I wrote this post in December of 2007. One writer's journey to publication. This is something that I still do. With every book I've written, I've always get tired of it in the middle somewhere.

Yet I always manage to finish them.

If I'm remembering correctly I sold this one to Secret Cravings Publishing.

What a surprise!

Stuck before The End

I’m in the last chapters of my current romance, and I’m stuck. 

Yicks!

Usually I get bogged down in the middle of a novel not at the end.  So what did I do wrong this time?

Looking over my writing and writing habits the last few weeks, I’ve come to a conclusion.  No one should ever try to write two or three different scenes, from different points in the novel, at the same time.  I remember last month I was writing a love scene in the middle of the book, a different scene 3/4 through, and an ending scene (that I’ve decided not to use).  What a mess!

So it’s no wonder I couldn’t write anything new until a couple of days ago.  And I had to read the whole book to do it.  The only good news I have is I’ve decided to shortened the book by 15,000 words (The reason for the deleted ending scene above.) and I have a much clearer ending. 

So what should I have done?

Some writers are pantser and some are plotters.  I’m a pantser, with a little bit of thought and messy notes to help me along.  I’ve always known my character’s well and had a strong conflict and a possible ending in sight.  I think this time I didn’t have an ending in sight.  I figure no possible ending made my story go overlong, with too many twists and turns.  I had to get away from it for a few weeks, then reread the entire manuscript, before I saw where I went wrong.

Thank God I love to write.

Tags: Writing Romance Plots