— Mark Paxson
When I started my writing journey around 20 years ago, I came up with what I believe was a simple idea for my first novel. Since then, my ideas have become more and more complex. It’s one of the reasons I have struggled with writer’s block — the idea that I cannot see these more complicated stories to completion.
I have a half dozen half-completed novels that I struggle mightily with when I dip my toe back in every now and then.
And so it is today. I’m about to publish a novella and a short story collection. And with those nearing fruition, I started turning towards something else while I wait for that process to wind down.
A couple of days ago, I started reading a story I started in 2015. One that could be, should be, a novel. As I’m reading it, I love what I’ve done with the first 7 or 8 chapters, which span almost 20,000 words. I’m concerned though that maybe there are too many darlings in the story. Ultimately, however, my biggest concern is that I have bitten off more than I can chew with this effort. In two different ways.
First, can I write the path these characters are taking and get to the ending. I think I can do that. It’s the second issue that is problematic.
I start stories with a certain flow, a certain vibe, and then I become convincned that I can’t carry that flow or vibe through to the end. There are things I’m doing with this story that … well … it’s a dystopian story where I can kind of make up the rules as I go. It’s led to some fun stuff, a certain amount of freedom in the telling, but once started, I feel like that fun and freedom and rule-making needs to carry through each chapter. And it’s a hard thing to do.
I’m torn between cutting to the ending, which will leave it as a novella and with a whole lot of holes in the possible story, or gritting my teeth and grinding through a longer version of the tale. Something that has baffled me so far whenever I try to sit down with this story. Which way do I go? I want to tell the full tale, to not skip ahead to the ending. I want to fill those holes up with the kind of vibe I started the story with. But I don’t know if I can do it and, eventually, doing so might lead to this being an epic tale of many, many words. Requiring much more patience and effort than I may be willing to give.
Do you ever have this experience? You start a story. It’s going great and then something gets in the way and you begin to wonder if you can actually pull it off. If you can get your head around all of the details and the possibilities and the realities of the story itself?
If you do … what do you do about it? I’d love to hear your thoughts because I have to figure out how to finish this tale that I really, really like and do it right.
Writers Supporting Writers 
You have an ending, but you need a connection between it and the early chapters you are happy with. As I recall, you’re a pantser, so probably don’t have an outline. Even so, it might be worthwhile to identify some things that logically should happen to get the characters to the end you envision. Then just write the scenes, one at a time. You may indeed end up with a monster, but you can chop bits off as needed. Trying to imagine the whole process at once makes it too daunting. I prefer to have more text than I need, rather than something skimpy. Sort of like making pie crust.
And thanks for the link to my post about “darlings.”
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You’re right. I end up “imagining the whole process” of getting from where I am to the end and that just is too much to ponder. I typically write a chapter or two at a time, take a break for months, then go back and write another chapter or two.
This story is filled with darlings.
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Those little darlings! I’m sure you’ll sort them out, Mark.
I see lots of good suggestions in the comments.
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I like Audrey’s advice. I have this delusion of writing a novel but after two chapters decided I didn’t know how I wanted it to end. Since then it’s been poetry, flash fiction, or essays.
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Variety is good, Pat! Thanks for your comment!
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Besides designing the story you are creating, it often helps to switch chairs and think of how a reader would follow the story. I’ve read some very good fiction writers who made a 385 page novel into a 585 page novel and I could easily tell their effort was a great deal of “filler” like pillow stuffing to expand the story. The extra pages did not add to the story and the character-added fluff was not necessary to bring the characters to closure. I felt imposed upon having to read the filler to get to the end. The novella and short story have value in their own genre and are not diminished by not being a novel.
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That’s one of the things I definitely want to avoid — filler. If I’m going to continue to follow the characters on their jouney and not just skip to the end, each step on the journey needs to add and not just fill. We’ll see what happens.
Thank you for your comment!
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If “kill the darlings” is a distasteful expression perhaps think of it as eliminating the mud puddles.
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If you feel like you’re slogging through a bog, you might have some work to do.
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Cut the beginning and put half of those events in the middle. Most people put too much into the opening, and not enough meat in the middle. The middle is the good stuff, so leave some of the most interesting, most compelling/fearful/wonderful, etc. for the middle.
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When this happens to me, and in the early stages of my novels, it happens often. I take a long look at each of my character’s arcs. Are they complete, or do they have more to do?
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That’s the challenge … I’m a pantser, so I’m not sure exactly what else they have to do. I’m struggling with what else to develop before getting to the ending.
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Full Disclosure Warning: This advice is given by a ‘Don’t Kill Your Darlings’ adherent who writes 250,000 word+ novels. You may wish to seek other opinions….
Go with your heart and whichever Muse (or Muses) is /are with you.
Sometimes the evolution of a narrative requires growth, otherwise there is a risk of looking rushed to the reader.
Of equal importance is your own possible yearning to see the narrative to its final conclusion, which may, currently, be over the horizon. (Or just out of sight on either side).
Having a beginning and an ending is good, however you may feel that the journey there is worth explaining in detail.
Short stories and novellas are worthy, valuable, treasured places to invest writing time and creativity, and they will tell you if there is no more to be said.
If, however, you have a nagging feeling there is more to be written, then stock up for the journey and don’t look back.
Best wishes with all your endeavours.
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Thank you for your comment! My preference is to write the longer tale of the journey and not skip to the ending. I just have to figure out what happens in the in between.
