How to Avoid the Novel Slump – Part 1
Has your novel sagged in the middle? Stuck
half way and just can’t seem to move on?
You’re not on your own. At some stage during
the novel writing process, every writer goes through what’s known as a novel
slump. This usually occurs mid way through the novel – since that is where the
majority of the story knits together – and there are several things that can happen
to make the story stutter or grind to a halt.
There are lots of reasons why this happens,
but in order to avoid hitting that novel slump, writers should become aware of
the signs that things are not going according to plan, so they can take steps
to overcome them or avoid them altogether.
Reasons
for the Slump
One of the most obvious reasons a novel might
begin to sag is that the narrative simply runs out of steam. All the freshness
at the beginning of story has dried up and the ideas have vanished. When the
narrative stutters, it’s usually a sign that the writer hasn’t planned ahead.
This is also true if the writer isn’t sure what should happen next in the story
or what direction it should take. Sometimes a sense of weariness sets in, where
the initial sparkle and inspiration is lost and therefore it seems pointless to
continue.
Writers also become bored with the story and
they give up halfway through because of lack of inspiration – ideas are lacking
and therefore interest in the story and the creativity to do it is dampened. This
is also a symptom that the story itself isn’t working, whether that is down the
characters not being right, the story not correctly planned out or that it’s
the wrong subject matter entirely (write about genres you like and relate to,
not what is currently in favour).
This also occurs when the writer has
neglected to write down exactly what the story is about and why.
Another reason is that the writer has somehow
created a tangled mess or the story has become overcomplicated, which happens
when there are no controls on plot and subplot threads and the writer wanders
off on a tangent. Then they realize too late that it’s all gone a bit wrong.
Sometimes the writer finds out at the halfway
point that the story isn’t going in the right direction and they are not sure
how to approach the problem – this often leads to the novel being dumped.
How many writers have a pile of unfinished
novels collecting dust in a drawer somewhere?
Writers also fall into a slump because they
tend to look back through the chapters they’ve written and start meddling by
adding things, removing things and so on. This can be counterproductive,
especially if the novel is only half done, because the novel doesn’t truly move
forward as it should – any creative momentum is lost. It’s better to complete the initial draft,
then go back to edit properly afterward.
Instead of concentrating on one writing
project at a time, many writers get an idea for another novel and start writing
that, so the initial novel falls to the wayside and the writer cannot be
bothered with it. There are plenty of writers out there that do this.
Problems like these tend to zap a writer’s
motivation, and the moment that happens, apathy sets in and the writer tends to
give up and do something else because they’ve lost all interest in the novel.
Does that sound like you?
So how do you avoid these pitfalls? What is
the one factor that could eradicate all these problems?
Well, the answer is good old fashioned planning.
Ways
to Avoid the Slump
If you are undertaking something as in-depth
and as complicated as a novel, then a lot of thought, preparation and planning
is absolutely essential.
Plot
- write down the plot – what the story is about, who it involves and what the
outcome will be. It should be thorough. The reason it should be thorough is
because it always acts as the reference point.
Characters
- have a detailed background for the main characters – what is their story, why
are they involved? Will they have a subplot? How will they affect the other
characters? Which ones will cause the most conflict? The more information you
have about your characters, the easier it will be to construct scenes around
them. Not only that but you can refer
back to them at any time.
Chapter
Outline - plan ahead with an outline or chapter
breakdown of what the story might entail, the directions it might go and the
kind of sub-plots and themes it might explore. This doesn’t have to be precise,
exact or as thorough (unless of course you happen to love planning everything
in detail), but as long as you have a guide to work with, any bumps in the road
can usually be traversed.
Why do this? Because it allows the writer to
overcome these common problems by virtue of having a chapter guide, which acts
a prompt to stimulate ideas and keep the writer on the right track as far as
the momentum
of the story goes, because the aim of the story is to get from the
beginning to the end, which means it is always moving forward.
A rough guide means the writer doesn’t have
to sit staring at a blank screen while ideas for the next scene have seemingly been
sucked into a black hole. Instead, a guide should inspire scenes. If anything
it will at least keep you on the right course to move the story forward, even
if ideas are few.
There are plenty of writers who insist they
don’t do any planning. That’s fine - by
all means write by the seat of your pants – but you will come unstuck.
In Part 2 we’ll look at more ways that
writers can avoid falling into that halfway slump with their novels and some
practical ways around it, should it happen.
Next week: How to Avoid the Novel Slump Part
2
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