2500 words today. I’m sitting around 14.5K now, and I’ve officially hit the first rough spot. The first rough spot is when you have zero idea what comes next.
In my book, The Pocket Guide to Pantsing, I devote a lengthy section to just how deadly and dangerous this section is for writers, and how it can stop the production of a novel cold.
It almost always happens around the 30% mark. Guess where I am? 29%….
Anyhoo, I got to the end of my last writing session today and had no idea what was coming next. It caught me a little off-guard because I was humming along pretty nicely with what I thought was pretty good “story visibility” (i.e. how much further ahead I can see in the story). But that’s how this rough spot works—it almost always sneaks up on you if you’re not looking for it.
In this particular story, I have a few plot threads that I started, and they all finally converge when Lester meets a certain character. This is usually where you find the rough spot.
I liken it to a traffic jam. Have you ever been driving on a highway and come upon a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam, sit in traffic for a long time only to find out that there was no reason for the jam? It just clears up mysteriously. No accident, no spilled truck loads on the highway—just a lot of cars all going the same direction and fighting each other to get there.
That’s how plot threads work too. When they all meet, you have to figure out how to juggle them all, which slows the novel down until you do. And it’s also why you can’t “see” what happens next.
The solution is to write the next sentence, and the next one. However, sometimes, the nearest answer may also be behind you in a chapter you’ve already written. As soon as you write a certain number
Anyway, if you’ve ever found yourself stuck in the first third of your manuscript, that’s the nature of what you’re dealing with.
If you’re interested in The Pocket Guide to Pantsing, get it at www.authorlevelup.com/pantsing
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