Midway Through a Novel

If you're anything like me, you may get midway through a novel and find that you're stuck. Either you feel as if you have nothing more to say (and in that case the main character has solved his/her problem way to soon) or you feel as if the text isn't engaging enough to continue (again, the main character has solved his/her problem too soon).

Photo by: loudestnoise, courtesy of Flickr

I'm going over my manuscript today to see where I got hung up and make adjustments. The last thing I want my reader to do is to give up half way through the manuscript.

Although in my own personal life I like things to be solved "yesterday" or at least "next week," there are things that God wants me to learn, experiences I need to have to get me to the end of my life. And though a book is just a segment of a person's life, it is a segment nevertheless, and the segment needs to be resolved later rather than sooner.

Today I'm going to check over the problems my character has faced up until this point. Maybe she is moving along too splendidly without enough resistance. In other words, perhaps the tension evaporated somewhere in the book.

I'm going to look over Virginia's meetings with God, I'm going to check her level of fear and discouragement, I'm going to see if her problems are constantly climbing or getting worse before I start healing them all.

If I want to get to the end of my book, (and though I want to save her) I'm going to have to allow Virginia to sweat a little longer.

Wish me luck.