There are a variety of stages when writing a book. One of the most interesting times is the “Approach of the Midpoint”.

Being that I am a meticulous outliner – that’s just my novel writing style – it’s a curious time for me. (BTW, not all authors frame their books the same way. In fact, some authors just start slamming away at the keyboard, starting at page 1, penning no outline at all. However, I’ve also heard that those authors also toss away hundreds of pages of work because it by the time they find the plot, the soul of the characters, and so on, so much has changed from where they started that they have to dive back in and start dumping work. To each their own, I guess.)

The Approach of the Midpoint is exciting because it’s when I can really start to smell blood in the water. It’s been said before that writing a novel is like eating an elephant and the only way to do it is one bite at a time. The more books I write, the more I believe in that statement. However, as I approach the midpoint of a book, I start to eat a little faster.

See, the midpoint represents a turning point. I’d venture to say that if you go back and de-construct many of your favorite books, you’d see that somewhere about the halfway point of the story, there was a spin, a twist, a moment which snapped and sent things sailing forward into a new and powerful direction. As a writer, once you approach this moment, you know that the snowball has just begun to descend down the bigger mountainside and if things are set up well, the next stretch of writing is going to be spent with momentum gaining, the snowball building, and a full head o’ steam a gaining.

It”s quite an exciting time, too, because you think about your book more and more and more throughout the day. Brushing your teeth. Driving in traffic. Reading other books and articles. And each time you get the opportunity to work on your own book some more, it becomes even more exciting and fun.

I once heard a story that Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, The Andromeda Strain, ER tv show and more), when he hit the midpoint of his books, would start getting up earlier and earlier to work on them. I guess a regular workday began around 9 for him, but then it would begin at 8. And then, as he crossed into the the 3/4 of his book, 7:00 am. And then, when he was heading for the home stretch, 6, then 5, then 4:00 am.

I’ll never forget reading an interview where he said was getting up at like 3:00 a.m. because writing and finishing the book would just consume him. He said that during this time, he was an absolute lout to live with and that his new novels would just entirely take over his life.

Me, I have been known to stay up until 3 (even when I had to be up by 5:30) because of “the fever”. But “the fever” rarely happens – at least for me – until I cross the midpoint.

And now I am approaching that with my next book. And in my blood, I am starting to feel the bubbles percolate. All writers are different, but all writers are human and I have a feeling that seasoned fiction writers each have that time, that point where they see the light at the end of the tunnel, when the work just takes a center stage role in you life in a way that becomes consumptive.

It’s almost a sickness. Almost unhealthy. But it’s a bender I really do love.

The private schools smell blood in the water… and they are turning the screws.

In an interesting case of “let’s shore up our finances while the time is ripe to do so”, the Saddle River Day School has taken out ads extolling the virtues of their [private] school while implying that the public schools in the area inferior/slipping.

“Skimping on science isn’t smart” says the ad.

And really, who would disagree that skimping on anything, when it comes to education, is smart?

BTW, who can argue that in public education these days, it’s not just skimping. Sheesh, we only wish that “skimping” was the term folks were using to describe what we are doing in our/to our schools.

Words like “draconian cuts/unprecedented devastation” are more likely to be heard from those in the know… not tepid words like skimping.

In Detroit, they are closing/bulldozing schools.
In California, they have pink slipped more than 20,000 of the state’s teachers.
In Arizona, Texas, Illinois… so I need to go on?

All across the country, public schools are being foundationally eviscerated and private schools – places that cost up to $30,000 a year – are seeing a chance to tout their own institutions by basically saying, “Public school can’t match us, they can’t keep up and if you are a parent that loves your kid and cares about your child’s education, you really ought to consider ponying up the big bucks to send your little angels to us.”

Talk about piling on… WOW!

But the thing is, they have a case to make. The schools of even decade ago are not the schools of today. From NCLB and the insane focus on bubble testing to the economic crisis and the insane amount of “cuts, cuts, cuts,” these private schools are making a very shrewd play.

And a hard case to argue with.

They see the blood in the water and they are doing what they feel they need to do to survive/ prosper.

Smaller class sizes. A culture of achievement. Diversity of curriculum. Enviable graduation rates. No, it’s not apples to apples at all, but that’s not the case they are making. They are making the case that if you can send you kid to a private school, you really ought to consider it because “we do it better than they do it”.

And less and less public schools in this day and age are able to stand up and say, “No you don’t.”