When To Call It Quits

Starting a fresh manuscript is always an exciting thing for me. The possibility of the blank page. An idea that makes my heart beat faster. Characters chattering away in my head, telling me their stories. Those are the moments I want to hole myself up in a cabin in the woods, just me and my laptop and an endless supply of coffee. The moments when the words flow and capturing them feels more like play than work.

But writing is work. Grueling, challenging, hair-pulling work, and inevitably the story loses some of its sparkle. For me, that happens somewhere around the mid-point, when everything seems pointless. My hook is weak. My characters are stupid. Instead of coffee, I want vodka. With three books under my belt, I’ve learned how to push through this mid-story slump, that it’s part of the process.

Sometimes, though, the mid-point can be the place where a story stalls out. The words dry up, and your characters stop talking. This beautiful story you were writing, the one you were once so excited about, has turned into a monster. The thought of pushing through, of writing another word, fills you with dread.

I know, because it’s happened to me twice now.

For the record, I’m not a quitter. Any writer forty-thousand words into a story will tell you that giving up is the very last thing they want to do. But there’s a difference between pushing through and pushing a dead horse. The trick is knowing which is which.

1. Close the file. This seems so obvious, but we writers are a stubborn bunch, and often we think the only way through is through. But take it from me: pounding away at something you hate will only make you hate it even more. What you need is distance. Step away from the project—two weeks at a minimum, more time is better—and think about something else for a while. Do something else. Anything Just stop obsessing about your story.
2. Give yourself a break. It’s not the worst thing in the world to put down a story. It doesn’t make you any less of a writer. It makes you a human who is frustrated and irritable and in need of a break. Watch a movie. Go for a walk. Have drinks with a girlfriend. You’ll know when you’re ready to come back to your story, and you’ll do so with a much clearer idea of how to fix it…or not.
3. Use the break to think about what’s next. Instead of being so focused on past failures and frustrations, look to the future. Think about what you want to write next, something that will get your writer brain excited again. There’s no better feeling in the world than that new, fresh-idea buzz.
4. Don’t force it. In my case, if I look back at where I went wrong with those two manuscripts I abandoned, it’s because I forced the idea instead of waiting for the right one. I know, I know. Deadlines! Word counts! Pressure! But your readers will notice if you push through on an idea you forced, and what good is coming out with a book a year if nobody wants to read it?
5. This, too, seems like a no-brainer, but writers read with an eye to technique. Your a-ha! moment could be waiting for you in the pages of another author’s book. See what they do right, and maybe you’ll find what you did wrong. At the very least, you’ll have lost yourself in a good story for a couple of hours.

Those two manuscripts I mentioned earlier? One of them is forever dead to me, but the other… The other still tugs in my quieter moments. Right now I’m giving myself a break from it, still mulling over what needs to be fixed and how to go about doing it, but I’ve put enough distance between me and the story to know the bones are there, the characters still real. I’ll probably pick it back up at some point in the not-so-distant future.

But first, I have another story to write.

—

Kimberly Belle grew up in Eastern Tennessee, in a small town nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians. A graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, Kimberly lived for over a decade in the Netherlands and has worked in marketing and fundraising for various nonprofits. She’s the author of three novels, THE LAST BREATH, THE ONES WE TRUST and upcoming THE MARRIAGE LIE (January 2017). She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

 

Keep up with Kimberly on Facebook www.facebook.com/KimberlyBelleBooks, Twitter (@KimberlySBelle), Instagram (@KimberlySBelle) and Goodreads

For more about Kimberly and her books, please visit her website, www.kimberlybellebooks.

 

The Marriage Lie

Even the perfect marriage has its dark side…

Iris and Will’s marriage is as close to perfect as it can be: a large house in a nice Atlanta neighborhood, rewarding careers and the excitement of trying for their first baby. But on the morning Will leaves for a business trip to Orlando, Iris’s happy world comes to an abrupt halt. Another plane headed for Seattle has crashed into a field, killing everyone on board, and according to the airline, Will was one of the passengers on this plane.

Grief-stricken and confused, Iris is convinced it all must be a huge misunderstanding. But as time passes and there is still no sign of Will, she reluctantly accepts that he is gone. Still, Iris needs answers. Why did Will lie about where he was going? What is in Seattle? And what else has he lied about? As Iris sets off on a desperate quest to find out what her husband was keeping from her, the answers she receives will shock her to her very core.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29095401-the-marriage-lie

The Ones We Trust

When former DC journalist Abigail Wolff attempts to rehabilitate her career, she finds herself at the heart of a US army cover-up involving the death of a soldier in Afghanistan—with unspeakable emotional consequences for one family. As the story of what happened comes to light, Abigail will do anything to write it.

The more evidence she stumbles upon in the case, the fewer people it seems she can trust, including her own father, a retired army general. And she certainly never expected to fall in love with the slain soldier’s brother, Gabe, a bitter man struggling to hold his family together. The investigation eventually leads her to an impossible choice, one of unrelenting sacrifice to protect those she loves.

Beyond the buried truths and betrayals, questions of family loyalty and redemption, Abigail’s search is, most of all, a desperate grasp at carrying on and coping—and seeking hope in the impossible.

 

The Last Breath

 

Humanitarian aid worker Gia Andrews chases disasters around the globe for a living. It’s the perfect lifestyle to keep her far away from her own personal ground zero. Sixteen years ago, Gia’s father was imprisoned for brutally killing her stepmother. Now he’s come home to die of cancer, and she’s responsible for his care—and coming to terms with his guilt.

Gia reluctantly resumes the role of daughter to the town’s most infamous murderer, a part complete with protesters on the lawn and death threats that are turning tragedy into front-page news. Returning to life in small-town Tennessee involves rebuilding relationships that distance and turmoil have strained, though finding an emotional anchor in the attractive hometown bartender is certainly helping Gia cope.

As the past unravels before her, Gia will find herself torn between the stories that her family, their friends and neighbors, and even her long-departed stepmother have believed to be real all these years. But in the end, the truth—and all the lies that came before—may have deadlier consequences than she could have ever anticipated….

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips