The Center Will Not Hold

While writers obsess over beginnings and endings, to the point that we'll rewrite them five hundred times to perfect them, story middles rarely get such attention. On the contrary, middles are frequently regarded by writers as the Sargasso Sea of storytelling, aka a part of the work that has to be slogged through from the hook of the beginning to the big finish of the end. The problem with this attitude is that it shows in the work; I can't even count how many books I've read that started out well and ended even better, once I waded through 200+ middle pages of filler.

The middle of any story should offer more to readers than characters doing basically nothing but killing time and wordcount. If you find your crew standing around chatting in housekeeping dialogue, thinking extensively in backstory, being served obvious red herrings, or yawning their way through a series of remarkably similar sex/action/suspense scenes, you've likely got a problem. To avoid boring anyone to the point that they give up and chuck the book in the library donation box, writers need to craft the story center to hold onto the reader's attention. Here are some ideas on how to do that:

Conflict Development: Rather than regarding your main conflict as a big problem introduced in the first chapter and resolved only in the last, see it as a stream that runs through the length of your story. Plotters, you can work out a timeline of events that chronicle the development of the conflict to give yourself a map of that stream to refer to when you're writing. Pantsers, look for opportunities to do the same with your stream as you write your way through the story.

Character entrances: Just as we don't meet everyone significant in our lives on the day we're born, there is no rule that says every character in the book has to be introduced in Chapter One (and if there is, someone should put it out of its misery.) Using your story center to introduce some members of your crew adds dimension and interest, and is more logical anyway.

Mid-story twist: The big twist at the end of any book is classic and much beloved, but as a writer you don't have to be exclusive to it. Why not have two (or more) twists, with one (or more) occuring in the story center?

Multiple goals: I think one of the downsides to the Goal/Motivation/Conflict school of storytelling is it turns characters into little goalies incapable of anything but motivationally dancing around in front of that big conflict net. You have more than one goal in your life, yes? So should your characters. And while you can reserve the big goal score for the end of the story, why not give them other, shorter-term goals to work on as well? These can add great interest to your mid-story.

One final thought on writing the middle of your story: if you're not excited about it, it may come through in the quality of your writing. Giving yourself something important, exciting and satisfying to write about in the story before you get into the final chapters will help hold onto your attention, which increases your chance of doing the same with your reader's.

NaNoWriMo: Push

Tomorrow you novelists of November will reach the halfway point of NaNoWriMo. Fifteen days done, fifteen more to go. You may have reached the midway wordcount of 25K, too. Some of you will have written more; others less. A couple of you serious and audacious procrastinators out there have just begun writing your story this week.

Most writers will tell you that stories stall most often in the middle, and there is a reason for this. Beginnings are generally new and thrilling, while endings are usually triumphant and satisfying. Middles stretch out between the two and must be crossed in order to go from one state to the other. In the middle it's too late to start the story over but also too soon to end it. This is why the middle of a story can feel like a desert or ocean through which you trudge or slog without really getting anywhere. It's also in the middle where I think most writers tend to give up on a story -- the chuck it in a drawer and forget about it zone.

Writing is lovely fun, so much so that we sometimes forget that it's also work. The middle of your story can be a mental sweatshop where you may not have any fun at all. So how do you get through it?

One word: Push. Okay, it's actually an acronym for four more words: Persist, Use, See and Hush.

Persist by writing on, sticking with your story and refusing to give up. Right now the middle you're slogging through may feel like a giant Sargasso Sea of story, but it will not last forever -- eventually you will write through it and make your way toward your ending.

Use your story elements in the middle to have some fun (and yes, middles can be as much fun as beginnings or endings.) Take a story element and play with it -- find out a bit more about one of your characters, settings or conflicts. Use your elements to surprise you as well as your reader. There is something in the middle of the story you can use to liven it up; all you have to do is be willing to look for it and then put it to good use.

See beyond the middle of your story by focusing not on where you are but where you're headed. You may have forgotten that there is a finish line out there, just over the story horizon. The only way you're going to get to it is to write your way there, and to do that you have to keep writing.

After you've done all that, also be sure to Hush those doubts and demons that crop up in the middle of the story. They want to distract you and derail you, especially when you begin making some progress through your middle. The only way they can do that is if they can make you listen to them. Imagine taking a big roll of psychic duct tape and slapping a big piece of it over the mouth of every one of those middle-of-the-story jabberwockies in your head.

It's okay if the middle of your story isn't as dazzling as the beginning you've written, or as stunning as the ending you have planned. The middle is where you make it all work, and the writing of that is often riddled with difficulty, extra effort and creative worry. Last week we talked about trust, and this is one of those spots when you really have to trust in yourself and your story -- and then Push on.