Writing, like life, is not a cake walk and sometimes it’s just plain ugly.

I’m enjoying the 100 Day Book Writing Program offered by The Write Practice. Below is one of the helpful reminders from the program creator, Joe Bunting.

See thewritepractice.com for more information.

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“Middles are always the hardest. In A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller said every story is like paddling a rowboat to an island. When you first start, you feel like you’re making a lot of progress. The shore recedes quickly and the island feels so close you could touch it.

But once you get out into open water, it’s easy to think you’re not even moving. The shore you left seems far away and the island you’re going to isn’t getting closer. You’re not making any progress, and you wonder if you should just quit.

This is where most people, including myself, get stuck in their writing.

We have no problem starting stories. We don’t even have a hard time finishing them. But the middle is a story graveyard, littered with corpses of books, blog posts, and articles.

If you keep going though, almost miraculously, the opposite shore appears. You’re almost there. You can tell you’re just a few paddle strokes from land.

Don’t give up in the Ugly Middle. The breakthrough will always come just after the hardest part.

Even when it’s messy, keep writing. Even when you’re stuck, keep writing. Even when you feel like you’ve made no progress and the end is as far away as ever, keep writing.

And when you can see the shore, when you realize you finally, at last, know what your book is about, remember the feeling. You’ll need that memory for the next time you find yourself in the Ugly Middle.” Joe Bunting