Middles–Not Enough Ado About Something

I recently blogged about the importance of beginnings—that first chapter or so of your novel that gins up your reader’s interest in it and hooks her good, so that she has to keep reading. Then there’s the all-important ending of the book, wherein you take advantage of your last chance to impress and leave a satisfied taste in readers’ mouths. We’ll get back to that in due time.

And that’s the thing about endings: you have to get to them. And in order to get to them, you have togo through the middle. For the author, this may be the most difficult part to write. You’ve gotten out of the blocks with a roar, but how do you keep up that momentum? Let’s reflect on that together. I’m sure you can add a million good ideas to the discussion.

Readers Are Carnivores: They Want Meat!

The middle is the meat of the book. All the questions asked, all the red herrings dragged across the trail, all the plots put into motion in Chapter One—they are all worked out here. There have to be regular action beats that keep the story moving or else it drags, its promise unfulfilled, and readers will never make it to the fulfillment of the ending. This is where your world-building takes place, your characters are developed. Surprises get popped here. Wow! This is where your book is!

The exact pace at which the story unrolls depend upon genre and your personal style, but there’s a definite rhythm booming along in the Middle Kingdom. One thing leads to another, and each is revealed at the right moment. One can never pay too much attention to the solid middle of the book, and I wonder if all the talk about the (admittedly) important beginning doesn’t sometimes trick us into relaxing a bit along the road to The End.

Literary GPS

Here in Middleburg, being a Plotter makes life a lot easier. If you have your outline spread out from the get-go, you can see where things happen. They’re like landmarks along the highway; you just follow. If you’re a Pantser, it’s a little harder to keep rolling toward the destination, because you’re only vaguely aware of where you’re going. But you can do it. You’re a Pantser. That’s what you do. Go back in later and paint the road signs that your reader will need, if that’s what is required. Just be sure plenty is going on at every level. Not just plot points, but all the rest of what makes a book good and meaty.

So, here we are at the end of the post, and you may be feeling disappointed. I haven’t proposed any magic techniques for getting from Point A to Point B. That would take a whole book and is, in effect, the content of all the blogs you read in “Writer’s Craft.” What I do hope is that once we’ve reflected specifically on the importance of the middle, every writer who sits down at the keyboard will do so with heightened consciousness—and resolve. This isn’t just something to be gotten through en route to the juicy parts. The middle is the meat. It’s your book!

What do you think?