Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Snarled Middles #MFRWauthor #writing #Middles

The middle of a book is where all the action happens. The characters are on stage and their desires are known as well as the stumbling blocks in their path. The writer has reached the middle. Here is where all the problems that need to be solves happen. Each problem leads the reader a step or two further toward the end.

There are scenes that follow, each looking at a step toward that goal. There are complications occurring that pull the characters forward and backward. Sometimes the complications become too complicated. The middle becomes snarled.

How does one unsnarl the mess the manuscript has become. The solution takes work. Finding an end and removing the knots that have formed. Find another strand. Sometimes this means cutting one of these strands and removing it from the story.

Do you  have too many villains? Find a way to combine them into one big villain. Villains can have more than one goal and can effect one or more of the characters.

Is the hero or heroine too weak? Is one of them strong and the other weak? Making them equal is the solution to this problem.

Are your characters dashing all over the world, the country, the town. Cut down on the number of settings and make each one important to one of the characters.

As you've looked at the snarled middle and have undone some of the threads, suddenly the story is heading in the right way so that the writer can see the end.