I’ve ‘completed’ three novels – a thriller, a coming-of-age story, and a mystery. I’ve had expert readers for all three including Sue Grafton who read two of them. All the expert readers have the same reaction. Sue’s, at the halfway point, was ‘We need to find you a good agent.’ By the time she reached the end, it was, ‘Hmmm. Back to the drawing board.’
To be more explicit, the comments tend to be: excellent writing and excellent start, but then, as the story draws to a close, the structure and plot begin to shake. There is a set of problems here I struggle with. I’ll ask about the two obvious ones:
How can I develop a lightweight structure from the beginning of a project that I can write to?
How can I revise effectively after writing myself into a corner?
Are there tools you use, like spreadsheets, outlines, note cards?
Answer
To save repetition:
Write to the finish, or edit as you go?
(TLDR: Writing a novel is like building a bridge across a chasm alone. After halfway getting to the other side will always require compromise. Only when you have a whole, functioning bridge can you really go back and make it less lopsided.)
If you've chewed all that over I think what is fundamental is that what you describe definitely seems to indicate some sort of lopsidedness and you have to remember that this is natural. Weirdly I think that the quality of writing in any given work tends to go up even as the available story options go down as you will obviously be a better craftsman 50000 words later. Without being able to see the work you've done I couldn't possibly tell you why it is your stuff goes flat towards the end, and if you're paying people to read it surely they should offer some concrete advice, shouldn't they?
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