Back to Writing Excuses! Middles.

Time to learn about middles. If you'll remember, I wrote a post a few weeks ago saying my story Settled had a poor storyline. In particular, it was conflict-challenged and the story did not progress well because of it. I said I would research and learn more so as to improve.

That means I returned to the Writing Excuses podcast today, listening to this session in particular. It's about middles. I have always had issues with middles, and it's time to resolve that.

The main takeaway was that a middle should be full of try-fail cycles. The conflict is introduced in the beginning, then the protagonist spends their time trying to resolve it. Just before the end, matters get even worse and the protagonist tries one last time. This allows the end to feel more triumphant.

In essence, the middle is the struggle.

For example, The Odyssey. Odysseus stops at many islands, trying to get home. He tries and fails and tries again, continuing onward--and just when he is home free, he realizes he has to fight at home, too. Note that he loses men left and right and he never emerges from a scene unscathed. Every action should have an effect on the storyline. Let there be consequences. The middle shapes the end.

Let's say Settled had a conflict of one of Mel's projects getting out of hand and one of the neighbors calls the cops on them. Insert some tension by Jeff not telling Mel it had happened, and the middle starts when Jeff goes to the station to talk it over. There, instead of smoothing things over, he finds out this was the fifth or even tenth time they've been reported, so they are being fined. He doesn't have the money on him, so he says he will figure something out, please give me a week. That is try and fail cycle one. When he gets home, Mel is in tears over the American flag, which got snared in her sewing machine and now looks like a mess. He comforts her and doesn't have it in him to tell her about the police. Before bed, he looks at their bank account and finds he is short unless he uses their savings account. It continues on until he falls in the elevator and somehow the conflict is resolved...Mel meets the police and they realize she is harmless. Or she sells the fixed American flag and that covers it. Something that follows from details in the middle, anyway. Point is, it needed a conflict so it could grow a middle.

Which means next week will be about conflict.

Other things I learned or was reminded of:

Have fun writing the middle. If it isn't fun for you, it won't entertain the reader.

The things that go wrong must be things out of the hero's control. Let them try intelligently and well. It should work if nothing unexpected occurs. Of course, make the unexpected occur.