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I had so many great suggestions for writing craft threads the other day that I'm going to tackle another one now: middles!
Often we've got great ideas for the beginning and end of the story, but the middle...the middle can be more uncooperative.
Often we've got great ideas for the beginning and end of the story, but the middle...the middle can be more uncooperative.
I think a lot of the time, middle difficulties come down to this:
It's far too easy to think of middles as a way to get from the beginning to the end.
Make your middle a destination in its own right rather than a roadside pit stop on the story highway!
It's far too easy to think of middles as a way to get from the beginning to the end.
Make your middle a destination in its own right rather than a roadside pit stop on the story highway!
Another way to look at it: story thrives on change. If nothing is changing, even if seemingly exciting things are happening, the story can get boring.
(This is my problem with SO MANY otherwise excellent shonen manga/anime, for example.)
(This is my problem with SO MANY otherwise excellent shonen manga/anime, for example.)
There are lots of good ways to tell a story, of course! But if something happens (or multiple things!) around the middle of your book that makes your readers go "Oh wow, this changes EVERYTHING!" your middle is unlikely to be dull.
While this absolutely can be a big flashy plot event (character death, big setback, plot reveal, etc), often it's most powerful when it's a character moment. Something that changes your character's motivation, or that fundamentally alters how they see things/act.
Now, how to get there? If you know you want a big midpoint twist of some kind but you're not sure you HAVE one?
My favorite trick here is to examine your assumptions about when stuff happens in your story. Sometimes I find I'm compressing too much good stuff into the end.
My favorite trick here is to examine your assumptions about when stuff happens in your story. Sometimes I find I'm compressing too much good stuff into the end.
For example, in THE QUICKSILVER COURT (Rooks & Ruin #2), there's a twist I originally thought would be GREAT right near the end of the book. It packed a ton of punch and seemed like perfect climax material.
But I realized it packed so MUCH punch I needed to show its aftermath.
But I realized it packed so MUCH punch I needed to show its aftermath.
If something has a ton of character/emotional fallout, it often works much better as a midpoint twist! Give yourself time for your characters (and your readers!) to grapple with it.
If you save all your heavy-hitting moments for the end, no one will have time to process them!
If you save all your heavy-hitting moments for the end, no one will have time to process them!
This goes for second books in a trilogy, too. Don't save all your good stuff for the end, or it'll come off rushed and you won't be able to do it justice. Use your good stuff NOW and trust Future You to come up with something even better later!
Another trick I use when I'm outlining is to rough out at about what percent point in the book I want each major plot point to happen (like the top 4-10 change points) and then compare that to about how many pages I think each section as planned will be. This can be revelatory.
I often find that I've conflated "time passing in the book" with "pages to tell the story" in the back of my head and made some terrible assumptions. 
So I'll be vaguely thinking I'll spend like 50 pages on a time when nothing is really changing, throwing off my pacing.
So I'll be vaguely thinking I'll spend like 50 pages on a time when nothing is really changing, throwing off my pacing.
Sometimes when I lay it out this way, just looking at the major plot points by themselves, I realize I can basically just...skip the middle. I already have enough story for a whole book with what I'm thinking of as the beginning and the end.
In TQC, which I'm editing now, a beta reader & my editor helped me realize that I'd created a dull early middle for myself by rushing past a bunch of events that set up the situation I wanted...But those events had a TON of exploitable inherent tension I was just wasting.
I'd packed too many key turning points right into the beginning, to the point where I wasn't even showing them all on page. Like, oh yeah, this really huge plot development happened offscreen, to other people, and now here we are in the middle with nothing to do. (Oops?)
(Oops?)
So changing the pacing/distribution of your existing story events is often enough to make your middle exciting!
If it's not, another thing you can do is reconsider the map your story takes to get from beginning to end to add some twists that aren't detours.
If it's not, another thing you can do is reconsider the map your story takes to get from beginning to end to add some twists that aren't detours.
Think about when characters learn key things!
In THE HUNGER GAMES, if Katniss had known from the start that Peeta was in love with her, the middle would be flat. She learns halfway, and it changes EVERYTHING. Her motivations, how she looks at things, how she thinks.
In THE HUNGER GAMES, if Katniss had known from the start that Peeta was in love with her, the middle would be flat. She learns halfway, and it changes EVERYTHING. Her motivations, how she looks at things, how she thinks.
Maybe you need to add an extra twist or layer like that. A character relationship that makes everything complicated. A secret whose revelation changes everything (even if it's not a secret in your current draft). A wrong assumption that lands your characters in big trouble.
Sometimes CUTTING a detour in the middle can fix everything! I've had that happen when I realized that I had an irrelevant subplot that was padding out my middle with fluff that didn't change anything.
Another key thing to consider with middles is the through lineâthe way events in the story lead into each other, with the character's goals/motivation/agency running through the middle like beads on a string. If you lose the through line, your story can feel disjointed.
Sometimes middles are tricky because we're managing a transformation: a change of location, a passage of time. In these cases my best advice is to have exciting events bracketing the transition and then keep the transition itself as short as possible.
I've got to go take care of my puppy now, but I hope some of these ideas are helpful! Happy plotting, and good luck!!! 
