Lit Bit: When Your Novel in Progress Does Not

When I met Alice McDermott for the first time, it was at a craft lecture she was presenting at The Writers’ Center in Bethesda, Maryland.   The topic of the craft lecture was, “When Your Novel-in-Progress Doesn’t.”

Most authors who have written a novel — or tried to — can relate to that.

Alice McDermott, despite her two Pulitzer Prize nominations, her National Book Award Win, and her regular trips onto the New York Times Bestseller list, is no exception.

She described a novel she has never finished to date.  “I was in middle-book syndrome,” she explained.  She was halfway through the novel, she knew where it was headed, but she didn’t want to finish it.

“The best practice is to write through your reluctance to continue — even if you begin writing a different story, keep writing.”

That’s what Alice did.  She shelved the project she was no longer interested in and focused on another.

So if you’ve lost interest in what you’re writing, perhaps it’s time to move on.

Learn more about Alice McDermott’s words of writing wisdom at the following links.

http://writeful.blogspot.com/2007/07/writing-to-convey-pain-and-sweetness-of.html

  http://writeful.blogspot.com/2005/11/mcdermott-on-flow-of-words.html 

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 Eric D. Goodman, Books Correspondent

Eric’s column, Lit Bit, is published every Wednesday to Gather Essentials: Books.

Featuring bits on writing, writers, books, and literature, Lit Bit will fulfill your literary longings.

Eric is a full-time writer and editor.  His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Review, Writers Weekly, The Arabesques Review, JMWW, Coloquio, To Be Read Aloud, Neck of My Guitar, and Travel Insights.  Listen to Eric read an excerpt from his fiction on National Public Radio on the WYPR website.

 http://publicbroadcasting.net/wypr/.artsmain/article/14/347/1080648/from.the.Signal/%22A.Good.Beer.Needs.a.Good.Stein%22/

You can find all of Eric’s Lit Bit articles at www.gather.com/litbit. 

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