For the middle of your book think about the complications you
want for your characters to experience. I’ve selected two of the ones I decided
would add to the tension and action in the story.
The middle contains a number of steps toward the characters' goals. Sometimes they appear to be gaining and other times they end up in a backward slide.
Giving the characters complications is the goal and if you're working with more than one character, they'll each have their middle ground.
!. I had to find a way to separate
the two characters adding difficulty to them gaining their goals. Sowing how I developed the middle of the book comes from my latest release.
Part of this is through their lines. Their lines of fire work
together. Lasara is sure this means they have a heart bond. Jens, the hero, is
a Desert Rider and any bonds between a man and woman are for two years only.
Neither can accept what the others mean. They separate. He to search for the
camp of the renegades and she to carry the word about Petan, the villain, to
the Hall. I decided there could be further parts to this parting. They both
learn they can locate the other while thinking about each other while reading
the lines. I decided one of them had to be in danger. This added a number of
possible scenes.
2. My second was what would happen
if one of their bihorns, their steeds, was wounded. This could add a
complication and add to their trouble.
I’m sure as the book moved toward
the end there would be other complications.
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.
The middle is where the
complications of the story are found. Without problems that seem to take the
characters from their goals you won’t have a real story. The reader needs to
see the characters’ dreams come close and then be taken away. Or some incident
that mores them in a different direction.
While planning your story, try to
come up with some complications. Use your imagination. They may not all fit as
you write the story but you’ll have them as ideas.
