Over the hump

I've reached the halfway point in my current work.  In fact, I'm over the hump.  Oddly enough, halfway through is usually another benchmark.  It's that place where you aim for the finish line and rediscover the direction of the story.  I will admit to being stuck, because it's also a place of re-evaluating.  But I'm over the hump and moving forward once again!

Getting started with a story is exciting and fun, but once the honeymoon is over, once you get, oh, about halfway in, you get stuck.  From there, you have to look to the end.  Is the story on track?  Is it going the wrong direction?  Have the characters taken you somewhere you didn't expect as they've evolved and come to life on the pages?  It's the mature years of the story's life.

Reaching "the end" is often compared to child birth.  You've expressed the whole thing and you need recovery to bond with the end result.  I've read several interesting accounts of how different authors deal with the "post partum" phase, almost all of which requires stepping away from the story to let it gel all by itself.  I know for sure that once I reach "the end," I'm not going to be done with this one.  There are several places I've had to weave and reweave information that I left out on the first draft that is necessary to bring my story to life.  That doesn't mean I won't get to "post partum."  I've actually scheduled some dedicated extra time to get through this first draft because I'm still excited about my "baby's" heartbeat (when you read this story, you'll get the double entendre in that remark!).

So I'm keeping this post short.  Focused on moving forward and anxious to birth this story!