by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Everything is going well with this first novel. And, yet, now that I’m just about to begin to flesh out the second half of the novel’s outline, I find myself with something of a conundrum. I have a general idea of how the story ends, and yet, I don’t.
I am really struggling with how to keep the story going. The story hasn’t collapsed as has happened so many times before, but I definitely am at a loss as to what to do at the moment. I think what I’m going to do is distract myself. I’m going to do some much neglected reading. I have a small library of books I haven’t read yet and I think if I just let my mind get preoccupied with something other than the problem at hand, then I should be able to solve it soon enough.
I feel like there’s something obvious that I’m missing. I think the thing I’ve really improved lately is character development. For way too long, I was interested in plot without really thinking about fleshing out character. But I think I have a much, much better understanding of character now. My storytelling ability has improved significantly.
Another thing I might do is turn my attention to one of the other books in the series. I know that’s dumb because I should focus all my attention on the first book, but I love development too much to stop doing it altogether. It would be nice to be able to switch gears for a few days an develop something that was still in the same universe. That might get my creative juices for the rest of the second half of the first novel going.
I think I just need a few days to clear my mind. Once I look at the second half of the novel with fresh eyes, the solutions to my current problems will probably be quite clear. At least, that’s the hope.
