the Mid-Novel Slump

I hates it.

I’m writing a follow up to Ilfayne’s Bane, tentatively titled For I am a Jealous God. And yikes, I’d forgotten what it was like to get thirty thousand words in and wonder what the feck happened to the plot, or my ability to put one word next to another. To question every little thing you write.

I tend not to outline too much ( because I always come up with these really funky things as I’m writing that need to be added in…and well lets face it, by the time I’m 10k words in the outline needs chucking and staring over) but here I am, questioning it all again.

Is one of my MCs just repeating what he did in the last book? Well, let’s see. Falling in love with unsuitable woman. Check. Getting framed for crime he didn’t commit. Check ( although to be fair, the person framing him is using the fact that he supposedly ‘got away with it’ before to help his case).The drug addiction is new ( and unexpected, even by me. I never thought he was the sort!)

Then I have my main couple ( it’s a romance sequel). Sooo…how do you get romance into the sequel? I mean they met and got lovey dovey in the first one. So I’m putting them in one of those ‘impossible to compromise on’ dilemmas. That should give some conflict eh? Well yes. And no. Am I writing these characters the same as they were in the first book? Well yes. And no.

Am I overdoing the angst? Oh, I should think so. I’m a born drama queen.

Is the plot working? Who knows? Not me that’s for sure.

Will I have a nervous breakdown before I hit 40k? Probably.

I’m considering doing a story that starts and ends with someone saying ‘Bugger’. But that’s probably just procrastination. Tempting though.