Does this sound familiar?
You’ve written a good chunk of your first draft but you’ve lost your momentum. You’re getting mired in too many ideas or too many revisions, (or both).
You know you should probably plough on to the end, but you’re not sure what you’ve written so far is right. So, you go back and start tinkering. New ideas pop up. Should you go down the rabbit hole after them or stick to the path? Do you even know what the path is anymore? You know where you want to go but you don’t know how to get there.
AAAARGH!
If this is happening to you, you’re in good company. Most people who undertake the epic task of writing a novel land at this place at some point. You’re not a failure; you’re just a bit overwhelmed. And who can blame you? Didn’t I just mention it’s an epic task?
Ok. Take a deep breath.
What you need is a way to step back and assess what you’ve done. And I have just the thing – a chapter analysis template.
Now if you’re dedicated pantser (writing by the seat of your pants) you might get a little shudder at the very thought of a chapter analysis.
But trust me, I’m not asking you to change your writing method, I’m offering you a tool to assess your draft so far.
A chapter analysis gives you a snapshot of your draft. And importantly, it can highlight where and why you might have gone off track. Here’s how:
By the end of every chapter something must have changed. This is what gives your story momentum. Summarising each chapter into a few sentences then answering the question: ‘what has changed?’ is a neat way to see how the story is unfolding and where it may have stagnated or gone off track.
I create a chapter analysis when I’m appraising a novel. Sometimes I ask a writer to fill it out a chapter analysis template, which helps them see when chapters are advancing the story and when they are falling flat.
It’s a deceptively simple tool. It looks straight forward enough to fill out, but it really gets you thinking about every chapter.
You can dig even deeper and ask whether the change is a turning point. A turning point is where the narrative shifts direction, usually as a result of an action or decision by the protagonist. (More on this in a future post.)
Want to give it a shot?
Let me know how you go.
