This Writer’s Life—NaNoWriMo Week 4 Recap: The Squishy Middle

by Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo

The other chilly day, the kids and I were out for a walk, all bundled in our new winter gear. A mid-ish November day, the sun on the tops of the newly bare trees. The tips of my fingers cold in my gloves. It was the first truly cold day of the season. Out in all that lovely late afternoon light, I was thinking about my NaNo manuscript. And what I thought was, I need a visit from my Fairy Plot Mother!

And you think, Oh is she going on about plot again? Isn’t she the one who shuns plot?

Yes and yes. But hear me out. Although I am about two thirds into my 50,000 word goal, my story is only at mid-point.

For me, beginnings are easy and energetic. And ends, if not effortless, are not so bad. But middles—that’s where it’s really easy, and almost expected, for me to get lost. I have established my characters, my sense of place, a plot is (maybe?) emerging, but perhaps it’s not entirely clear what should happen. Maybe my characters have meandered into a corner or down an unexpected road and I’m unsure where this story is supposed to go. This is the squishy middle. The soggy, droopy, spongy middle.

Does this happen to you, too?

Let me ask you this: can you see the end?

In graduate school, I took a class called “100 Pages.” The idea being to end the semester with a one hundred page manuscript. The professor shared exercises designed to spur and escalate productivity. She didn’t expect us to write from A to Z, from page 1 to page 100. She deliberately instructed us to move from beginning to end and then tackle the middle. The idea was to have some structure—a beginning and an end—from which to hang the story from one end to the other. In this way, it could be easier to get that middle firmed up, to pull it nice and taut.

So, when I got a little bogged down in that pulpy middle this week, I remembered to try working backwards. And I found I could see the end. I got a sheet of paper and a fine-point blue ink pen and, starting at the bottom of the page, I plotted backwards. Come to find out, I knew the end of the story (I know, I’m as surprised as you are!), and working back from there, I actually plotted my novel! (Thank you, Professor Bobbie Louise Hawkins!)

Now, armed with my map, I am racking up my word count with ease. I have a nice firm middle and I am moving steadily towards the end.

Do you get stuck in the middle? How do you get unstuck?

Book Giveaway!
We have another book giveaway! Read The Writer’s Life Q&A with Karen McQuestion on December 1st, share your thoughts and qualify to win a copy of her book, Easily Amused! The winner will also receive a copy of Karen’s children’s book Celia and the Fairies! Simply leave a comment on the December 1st Q&A with Karen McQuestion in order to qualify.

Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo is a writer, reader, yogini (when she can squeeze it in), mom, part-time Office Manager, a homemaker and the Coordinator and Writer for The Writer’s Life blog. She loves to cook and take long walks with her kids and is a woman who wants to meaningfully exchange and intersect with other women writers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Currently she works at a web development company (because part-time Office Manager buys more groceries than Struggling Writer). She is at work on a novel and a short story collection. Melissa lives in North Central Massachusetts with her family.

Want to write for The Writer’s Life blog? Drop us an email at thewriterslife@hercircleezine.com.

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