The Muddle in the Middle

I'm in the middle of the rough draft of the current manuscript I'm working on--the third book in the Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series. And that's always where the writing bogs down.

In the first third of a mystery, the goals for the writer are fairly straight-forward: start off with a bang--usually a body hitting the floor, introduce the sleuth, commit the sleuth to investigate the crime, introduce most if not all of the suspects, start the subplot(s) rolling, and end with the first turning point (big surprise). There's the excitement of starting a new project and discovering my characters. So, I usually can plow through the writing of those scenes in my outline fairly quickly.

Similarly, the goals for the writer in the last third of the mystery are fairly straight-forward: in an ah-ha! moment the sleuth makes the final determination of who-dunnit, the villain is confronted and captured, subplots are resolved, justice is served and everyone (except the villain) lives happily ever after. Also, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the excitement of nearing the end keeps me motivated and moving forward. So, again, I can plow through the writing of the final scenes in my outline.

The muddle in the middle, though is a whole different story. Hidden motives and relationships between the characters are revealed, the stakes are raised, more turning points occur where the sleuth realizes she's been heading in the wrong direction. The sleuth mucks around talking to suspects, discovering clues, changing her mind from one minute to the next who the killer might be.

And I muck around, too. This is where it's important for the writer--and the sleuth--to remember who was where when and who knew what when. So, I'm constantly scanning back in the manuscript to remind myself of these things or to discover whoops, I didn't set them up or define them and I have some repair work to do. The writing slows down. The motivation ebbs.

That's when I need "a little help from my friends" to keep me churning out those pages. My critique group helps, as does setting weekly goals and reporting on those goals to people who will hold me accountable. And, knowing that I've eventually found my way out of the muddle in the middle five times before in prior manuscripts helps. But, none of that takes away the agony, self-doubt, backtracking and just plain hard work it takes for me to muddle my way out of the middle.

What about you? If you're a writer, when do you tend to lose that motivation or get bogged down in the writing? And if you're a reader, is the middle of a mystery when you start to get confused and the reading slows down? Do you find yourself going back in the book to remember things, as I often do?