Lisa Tener

Book Writing Coach

revision

Writing Overwhelm? How to Write Your Way Out of “The Messy Middle”

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Are you experiencing writing overwhelm?

There’s a place in the writing process that my friend and colleague, Stuart Horwitz refers to as “the messy middle,” where you may feel overwhelmed and stuck.

For me, that messy middle period can drag out to months or years. It can stop a project in its tracks. The overwhelming messy middle, the bane of my existence as a writer.

Writing On the Other Side of Overwhelm

Goodbye overwhelm. Hello ease!

Today, though, I’m on the other side, returning to all the holes in my manuscript and filling them in with the perfect random tidbit I’d filed away at the end of the manuscript. Or new inspiration bursts forth to tie everything in the chapter together.

An exercise I thought might fit in Chapter 12 wanders into Chapter 14 and a more perfect fit takes its place in the current chapter.

What once felt overwhelming and truly almost stopped me from completing my book has faded to a distant memory.

But wait, how did I get here? What can I share with you (and my future self) if we find ourselves in the messy middle (again)?

Writing Your Way Out of Overwhelm

Feels so good!

So, how do you do it? Get from writing overwhelm to inspired flow? Here are a few tips from your writing coach:

  1. Consistency: You won’t always feel like writing but if you write consistently 5-7 mornings a week, as creativity coach Eric Maisel suggests, (or even some other number but you are consistent) you’ll experience some flow days.
  2. Faith and Trust: Some days you will likely feel frustrated and uninspired. You may look at your writing and question whether you should even attempt writing a book. At least, I’ve felt that way (and not in the distant past, just the other day). Your faith can carry you through bad writing days, trusting that inspiration is on its way. It’s okay to write things that never make it into your book. It’s still practice.
  3. Focus on One Thing: If you focus on the whole of the book and all the many things you need to do, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Focus on one specific thing–writing up an anecdote that brings certain material to life for instance. Or telling a story about the most recent medical research relevant to that chapter’s topic. Stay focused.
  4. File Stuff Away: My current manuscript has over twenty pages of “I don’t know where this goes or if it even belongs in the book” writing. I’ve been filing it at the end of the manuscript and looking it over when I need another story or anecdote for a chapter, seeing if it fits. For me it works great and most of the previously called “random material” at the back now has found a home. I like having this material in the manuscript so it’s easy to find but you can also place it in a separate file.
  5. Hire an Editor or Writing Coach or Find a Trusted Beta Reader from Your Target Market: If you have a fair amount written and you feel stuck because you’re not sure it’s working, it may be time to hand your writing over to a beta reader, writing coach or editor for feedback. Some people wait until they have a full first draft but it’s up to you; you can do it much sooner if needed.

Organizing Through the Messy Middle

Make notes about the stories and lessons in each chapter. Have a printed copy of your outline with chapter notes by your side as you work through revisions.

When you come to a confusing or messy section, ask yourself if there’s a more fitting place in the manuscript for the messy material. Also, does some of the material in other chapters fit better here than what you currently have in the messy spot?

I prefer working with hard copies but it’s also easy to have two documents on your screen (manuscript and outline) if you prefer to work digitally.

When I arrived at the messy middle phase, it felt like a slog. However, by the second round of editing, at some point I could feel the momentum of the project carry me. The energy felt different, a sense of the different parts falling into place.

In fact, although I thought I was mostly done writing new material, several times I experienced something unusual that found its way into the book and strengthened the chapter it went into.

It felt like my life unfolded in order to give me a great story for a chapter I’d been working on–an invitation to a gong bath materialized overnight; my friends summoned me to meditate at their magical farmhouse at four in the morning, a quirky dream woke me up in the middle of the night and begged to be recorded.

Your Turn

Where are you in the process of writing a book? What challenges are coming up? How are you working through them? Any insights to share? Share your comments and questions!

