Writers block when your novel is nearly finished: What it is, why it happens, and how to fix it
It's like the marathon of the middle, except at the end of the process
So, you’ve almost finished writing your novel. You’ve won out over the most common writing difficulties that get in the way of putting words on the page, and the finish line is in sight.
And now all of a sudden you’re having doubts.
Is the story strong enough? Does the pacing work? Have I given my protagonist enough opportunity to demonstrate that she’s not just a 2D cardboard cut-out designed to move the plot forward in a linear direction? Does she move the story forward in a linear direction? Does Act 1 present enough reason to read on? Does the tension ratchet up appropriately throughout Act 2? Does Act 3 tie up all the loose story ends? Have I clearly explained what’s going on during key moments of exposition? Does the midpoint change work? Does the climax work? Does any of this work? Am I even writing words?
Welcome to the final-stretch writing issue that I call “What if there are bears?” And read on to find out what you can do to get past it.
But what if there are bears?
You’re probably familiar with the notion of the marathon of the middle, and if you’re almost at the end of your novel you have, by definition, battled your way through that difficult patch. It should, theoretically, be plain sailing now to the end. And for some writers, that’s the case*.
For others, things start getting unexpectedly fraught again at this point, though. If that sounds like you, first off, know that you’re not alone. This is quite normal. And it absolutely doesn’t mean that your story is terrible and you should give it up as a bad job.
What’s happening is that the ancient part of your brain, the bit that’s primed to keep you safe from the kind of dangers that faced your hunter-gathering distant ancestors, has detected a NEW THING on the horizon. The new thing is unknown. Unknown, for your hunter-gatherer brain, is unsafe until proven otherwise. What if there are bears? There could be bears. You can’t possibly know for certain that there are no bears.
The thing is… there are no bears.
* But do bear in mind that just because your writing colleagues say it’s the case doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the case. We’re like cats, sometimes, in our obsessive devotion to concealing all forms of weakness. It’s not sensible, but nothing about this process is sensible, so what’s new?
You're approaching a transitional point...
What there is, is the realisation of your dream. How long have you wanted to write this novel? How hard have you worked to make it happen? How much thought, heartache, time, effort, emotional energy has gone into this project? While it hovers as a dim and distant “maybe” on the horizon, it exists in a state of potentiality where it can and will be all the things you dream of and all your hopes for it are fulfilled. During the writing stage, all you have to do to make this happen is to keep writing.
That changes after the writing is finished.
“How long have you wanted to write this novel? How hard have you worked to make it happen? How much thought, heartache, time, effort, emotional energy has gone into this project?”
...and transition is scary
Editing and submitting really and truly are not terrifying processes, but if you’ve never done it before, it’s new and unknown. There could be bears. There is definitely a new skill set to be learned and nobody enjoys writing a one-page synopsis. There will almost certainly be rejection. It will be unsettling (at first) to put yourself and your work out for public consumption.
But the thing is, you do want to make that potentiality happen, which means that backing out on the grounds of “there could be bears” is not really an option. So that’s not how your hunter-gatherer brain phrases the objections to the post-writing phase: instead, on the subconscious level, it formulates a script listing all the reasons why you should back out now, ahead of the danger, without ever consciously constructing it as danger. It’s subtle and indirect, which is what makes it so insidious and so difficult to recognise while it’s happening.
This is your lizard brain reacting to transition
What does this subconscious “back out now” script look like? It looks like this:
Is the story strong enough? Does the pacing work? Have I given my protagonist enough opportunity to demonstrate that she’s not just a 2D cardboard cutout designed to move the plot forward in a linear direction? Does she move the story forward in a linear direction? Does Act 1 present enough reason to read on? Does the tension ratchet up appropriately throughout Act 2? Does Act 3 tie up all the loose story ends? Have I clearly explained what’s going on during key moments of exposition? Does the midpoint change work? Does the climax work? Does any of this work? Am I even writing words?
“Recognising what’s going on gives you a counter-script.”
This means you're nearly there
The good news is that recognising what’s going on gives you a counter-script. It’s not going to stop those anxieties yelling at you as the writing journey enters its final steps, but it’s going to reframe them as anxieties about the next phase of dream acquisition, rather than – specifically – about how you’re a terrible writer.
And the thing is, they’re all good questions to ask yourself as you settle down to start work on your first round of redrafting. Some of the answers are going to be no, and that’s a really strong place to start working on sculpting the raw material of draft one into the final piece that you start sending out to agents and publishers. Writing “The End” is just the first step on a multi-level journey, and by the time you’ve gone through the next few rounds, you’re going to be feeling much more confident about taking that plunge. The plunge absolutely does not come after the first draft, so don’t let those doubts take you out of the race prematurely.
There are, and I cannot stress this enough, no bears.
Sound familiar? How did you come through the “what if there are bears” stage? Let me know in the comments!
