I start strong then lose momentum.
Great story idea? Check.
Strong start? Also check.
Stalling out in the middle? Ugh…check here, too.
While not knowing where to start can be hard, getting started and losing steam in the middle of writing might be worse. It’s like going on a trip and getting stranded because you forgot to fill the tank.
You know where you want your story to go, but it’s the getting there causing issues.
Do. Not. Panic.
Consider this Triple A for your stalled out story on the side of the road.
This accidental limbo happens when well laid plans go sideways. Remember our road trip analogy? While some unplanned adventures pan out, many more end in disaster.
You focused so much on planning, but you forgot to pack the car. Too much world building and character development, not enough structure.
Those things are important, but if you don’t know how they all fit inside the story, they don’t do you much good. So, stop. Look at what you already have. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?
Let’s work on a little preventative maintenance.
Take a step back and look at the big picture. The pages, notes, where you started, and where the trouble began.
The goal isn’t to shit can all of your hard work. It’s to prepare for the possibility that some of the pages will get cut. You may have to dump weight to make room for gold.
Prevention means keeping what is working, repurposing things in the wrong place, and pitching the rest out the window.
I won’t leave you hanging. Here are some strategies to help you see how the story is developing in what you have already written.
Write a summary of the opening scene. What story question is it asking? Does it set up what happens next?
Write a note about the middle of the book. Is it supporting the beginning and ending of the story? Does each scene cause the next to happen?
Look at one scene. Map out what happens at the beginning, middle, and end. Does something change? Did the character make a decision? Did it cause the next thing to happen?
Now choose a sequence of scenes and map out how the situation evolves across them. What changes? What decisions were made? Is the chain of events clear?
Still having trouble? Never fear. You don’t have to figure it out alone.
It is still early enough in the process to find what is causing the story to stall. Its akin to diagnosing the check engine light before the problem gets worse.
You are not arriving late, no matter how much time you have spent on your pages. This work requires a shift in mindset, looking at what the story is and what stopped it cold.
If you have been staring at your pages for so long, you can’t see which way is up, I offer support with fresh eyes and a new perspective.
More than likely you will have to cut and rewrite some of your babies. I know it’s gonna sting, but I promised to be honest.
Understand the Story and The Middle Reset look at different parts of the story to help diagnosis what is derailing your progress.
You can look at them below.
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Understanding the Story
This service focuses on the first twenty pages of your book and what they set up. We look at how the opening introduces the situation, what questions it raises, and what the reader is being asked to follow from the start.
The goal is to understand how those early scenes shape the rest of the story.
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The Middle Reset
This service focuses on the middle of your book and how it supports the larger arc. We look at how the story develops over time, decisions the characters make, how things change, and where there might be weak spots.
The aim is to understand what the middle is doing now versus what it needs to do in order to connect the beginning and end.
