I’m currently working on the chapter that leads up to the climax of my novel, and I’m finding it rather a challenge to get it right. I’ve written the events that need to take place, but the pacing is all wrong. At this stage, the pressure screws should be tightened to near-screaming point, and the reader should be wondering how in the hell the protagonist is going to get out of this situation. It should have the reader biting nails as they feverishly turn the page in order to find out what happens.
Even I can tell this aint happening. I’ve tried various things to step up the tension several notches, and it’s improving, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet. It’s frustrating, because it’s holding me up from finishing the revisions to the final few chapters. But the climax (and the events leading up to it) is critical and I need to make sure it works. Sometimes one just has to spend hours and hours on the same few passages and massage them until they click into place.
E V Gregory 