You’re stuck in the middle of your novel?

You’ve written the beginning (Act One) and you’ve got at least an idea of how the novel will end, but the middle is all wobbly? Perhaps your novel outline for the middle just says, “Stuff happens.”

You start writing the beginning of the middle, trying to plough through. A few chapters or scenes in, you run out of things to say. You create events that you hope are exciting or dangerous just to fill pages before you can start writing the climax. You invent a new character to keep things going. Sound familiar?

One of two scenarios takes place. Either you get it done or you don’t.

Character Goals 

The way out of this cycle of unfinished novels – or manuscripts you can’t sell – is to focus on the goals of your characters. In particular, make sure you know the goals of your Lead and your Opposition. Or Protagonist and Antagonist, if you prefer. Identify exactly what your Lead wants to achieve by the end of the book. Also identify exactly what your Opposition wants to achieve by the end of the book. 

Here’s the key… make sure your Lead’s goal in the story is the exact opposite of your Opposition’s goal. There’s a reason the Opposition is called Opposition. When you tie 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 goal. At every turn, your Opposition has to try to thwart that in order to achieve their goal. 

So consider exactly what your Lead wants to achieve. Make it difficult for them. Make the Opposition be the reason it is difficult. A novel’s middle is about the power play between the two. It moves in logical steps, like a dance. Then the climax is the point at which they meet – the showdown – and one of them wins while the other loses.

Scene Goals

Your characters’ goals for the whole story helps you plan out the story in big picture terms. Getting through every scene means you need to consider scene goals. A scene goal is what a character wants to achieve in that specific scene. Identify exactly what it is they want. Make sure it is related to their character goal – it’s a single step in the dance. Then they either achieve that scene goal or they don’t.

By breaking the middle of your novel down into single scenes, and viewing them as steps towards the big showdown rather than ‘stuff’ that happens in order to fill pages, you can keep your motivation and sense of purpose high. 

Escape that cycle of half-finished manuscripts. Focus on goals.