If you get stuck in the middle of writing your book or screenplay, don’t give up and don’t be tempted by the lure of starting a different story. That one will also have a difficult middle. Instead, use the first two methods below to get into a constructive state of mind, and the third to solve your story problems.
Go back to the basics
Remember what you wanted this project to be, what would make it special for readers, what you would enjoy about writing it. It’s easy to lose sight of these when you’ve been writing for a while and encountering obstacles. Reconnecting with your initial drive will revive your enthusiasm for the project and give you new energy for solving the problems. (There's more about these questions here.)
Feed your head
Take a short break and read or re-read works by the writers you admire most. Revive your love for the written word.
Write or rewrite an outline
If you didn’t write an outline because you wanted the freedom to write the story as it occurred to you, now may be the time to re-think that. Spontaneity may have taken you as far as it can, and now it’s time for a bit of left-brain analysis.
Start with the big picture: write one sentence about the beginning, two or three about the middle, and one about the end. Then expand those to a paragraph for the start and end and two to three about the middle. Develop the outline as far as you think will help you the most.
If you did write an outline, it’s possible that writing the story to its middle has revealed some flaws or weaknesses in the structure. Rather than fiddling with the existing outline, follow the same process described in the previous paragraph. Don’t be bound by what you’ve already written, be led by what works best.
(If Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson and many other classic and modern writers were able to give you writing advice, would you be interested? You'll find it in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and you can get it now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
