The middle part of any project is always the worst to write. It just is! You’re excited to get started at the beginning, and you’re excited to reach the climax and end, but the middle? Ugh.
It’s very easy to become disillusioned with your skills as a writer. There are lots of reasons for this—you already (usually/generally) know where the plot is headed, you don’t like this scene/part of the story, you’re in a slump, you have some form of writer’s block, etc etc.
Honestly, I’ve suffered from this a lot when writing. For the middle of long chapters and the middle of a novel. Everything sounds repetitive and boring and not at all what I want when I’m writing it! (Definitely the repetitive. I ctrl+f constantly.)
It’s hard to look at your writing, no matter how much of it you have in front of you, and dislike it. Especially if it’s not a “here is the very specific thing I dislike, and oh boy it’s an easy fix after all!” type of dislike.
Unfortunately, the best advice on how to handle this is very much a “grin and bear it”. I grit those teeth, try not to hate everything, and slog through it like it’s the worst swamp of muck and flat lines and boringness in the world. I’m very anti-deleting. I understand that sometimes you gotta, but fight until that point! Things can always be edited, or maybe it’s not as bad as you think, or maybe maybe this part actually turns out to be a valuable stepping stone for something later! The point is, you can’t do anything until it’s written.
Get yourself a beta or a sounding board, if you can. Or find yourself a group of other writers, and challenge each other to write! Pushing yourself forward is the best way to get past this, even if it’s Not Fun at the time. Deleting should be a last resort, as should starting over!
Also, maybe make a playlist or find some new music to listen to (if you listen to stuff while writing). Change the color of your page, if you’re using googledocs or some sort of word processor. Change your desktop background. Change your font if that doesn’t drive you up a wall. Sometimes even just a little change to how you approach something can make a world of difference.
Also, honestly speaking… There is a vast difference in what a reader will find “boring” and what a writer finds “boring”.
I’ve had numerous people tell me that a chapter/scene/part that I personally hated was their favorite, or they found it very poignant, or they adored what it did for x, y, and z. Is your scene not action-y enough? Readers like the quiet moments, too. Is your story suffering from plot fatigue and everything seems like Too Much? The readers could enjoy being on the edge of their seat! It’s really difficult to tell how others will perceive your story, especially the parts you struggle with.
But the most important thing, above all else, is just to get it written. You can’t fix something that doesn’t exist. So grit those teeth and keep going!
