Stuck in the middle of your story?

You’ve nailed the first act of your novel and you have a clear vision of how it will end, but the middle part is giving you trouble? Maybe your outline for the middle is vague and just says something like, “Things happen.”

You try to write the first part of the middle, hoping to get through it. But after a few scenes or chapters, you feel like you have nothing more to say. You throw in some random events that you think are thrilling or risky to fill up some space before you can get to the climax. You introduce a new character to spice things up. Does that sound familiar?

Then one of these things happens. You either finish it or you don’t.

You finish your draft and send it to your beta readers, hoping for some praise and encouragement. But instead, you get back comments that make you want to cry. They lost interest halfway through. They didn’t understand why you included that beach scene. They felt like you repeated yourself with that hospital scene. You end up with a weak middle that lacks substance, character growth and tension. 

You give up on your draft and start a new one. You get hooked by a new idea, a new character and begin writing with enthusiasm. And you end up in the same situation.

How to Keep Writing Your Novel

To avoid getting stuck in the middle of your novel or giving up on a manuscript that doesn’t sell, you need to pay attention to the goals of your characters. Especially, you need to know what your Lead and your Opposition want by the end of the book. You can also call them Protagonist and Antagonist if you like. Define clearly what your Lead’s objective is in the story. Do the same for your Opposition’s objective. In other words, what do they want?

Here’s the trick… make sure your Lead’s objective is the exact opposite of your Opposition’s objective. That’s why the Opposition is called Opposition. When you link your Lead and Opposition in such a way that one of them has to win and the other has to lose, that drives your story.

The middle of your novel is all about your Lead trying to achieve their objective. At every step, your Opposition has to try to stop that in order to achieve their objective. So think about what your Lead wants to achieve. Make it hard for them. Make the Opposition be the reason it is hard. The novel’s middle is about the power struggle between the two. It moves in logical steps, like a dance. Then the climax is the point where they meet – the showdown – and one of them wins while the other loses. 

Scene Objectives

The big picture of your story depends on your characters’ objectives for the entire plot. To make every scene work, you have to think about scene objectives. A scene objective is what a character hopes to accomplish in that particular scene. Be clear about what they desire. Ensure that it connects to their character objective – it’s one move in the choreography. Then they either succeed or fail at that scene objective.

By dividing the middle of your novel into individual scenes, and seeing them as milestones leading to the final confrontation rather than ‘stuff’ that occurs to fill up space, you can maintain your enthusiasm and direction.

Break free from the pattern of unfinished drafts. Concentrate on objectives.