Welcome to another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group conceived by illustrious Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh! Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG
So I'm plugging away on my WIP and usually a third of the way through I stop and go through a few helpful "how to" lists I have compiled over the years. I check to make sure I'm hitting the right action beats and leaving the proper amount of threads...just sort of taking the pulse of my novel, as it were.
This normally helps to double check my Type A tendency to need order when sometimes in the midst of writing it can get pretty messy.
However, this time I found that I was missing something essential. A truly high stakes, doorway-of-no-return motivation that sets my heroine in motion. I THOUGHT that I had one. Its in my outline and synopsis...but as I wrote it, truly just let the story unfold, I found that it wasn't enough. It was kind of -- well it was a little blah.
I panicked...
Hopefully I've figured out what I need to do, but it requires ripping the story open at the seams and really scooping some stuff out, wrangling some new stuff in, and tying those pesky threads together again. Well, it all seems so intimidating. I don't really know how to begin.
So glad this all happened so close to IWSG posting time because just reading about how other authors face similar struggles and triumphs really is a great thing. And actually, now that its off my chest...I'm feeling a little better already.