The Middle Stinks

I didn't feel much like working on my WIP today, so I printed out the remainder of "Blink" for editing. And as I supposed, the middle stinks. The book is broken into three parts--separated by large breaks of time between each section. The first part is good. The last part I assume is good because although I haven't gotten to editing it yet, I didn't have any problems writing it. The second part only ended up being about 20 pages in first draft, which was a big red flag in my mind. And I was correct.

I'm going to need to totally rewrite it. It doesn't flow well. The prose is lame. The dialogue is even lamer. And my heroine acts like a big sissy fruitcake--indecisive and wishy-washy. Blech.

Let this be a lesson to all aspiring writers. Sometimes even the best work we do can get crappy in the middle.

No shame in a rewrite, though. It's better to catch your mistakes up front, then after you've had a dozen doors slammed in your face. Once an agent rejects your work, no matter how many revisions you do or how much your newly polished manuscript gleams, it's nearly impossible to open those doors again.

Don't give them any excuses to slam them in the first place.