuddled or Muddled?

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I'd say you are an organic write, since that's exactly how I write. I do let the characters roam, but those detours are usually what creates the "muddle" in the middle.

I do agree with the road trip metaphor though: much more interesting if awful things happen. *grin*