In which I whine

[stillsostrange]

I'm going to take a moment to whine to LJ about my book, because sometimes this is useful for getting unstuck. So...

Waah! Stuck! I mean, this is no surprise--I always get stuck in the middle--but I have a deadline to meet and no time for this foolishness. I am especially frustrated because I know all sorts of things that need to happen in the second half of the book (masked balls! gaslighting! sorcerous plagues!), but I can't seem to get there from here. If I could take a week off and chill and not worry about it, I'm sure it would gel, but I don't have the luxury of a week off at this stage of the deadline.

It would really help if my antags, so newly laden with motivations and grudges, would actually antag a little, instead of sitting around being fraught and fabulous. :P

Whiiiiiiiiine....

Comments

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

Have someone walk in with an edged weapon. That should motivate them. A cursed edged weapon. A cursed edged weapon inscribed 'this machine kills antagonists if they don't rise up and start antagonising'.

[kafkonia.livejournal.com]

Warning: Internet Help Approaching

Why not write the parts that you know are going to happen. At least that way you'll still be getting words and progressing towards the finished copy, and somewhere along the line something you write then might show you how to get from here to there.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

I second that! Write the parts you know, fill in the blanks later.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the transitiony bits are important. Things in one scene affect things in later scenes too much for me to skip them entirely and have any hope of being able to use the unconnected bits later.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Have you asked your antagonists what they are waiting for? Is there an item they need to track? A person they don't trust? Are they waiting for someone to get into place in order to spring a trap? Someone they need to break out of prison or talk round or bewitch/influence in some way?
I am, of course, no-one to be offering advice, as I am always getting stuck, but I do find that changing viewpoint for a scene or a chapter can sometimes help.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously debating the POVs now, because there's so much stuff happening off-screen.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I know the feeling. I start out with one to three POVs and end up with 6 or 7 as I find I need to see things.
Books do it on purpose.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_eljefe_/]

Add a zeppelin. Zeppelins make everything better. Just like pop tarts do.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I agree, put a bookmark where you are at and continue writing what you got, then go back later to fill it in. Plot spackle ..lots of it..

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

Think about it this way: at least you aren't at the obsessive stage of revisions, yet. It could always be worse. Always. *g*

On a more positive note, I find that turning on a particularly psychedelic album and just sitting for as long as it takes, brain open and thinking, tends to help me gel the holes in the plot. (Stereotypical: Pink Floyd's "The Wall" or "Wish You Were Here" are my normal choices. Occasionally, depending on the book, some Tom Waits.)

[barbara-hambly.livejournal.com]

If you are in fact asking for advice, two things I've found work for me: a) taking a walk (30 min) and b) backtracking in my story to the last crossroad, and seeing if I should be going in another direction. (A reason I'm very hesitant to let anyone see first drafts).

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

In place of a walk I spent an hour trying to repair a car window, and that seems to have helped a lot. The book, anyway--we didn't do anything for the window.

You Are Not Alone

[cate-morgan.livejournal.com]

My gawds, I feel so much better knowing I'm not the only one who gets bogged in the Dread Middle and whose antagonists pose in kewl fashion but don't actually manage to antag much until they need to act like idiots so the protag can win. My white board of shame is currently of mass of incoherent scribbles.

Would it help to work on the second half when you do know what happens? Perhaps if you shush the Internal Editor long enough to get writing again it will work itself out and then go back? Or try writing from a different point of view? Progress is progress.