Stuck in the Middle

Anyone who's read the first draft of Human Dignity can tell you that I have a problem with middles. The problem being that I tend not to write them. About as soon as all the tension, mystery, and fun introductory hijinks of the beginning ends, I make a bee-line for the tension, mystery, and fun conclusionary hijinks of the end. I may be kind enough to provide a transition of sorts (usually in the shape of a heading that indicates six months have passed, or in a couple paragraphs of "here's what you missed last week" scattered throughout the beginning of the end). It wasn't too much of a problem with Part One of HD, but Part Two has suffered greatly from this issue. I have at least fifty pages of transition and "middle" material to write fresh. And I've got ideas for it. I think it will work out well.

But I just realized that I'm pretty much smack in the middle of Red Rocks. And that's why I'm bored. I want to get to the end. I want to start writing the intense face-offs, the cliffhanger moments, the heart-gripping decisions. There's a part of me that's very tempted to put in a filler of "some time passes" and then keep writing. But it's really not going to help my overall skill in the craft if I do that. And I promised to challenge myself always when I decided to devote my life to writing.

So now I'm faced with forcing myself to buckle down and write a middle. I have to ignore the esteem-grabbing perfectionist critic in me and come up with at least a vague outline of a few middle scenes that can in some way, shape, or form get me to the ending. And then I just have to write them. Easy, right?