Middle Bits

[GallopingStar]

New to the forum. I'm currently working on my first novel. One that has evolved as I have grown up and learned more about myself and the world in general. I'm at a point where I really want to get this thing done but I am having trouble with the middle bits.

I have ideas. Technology failures, weather issues, a character failing to pack a critical item, deadly alien species, character flaws...

But I can't seem to turn those obstacles into actual pages. Any suggestions? Examples of how you over come this in your own writing?

 

[Ihe]

Do you have a chronology for all these bits? As in what order you're expecting things to unfold. And what is "the middle bit" for you?

If you've set up a good beginning, then the middle should kind of unfold on its own, riding on the inertia and the set-up of the first bit.

Your question is too broad and you give us little to no info on plot and important elements. The obstacles (conflict) depends entirely on your story and the points particular to it. If you're vague we will only be able to give vague answers, which are no good for you.

With that said, and generalising, the middle is the meat. Despite what I said about riding on the inertia of the first bit, it still has a lot of wiggle room (unlike the last bit, which should be pretty much moving on firmly laid out tracks, excepting the odd twist here and there), and big new things can still be introduced (sparingly). By the start of the middle bit you should've introduced important characters, the inkling/foundations of the primary conflict (the long-term payoff), and several budding mini-conflicts, which are more personal and immediate, but that tie in thematically to the main conflict. If the intro is the fuse, then the middle is the dynamite. All those clues and whispers and what-ifs and questions you've ignited in the intro should explode in the middle--this is not the same as the climax, which comes later. An explosion is chaos, debris, confusion, hurt, high stakes, losing, etc. Here is where you mangle/destroy what you've built up in the intro, and rearrange it to keep the reader interested. Show the ugly (the world's ugly, the MC's ugly, the villain's ugly) which in turn motivates change. Everything is about change.

In my own case, I will have several conflict options laid out in front of me, and will simply pick the biggest obstacle, the most dangerous, the most annoying, the one with the highest stakes, the one that affects the most characters (directly or indirectly). Literature is about extremes. No one wants to read a mild story:The bomb doesn't only explode, it also opens a breach in the gas pipes below and suddenly the whole block has 1 minute to evacuate before it is levelled, and behold, there's a baby trapped in a burning room next to the MC. And then, the MC does the unthinkable: he decides to run away instead of saving the baby. Boom. External conflict, internal conflict, and you have an element to play with in the future that has changed the MC forever (guilt) and motivates him to change further, which in turn keeps the plot moving forward.

PS: Beware of introducing obstacles out of nowhere, a la diabolus ex machina. If you struggle to present a conflict in a logical context building on what you previously had written, then it is possible you'll need to reconsider the story so far, and plan ahead more.

That's the vague answer .

 

[BionicGriff]

Do you have a chronology for all these bits? As in what order you're expecting things to unfold. And what is "the middle bit" for you?

If you've set up a good beginning, then the middle should kind of unfold on its own, riding on the inertia and the set-up of the first bit.

Your question is too broad and you give us little to no info on plot and important elements. The obstacles (conflict) depends entirely on your story and the points particular to it. If you're vague we will only be able to give vague answers, which are no good for you.

With that said, and generalising, the middle is the meat. Despite what I said about riding on the inertia of the first bit, it still has a lot of wiggle room (unlike the last bit, which should be pretty much moving on firmly laid out tracks, excepting the odd twist here and there), and big new things can still be introduced (sparingly). By the start of the middle bit you should've introduced important characters, the inkling/foundations of the primary conflict (the long-term payoff), and several budding mini-conflicts, which are more personal and immediate, but that tie in thematically to the main conflict. If the intro is the fuse, then the middle is the dynamite. All those clues and whispers and what-ifs and questions you've ignited in the intro should explode in the middle--this is not the same as the climax, which comes later. An explosion is chaos, debris, confusion, hurt, high stakes, losing, etc. Here is where you mangle/destroy what you've built up in the intro, and rearrange it to keep the reader interested. Show the ugly (the world's ugly, the MC's ugly, the villain's ugly) which in turn motivates change. Everything is about change.

In my own case, I will have several conflict options laid out in front of me, and will simply pick the biggest obstacle, the most dangerous, the most annoying, the one with the highest stakes, the one that affects the most characters (directly or indirectly). Literature is about extremes. No one wants to read a mild story:The bomb doesn't only explode, it also opens a breach in the gas pipes below and suddenly the whole block has 1 minute to evacuate before it is levelled, and behold, there's a baby trapped in a burning room next to the MC. And then, the MC does the unthinkable: he decides to run away instead of saving the baby. Boom. External conflict, internal conflict, and you have an element to play with in the future that has changed the MC forever (guilt) and motivates him to change further, which in turn keeps the plot moving forward.

PS: Beware of introducing obstacles out of nowhere, a la diabolus ex machina. If you struggle to present a conflict in a logical context building on what you previously had written, then it is possible you'll need to reconsider the story so far, and plan ahead more.

That's the vague answer .

I found this whole thing very helpful myself, and I'm not gonna lie, the way you laid it out was actually a pretty entertaining read on itself!

 

[tinkerdan]

look at the three act structure.
Three-act structure - Wikipedia
There are other people who have other sources here in the forum.
Perhaps they will stop by and give some direction.

