The One Thing You Cannot Do When You Hit The Dip With Your Novel

Do This Instead

I’ve written (plus finished and published) over 120 novels, and this is a pattern I’ve detected.

Around the one third mark, usually not long after you get into the second act, you’ll be convinced the story is garbage and you should scrap the novel and start again. It’s not just me who experiences this flattening of spirit and loss of faith in the current project, either.

In my own novels, when I reach that point, it’s because all the hard slog of setting up situations and characters is over. The pressure of producing a compelling opening is done. But I still don’t really know the characters that well, and there’s an awful lot of story ahead of me that I have to prop up on this mess of a manuscript I’ve got so far….

I always feel like the book sucks like a vacuum, at this point.

Always.

For novelists, quitting at this point is absolutely the last thing you should do.

No, not even though Seth Godin gives you permission to exit.

Why? Because you are utterly unable to judge the quality of your book. Not right now. If you’re a typical author, not even when you’re finished the book will you be able to objectively judge its worth.

And when you’re in the Dip, your doubt about the quality of the story will range from a whisper in the back of your mind, to a violent urge to get drunk and burn the manuscript.

This is a mind hack.

When you’re in the Dip and wanting to chuck the whole thing in, tell yourself that when you reach the mid-point of the story, you are permitted to quit then, but not before.

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