Sagging Middles

The complications just keep on coming. They build logically and rationally one upon the other. In each step, we see character growth and change. We see less reluctance to act and more active engagement because the characters= motivations keep growing stronger. We see the plot driven by the choices the characters make.

By adding depth and dimension to these conflicts, we move the characters steadily across the bridge toward the off-ramp. The middle doesn't sag because its slats are constantly shored up by movement: plot twists, change in the characters, their motivations, and their growth.

Often when writers feel the middle fizzle, they'll delete conflicts. In short, don't do it. Instead, beef up the existing conflicts by inserting further complications, new bits of information that the characters learn which alters their perspective and gives them a different view. Information that compels them to continue on in their journey across the bridge.

Make each obstacle the characters face more difficult--a greater challenge—than the last one encountered. Make the consequences of each obstacle more difficult for the characters to swallow than those in the last challenge. Otherwise, the smaller challenges seem inconsequential compared to what the characters have already encountered. That diffuses tension.

Tension should steadily increase from the beginning of the novel through to its end.

So if you're dealing with a sagging middle, you need to get on the bridge with your characters and mix it up. Create some conflicts, some new and compelling information that changes the way the characters see their situations. Strengthen, not delete, the existing conflicts, and maybe even add a new one.

During an interview recently, a radio host told me that he was taught in creative writing to put his characters in a tree and throw rocks at them and in my book, I'd thrown boulders. There's a reason for that. Boulders are a lot harder to dodge than rocks. You've got to deal with them.

Dealing with them is difficult. That difficulty produces challenges in both the external and the internal conflicts and challenging internal and external conflicts, which should mirror or echo each other, assures writers that our middles will not sag. We will have sufficient conflict to sustain the spine of our novel and to get our characters safely across the bridge.

© Copyright Vicki Hinze 2003. All Rights Reserved.

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Vicki Hinze's latest releases are BODY DOUBLE and LADY JUSTICE.  View the book short (tm)--movie trailer--on her website "News":  www.vickihinze.com.