 

 

7 Quick Writing Tips (and Editing Advice) to Bring Your Words to Life

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Writing Tips from Real Life

Writing tips can help you transform ho-hum writing into a big Hallelujah! After I sent some feedback and writing tips to a client, I spent this morning editing her revised manuscript. I was thrilled to see the author’s writing improve so dramatically from one draft to the next.

writing coach Lisa Tener
Your Book Writing Coach

Eureka! Whatever I told her, I realized I should share with you today. Every writer loves to know what she (or he) can do better to improve her writing and make it sing. These writing tips can make a world of difference in your own revisions.

Today’s writing tips all focus on making the words leap out from the page and form a picture for your readers. Whether you are writing a how-to book, memoir or even a novel, you will truly draw your readers in if you paint a scene and share stories.

Sure, your book may have its abstract moments, but here we will focus on 7 writing tips that make your stories come to life—whether you are writing brief anecdotes that support your self-help tools or part of a larger narrative, such as a memoir.

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writing desk
Paint a scene from the get go, so your reader isn’t playing “catch up.”
  1. Paint the scene at the beginning. Have you ever had the experience of reading a story and imagining the character in one place, only to find three paragraphs later that the room was dark, not light; the character was surrounded by people, not alone as you had thought; and that it took place in the car, not the office? Not only does such construction confuse your readers, it frustrates them and takes them out of the magical world you are creating (yes, even in a brief self-help anecdote!). Instead, picture the scene in your mind and make the essential details clear up front.
2.
  • Be specific about placement: Don’t make your readers have to guess whether your sister stood above you, sat next to you or put her head in your lap as you spoke. You can clarify placement by the verbs you use (“she sat” “she stood”). You can also clarify it by picturing the scene in your mind very clearly and then writing. Don’t overdo this (“She used her right hand to reach for the object on her right.”). Keep it simple and sparse, yet clear.
    • 3.
  • Use specific verbs to imbue actions with emotion and motivational cues: “She went to the store.” – WEAK! “She walked to the store.” – BETTER. “She sprinted to the store.” – GOOD. “She dragged herself to the store.” EVEN CLEARER.
    • 4.
  • Let your readers draw the conclusions. Don’t you go telling me that he was nervous and she was nuts. Instead, have him do something that shows he’s nervous—a tic, a stutter, wiping the sweat from his hands. Have the dialogue show how nutty she can be. As a reader, I get to draw the conclusion of what the action means and now I’m engaged, rather than hearing some ho-hum account with the life sucked out of it.
    • 5.
  • Avoid overuse of adverbs. Swiftly, slowly, angrily—these are shorthand ways of conveying information without much life. Instead, tell me she sprinted or ran; that he shuffled; that she threw a vase.
    • 6.
  • Take the time to find the perfect word. In a first draft, feel free to be lazy and allow the words to flow quickly without weighing them. However, in your next draft, look for the places where you used a word more than once, or used a word that doesn’t feel as precise as you might like. Use a thesaurus and see if you can get at “le mot juste.”
    • 7.
  • Read aloud. Reading aloud always helps you hear what works and what needs work.

    • Writing vs. Editing

    In an initial writing phase, it’s fine to keep this information in mind, but you can also let it go and just focus on getting your words on the page. Once you have a draft, use these 7 tips to edit that draft and make the writing more powerful, specifically painting a picture your readers can see, hear, smell, taste, feel and sense!

    Here is more advice on how to tighten your writing. You may also hit a point when you’ve done what self-editing you can and it’s time to find an editor to take you further along that path. This post will help you hire an editor, know what to look for and what to ask them.

    Your Bonus Writing Tip

    Enjoy yourself. When you have fun writing and editing, your readers get to share in that fun. Write or edit outside (if it’s warm enough). Or write and revise somewhere cozy and inspiring. All the things you do to bring yourself into a light and happy space will bring light into the writing and reading experience—without your having to try. Your writing just naturally picks up your state of being.

    One thing I do to get myself into a state of flow before working on my blog posts, articles and books is to journal. The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day can help you get into a state where writing flows with ease. Check it out!

    Do you have any writing tips or anything you recently did that improved your writing? Please share. Feel free to ask your questions below as well.

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