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Write the Middle of your Novel

Help to get your First Draft done!

Do you lose motivation halfway through writing your novel?
Do you get confused about what happens to your characters and why?
Does your story lose power halfway through Act II?

Perhaps your manuscript has a ‘flabby middle’. This is the course for you.

The ‘Muddy Middle’

“…I also signed up to the ‘Write the Middle’ course which amplified my writing techniques and structural plotting skills. I refer back to this whenever I need to improve my scenes.”

Megan Claire

It can be really hard to write the middle of your novel. It’s not called the ‘muddy middle’ for nothing: it can feel like wading through mud.

You’ve probably heard the advice ‘write first; edit later’. But how do you even get over that hurdle of writing the first draft?  The middle section seems to stretch out forever ahead of you, with ALL those words to write.

You’re trying to write a great novel, one your readers will love. You’re trying to use all your best storytelling techniques. You’re trying to make it fantastic in its first draft. Then it gets too much. You write yourself into a corner.

Or you lose the thread and find you’ve written several chapters that aren’t relevant. Or you stop writing altogether. 

Write the Middle of Your Novel – Online Course for Writers

Write the Middle of Your Novel is a course that helps you ditch the perfectionism and the plate spinning. It helps you get your first draft done by overcoming the sense of overwhelm that comes with writing the middle section of your novel.

You’ll learn to pitch your focus on manageable tasks, one at a time. You’ll find out how to repeat the sequence of tasks for every scene so that you’re not reinventing the wheel every time you begin a new one. 

By developing your skills in the key unit of storytelling for a novelist – the SCENE – you can get your novel down without the overwhelm. You can turn your mountains into molehills. Or, to use another well-known metaphor, you can eat the elephant one bite at a time.

This course is delivered in ten steps, through which you’ll learn the following skills:

  1. Underpinning your scenes with a strong premise
  2. Developing your premise into an Opposition Statement
  3. Arranging your scenes
  4. Interrogating your scenes
  5. Focusing your scenes
  6. Starting a scene
  7. Ending a scene
  8. Sequencing your scenes
  9. Filling your scene middle
  10. Using the ‘scene sandwich’ method in practice

I can show you an easier way to write your middle…

When you construct each part of the scene following a particular pattern and fulfil the specific needs of your readers at those points, you’ll be able to keep your story (and yourself) on track.

As a writer, this course offers you the following benefits:

  • Progress with your first draft faster and with more confidence.
  • Focus on specific parts of your story
  • Stop worrying too much about character depth or setting descriptions
  • Permission to get the words on paper that you were too worried would come out wrong
  • You’re able to get the first draft done!

You’ll ‘rinse and repeat’ the method for every scene in the middle of your novel until you’ve got them all down in a tangible form. Then you’re ready to do what you want to do with the craft of your storytelling. You’ve given yourself the raw materials you need to carve out the novel as you want your readers to experience it.

Write the Middle of your Novel

I’m going to help you:

  • firm up your story premise so that the first scenes of your novel are clearly focused
  • stay on track with your storyline so that you can stop yourself losing the thread
  • put your events in order, whether you’ve got six or sixty-six of them swirling around
  • make sure your scenes ‘work’ in principle before you go to the effort of writing them
  • clarify the story progress for your reader and making them anticipate what’s next
  • develop the seamless story flow between your scenes
  • move purposefully from your scene opening to your scene ending
  • get into a rhythm with your writing and developing your readers’ trust that you know what you’re doing!

Find your writing style

Write the Middle of your Novel gives you wriggle room rather than pinning you into a corner.

When you use this course, you do not have to plan everything out first. It is okay to have a few ideas and write those first. It is okay to not be a 100% plotter, which is the problem many writers experience when they try to use some novel plotting tools.

The Write the Middle of Your Novel Course is adaptable to your own style.

Open for Enrolment
Sign up for 'Write the Middle' - online course for fiction writers - and begin learning the skills you need to finish your first draft 

An exciting course for writers who get stuck in the middle of their manuscript.

When you enrol, you will be able to access:

  • 10 lessons to help you write the middle of your novel
  • Video tutorials to walk you through each and every step
  • Course reference guide to help you understand the principles
  • Examples of best practice and exercises to support your study

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