A red pencil, with a white rubber at the back, sticking out at both ends from a thick books with yellowed, dirty pages.

The 100 Page Slump

Whaddaya know? 14 chapters and approximately 100 pages in, I hit a slump.

There’s this theory that says that about 100 pages into a novel, most people hit a wall. It’s around the 20-25k mark. Coincidentally, this is typically in the second week of NaNoWriMo, when things start to get Hard.

A lot of people quit around this point. They start over, or they abandon the project altogether. Suddenly the thrill is gone. All that beginning excitement has run its course and you’re left with the work.

What separates the novelists from the maybes is pushing through that slump until you emerge on the other side. And there is a far side where things start to get better.

I coasted up to the 100 page point. Doesn’t matter, I still hit it, right on time. I felt like I was dragging a monumental weight around. The story refused to budge. It was dead weight. And there was no good reason for this, the scenes I was writing should have been engaging. They were when I outlined them.

Truthfully, I’m still in this Bermuda Triangle. My compiled document is only 108 pages. But my characters are about to get intimate ifyouknowwhatImean, so things ought to pick up.

Overall, I’m still three days ahead. Haven’t made further progress but haven’t fallen behind either. Good enough for me.

Image by Horia Varlan on Flickr, via a Creative Commons attribution license.

LEAVE A COMMENT

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.