A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

WHAT IS A “SAGGING MIDDLE?” You have a great idea for a story. You know how you’ll grab the attention of your readers and you have an idea how the story will end. Good for you! Now you have to write everything in between. The “in between” is where a lot of writers run out of steam. I’ve talked with many would-be writers who gave up in the middle of the story because they became bored with it. What happened to that great ending? It, too, got lost in the “sagging middle.” Trust me. If you got bored writing it, your readers will get bored reading it. Better to write a shorter story than one that drags on and on. No need to worry. With a little exercise, you can eliminate that sagging middle. Photo Credit: Nancy Lininger FIVE TIPS Here are five tips to get rid of that sagging middle: 1.         Flex your literary muscle. Write. The more you write, the better you will write. Read. The more you read, the more in tune you will become with techniq...

I recently joined two online writing groups. I liked the idea of accountability. The groups have the same goal: get writers writing. Both groups are set up for a one month stint. The first group (I’ll call it Group A) is designed so that each member announces his or her word count goal at the beginning of the month. Each evening participants report via email how many words were written that day. Someone in some office somewhere compiles those emails and sends them to me as a single document the next day. Thank you Jeff Goins for the art. The second group (Group B) started on the premise that each person would shoot for 500 words per day. The creator of the group, Jeff Goins, set up a Facebook page for the group. Over 1600 people signed up. Jeff offers writing prompts for those who aren’t currently working on a project. Writers from all over the world check in daily. The results? Group A gets a daily word count and an occasional comment from participants. It ...

Karen is the main character in my latest novel. The story is written from her point of view. Since this blog is intended to encourage others to write, I thought it might be helpful to share with you the process I used to come to “know” Karen. I wanted Karen to be of an age where she would have a mother old enough to be going through the kind of dementia I intend to take her through in the story. Don’t misunderstand. I know dementia has no age boundaries and can happen to people who are younger than Karen’s mother, but statistics reveal (yep, they’re out there) that the aging process brings with it more likelihood of dementia. I decided Karen’s mother was seventy-four. Initially I had her at sixty-nine –too young to have to go through this but old enough for it to be possible. When I gave Karen siblings, I bumped Granny’s age up a bit, and then to make her next birthday (which takes place during the story) a big deal, I decided on seventy-four. I haven’t told the rest of my...

This is where I left off last week: I’m starting work on my third book . It’s the story of Karen, who finds herself in the middle –middle age, middle child, and now in the middle of dealing with her aging mother. Dementia? Couldn’t be. But Mimi, as she’s known to her family, is not herself lately. She makes Karen promise to never let anyone put her in a nursing home. Can Karen keep that promise as Mimi becomes more and more disoriented? The idea has been taking shape for a while. I know people who deal with these issues. My daughter and I had some interesting discussions about Alzheimer’s following a research project she completed. But what, exactly, is Karen’s story? I started by laying down a story line. I wanted more than a description of day-to-day living. True, everyday life with someone who has dementia is fraught with tension, but I need something more. I began talking with people in the “sandwich” generation –those who care for a parent while still rais...