This is not written in stone and if your novel is long enough you could have several iterations of the three act to create some sort of hybrid.
I often write three sections that look like three act sort of a three act (three acts).

 

[GallopingStar]

Thanks Ihe, I also found your post very helpful.
When I say "middle bits" I mean the meat of the book. The events occurring after the inciting incident and before the climax. It could be that I need to add more detail to my outline. Have more overlapping events. Focus more on my other characters (not just my protagonist). Still vague, I know.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Welcome to the chrons forums @GallopingStar .

I have ideas.

This may be the problem - you need to sit down and write. And if nothing comes for the part you want to write, skip to a part where you can find words. It may mean the story gets written down in the wrong order, but you can tidying everything up with a first editing run.

 

[Hex]

I often struggle with the middle bit too. I think the issue is partly to keep things driving forward (and avoid the horror of the Soggy Middle), and to fill all that space....

Apart from what Ihe said, as with the rest of the book, it's really about what your character wants and how they fail to get it. So, you can have a series of obstacles that build in severity to keep conflict building from one peak to another (X has to get to the train station by 11 to get a train to Manchester, but the babysitter doesn't arrive, and when X has persuaded a neighbour to look after the kids, her car won't start so she has to drag her suitcase out to the main road and flag down a taxi, and the taxi driver turns out to be her enemy who tries to kidnap her so she leaps from the cab at the traffic lights, abandoning her luggage and falls through a hole in the road to an alternate dimension...) <-- or, you know, that kind of thing.

Another issue with the obstacles your character overcomes in the middle bit, is that they should (probably) have an impact on her/him, and usually this impact teaches the character about herself or forces him back into a life he wishes he'd left, or shows her truths about the world or something that lets him triumph when the ultimate Evil Obstacle stops her succeeding in whatever he's trying to do (that switching between genders was confusing...)

 

[thaddeus6th]

Varies from writer to writer. Personally, I quite like having a plan which includes chapter-by-chapter outlines. Helps reduce continuity errors, keeps the initial draft balanced, and instead of thinking of things like "Which character should I focus on next?" as I progress I'm thinking of how to write, rather than what to write.

 

[Toby Frost]

1) Breaking the middle section down into smaller objectives helps. I tend to work by knowing the beginning, the end and several dramatic high points in between them, then working out how to move the characters from point to point. Sometimes the high points are conversations, but they could be fights, discoveries and so on, just as long as the sense of conflict is there and remains believable.

2) Keeping the scale small is a good idea. Ultimately, a story is about individuals, even if the backdrop is an apocalypse, vast war etc. That means that the hurdles don't have to be enormous to create drama: ten soldiers could probably deal with Shelob, but for two hobbits it's much harder. I think too many people concentrate on the grand scale without realising that backdrop and story are two different things. One person's story can exemplify the situation - one escaped convict is probably going to experience many of the hardships of most escaped convicts - but the problems he faces are specifically his because they are happening to him alone, right now.

3) Although it can lead to rather meandering stories, the "but" structure can work. "There was this family who went camping, but there was a zombie apocalypse. But the parents were ex-military and used their skills to get out of the woods. But one of the children was captured by bandits. But the family tracked them to an old mine. But the old mine was infested..." The trick is to do this with a final objective in sight, and not to pull too many surprises on the reader. Everything must be set up.

4) One standard plot is the "plot coupon" story, where, to get to the objective, certain things have to be acquired. They might be the getting-together of a team (Neuromancer and many heist movies) or the collection of pieces of a magic item (Raiders of the Lost Ark and many fantasy stories). Of course, the opposition might be trying just the same thing, and how they intervene could make the book much more exciting (and less obvious in terms of structure).

 

[Vaz]

Best advice Ive heard about getting the middle right: know your ending, and work backwards from that.

 

[HareBrain]

Best advice Ive heard about getting the middle right: know your ending, and work backwards from that.

But at the same time, be prepared to change the ending if you're not getting anywhere. I recently got bogged down towards the end of TGP's sequel because I'd had a fixed ending in my head -- one particularly dramatic image/scene -- since before I started it, but found I couldn't get there without a sprawling mess. Once I let that go, and posited a slightly different ending, I was able to make the two join up. It was a shame in a way to lose the scene I'd wanted, but the ending overall is better for it.

 

[Vaz]

Indeed, you are quite right, HB. Being able to be flexible is another quality writers do need.

 

[goldhawk]

Best advice Ive heard about getting the middle right: know your ending, and work backwards from that.

There are three events of a story that link the whole thing together. The climax is the most important since it is the catharses of the story. The second is the inciting incident since that is when the protagonist decides to do something about the story's problem. The third happens between the other two and has been giving many names, the reveal, the reversal, the crisis, the turning point. It is when the protagonist discovers what the story is really all about. For example, in the Lord of the Rings, it is the Council of Elrond where they decide to destroy the Ring. This event takes different forms in different stories, which is why it has so many names. Another example, in the Guardians of the Galaxy, it is when Quill finds out what is in the orb and why everyone is after it.

Deciding what this third event is for your story is difficult since, unlike the other two, it does not have a defining pattern. But without it, your story will suffer from a sagging middle.