I’m working hard to revise my new novel, THE SILVER GIRL. I am having all kinds of trouble with the end. As I always tell my students, a problem with the end is a symptom. The real problem is the middle. Once you get the middle right, the end will show itself to you.
A metaphor: Have you ever gotten confused and buttoned your sweater up wrong? When you get to the end, there’s a button, but no hole left or vice versa. The only way to fix the problem is to get the whole sweater realigned
My editor pointed out a pacing problem about 3/4 way through the manuscript. I dragged out a scene that took place in about three hours to three chapters– 37 pages total. I went through, mercilessly cutting. It almost killed me, but I weeded out ten pages– 26000 words. Included in these words was my favorite line in the whole novel.
Mourning that perfect sentence, the flag on my computer is at half mast, but I am still pushing on.
BRILIANT! “…a problem with the end is a symptom. The real problem is the middle. Once you get the middle right, the end will show itself to you.” so true! so very, very true!