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Go with it and write as long as the story needs in order to be told. I never care if it is a novel or a novella or a short story – it is as long as the story needs it.
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I’ve been experiencing the same thing with my current novel-in-progress (except I don’t have an ending yet). I started using Audrey’s page-a-day method, and it’s made all the difference. I need to write the ten pages of “getting there” to lead to the one scene with the vibe I want. I expect that when I begin revisions with the second draft, I’ll cut most of the “getting there” stuff.
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I may try something like that — Audrey’s method. I need to do something to try to keep this story moving.
Thank you!
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I often start writing a story thinking, “Aw, yeah, I have this great idea and it’s going to be a sprawling novel.” Then I get finished writing and I have something that’s novella-length. I’ll have ideas for how to expand it, but I worry that those will not fit with the rest.
Here’s what I would try to do, and FWIW, this is similar to my process on my longest book. First, go ahead and write the ending, so you can feel like you’ve told the basic story you set out to write, even if it’s just novella length.
Then… start experimenting writing the middle parts. If possible, even try to think of them like standalone stories in themselves, and write them that way. Only later think about fitting them into the novella. Like Audrey said, it’s probably better to have more material than you need.
Probably, your instincts are right, and some of the stuff you write might not fit the vibe you want. But, write it anyway, and then see what the beta readers say about it.
Your mileage may vary, though. This approach worked for me once, but I can’t claim it has a 100% success rate. And good luck!
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Yeah. I may write the ending just to get it out and on the page. I really like what I’m going to do with the end. Once I do that, I can go back and figure out what needs to be filled in.
Thank you.
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Hello, Mark,
I’m also a “pantser”, and your dilemma sounds familiar. I’m struggling in a similar way with my current work in progress, becoming complex, stuffed with darlings running about all over the place, and bogging me down to the point where it’s grinding to a halt, long before my target length. All round, there’s excellent advice here. I like the idea of giving the narrative time to mature and letting the muses/pixies go to work on it in your subconscious, coming back to it now and then to see if there’s a way through. I also like the idea of jumping ahead and writing the ending, then looking back to the middle to see if you can navigate towards the conclusion any better.
A method I’ve used is to have a couple of characters take time out from the plot, sit them down in a café somewhere and have them chat over coffee, then see what comes out of the conversation. You can write the café conversation into the story if you want, but it’s not necessary – it’s just a way of looking for direction, and I find our characters come up with the best ideas. Another method I use is to write the story out as far as you can, then jump back several chapters and rewrite. Often I find there’s sufficient momentum in the rewrite to push the story on beyond where you got to before, into new ground. Or you may discover a bump in the road with a single awkward paragraph, or a phrase, the removal of which opens things up. Then backtrack, rewrite, and so on.
I guess we all have our methods, and we shouldn’t forget we’re exploring our own psyche in our stories, so there’s never anything wasted, even if it sits on the back-burner for years.
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As a pantser, I regularly go back and read earlier chapters. Tweak them and then try to keep going from there. It doesn’t always work. 😉
It’s actually what I’m doing now. It’s been long enough since I last worked on this thing that I am re-reading the 20,000 words I’ve already written. It’s a masterpiece, I tell you!!! No, it’s not, but I like what I’ve done so far and with two more chapters to read before writing again, I hope to figure out a path forward.
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I guess you’ll have to finish it and find out. 😀 … found you via Audrey Driscoll’s blog. 🙂
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Working on it. 😉
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To me, stories start with characters reacting /to/…something. That’s the starting point. After that, their motivation and interaction with others precipitates the ‘events’ of the story. In that sense I’m pure pantster. But…as I write scifi, things always have to make sense so I try for a balance between external events and internal motivation.
Maybe you need to explore your characters’ motivation a bit more?
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Characters that come to life do tend to drive a story in unexpected directions. The writer needs to guide them, however. 😀
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A much neglected type of offering is the serial, not to be confused with series. Having written everything from flash fiction one pagers to 100K + doorstops, several such as The Fix it Lady, became a comfortable 20k novella. It had all the story I wanted without filler or padding. The serial such as the Davron sci fi stories has about ten sections in one flowing complete story, each 10k give or take and all ending in a bit of a cliff hanger in the ‘Don’t miss next weeks exciting episode…’ tradition. Always a freebie but continually being read years after completion. Nothing wrong in my opinion with some prose to add for a little seasoning. Whatever your story becomes, let it have its own life and let it tell you when its done.
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I’ve written everything from flash and poetry to novels and everything in between. I think novella is my preferred length. We’ll see what happens.
Thank you for your comment.
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Well put, Gary. A story should have its own life, and we indies have more scope to experiment.
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Lots of good advice here. I don’t think I can offer anything better. If you cannot recover the vibe, then perhaps you should recast that material into a new and different story, one with a new vibe and a length that you feel comfortable with. Maybe a smaller story in the same setting. I’ve used ideas and even written parts of abandoned stories in some of my stories. No effort goes to waste. If novellas are your thing — and they are popular these days — there is no reason to not to aim for novella length stories in all your efforts.
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Good point, Chuck. A novella that proves to be a positive creative experience is better than a novel the writer flogged themselves to crank out. And it’s true that shorter works are popular now. Some readers find books with high word and page counts to be too much of a challenge. (On the other hand, I love a long book, if it’s promising from the start.)
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