How to Get Through the Sagging Middle of Your Book

hello everyone Alexa done here and today we're talking about middles the muddled middle the dreaded middle the middle middles are the worst I'm so sorry if you love middles good for you but I find that most writers struggle with the middle I definitely struggle with the middle it is a very human normal response both in drafting and in revision middles could just cause a lot of problems so I thought we would talk about the dreaded muddled middle messy middle I tend to call it both of those things both things to keep in mind while you're drafting but also practical tips that are going to help you in revising middles because sometimes the best you can do is push through in drafting in the middle you vomit out the middle you just do the best that you can anything you can to get past the middle then then you fix it later very often you might not even know exactly what is your middle until you were done with the whole book because then kind of the structure and the beats fall into place yes technically you should have the structure in the beats and place before you start writing but sometimes books get away from us the next thing you know you're like oh I thought this was the midpoint turn and now it's the break into three or how it moved up it's a whole thing so we're gonna talk about middles so first of all the thing that I think you need to understand about the middle is one of my favorite beats we are gonna talk a bit about beats it is the fun and games beat or the promise of the premise essentially this is after the break into two to being your middle your second act where you give the reader the promise of the premise and/or the fun and the games it's all of the stuff that the reason they wanted to read the book was this part it's where you have fun with your premise so for example in The Hunger Games the fun and games slash promise on the premise is these starts of the actual Hunger Games the training is done and Katniss goes up into the arena and people start dude died it's that first part of that section because obviously the entire package longer games where it's the fighting for survival it's the first set of choices it's the first betrayal when it comes to pita its the reader being like yes I came for this I'm gonna give you a couple other examples because you know I always go to The Hunger Games so another example from one of my favorite books is Thursday next so in Thursday next the fun and game slash promise on the premise is when Thursday starts her investigation into Jane Eyre being missing jumping into the book world for the first time meeting different characters all the different literary allusions really playing with the fun part of the premise which is she can jump into books by the way if you've never heard of a read Thursday next get thee to thy library or a bookstore it's Thursday next by Jasper Fforde it's an entire series the first book is called the Eyre affair it is one of my all-time favorite book series I love it I mean really I feel like the entire series is fun and games because it's all premise of the premise and honestly the best books I think do deliver on their premise all the way through but this really is a specific section of ER act 2 and then in a romance this is going to be the juicy part of your romance it's after your meet cute and it's the characters getting to know each other there's a push and pull there's usually conflict both internal and external of you know questioning feelings and things coming between them it's it's that exciting first build of attraction and romance if this were a movie it might be your movie montage so bear that in mind like the shopping makeover montage for example it's really key to have this section in your act too because if you don't the reader is going to feel ripped off it's the reason they're here guys but the - side of the fun and games promise on the premise is some times you can take it too far you can do too much of it and you get into dragging your pacing territory and we're gonna talk a lot about pacing when it comes to the middle because the middle is a very delicate balancing act of pacing it is really the longest act in your book act one should be pretty short and sweet x3 should be pretty short and sweet but act 2 if you follow the bell curve model is this entire part of the curve like act ones over here and act threes over here and you've got all this space to fill over my head so you have a lot of work to do it is the longest section of the book but it's broken into other little sections beats within it and it's a delicate balance they're not all equal in length and time and it's knowing when to dip into something how long to have it and when to get out of it and we don't always nail this on the first draft so as I talk about some of the other kind of pitfalls and things to bear in mind for your middle think about the delicate balancing act of this pacing your reader this is the section of the book where you're giving them tons of information tons of character development tons of plot development a lot of things need to be happening but you don't want to tip to your midpoint turn which is your twist in the middle or you're breaking to three too soon because then the pacing is going to feel rushed you need to give the reader a nothing at two that they feel satisfied with what they get in Act three this is why writing books is hard guys there's a lot that goes into it so the next thing I want to talk about is what I call the series of unfortunate events you both need this and don't maybe what to do this depending on the book have you ever read a book where it feels like a series of unfortunate events it's just being after thing after thing horrible thing that happens to the character and at a certain point as the reader you get really sick of it you're like I'm sick of just this character getting hit in the face over and over again and it doesn't move on they're not learning anything they're not picking themselves up they're not doing anything about it or there isn't a significant reversal that comes into play again this is a pacing dragging situation you're doing too much of a series of unfortunate events which is essentially conflict you are throwing obstacles at your characters and you want to throw obstacles at your characters but it's the balancing act once again so in romance for example it's too many obstacles it's too any series of terrible things that happen that get in the way of the romance you want the fine balance between terrible thing happens terrible thing happens and then maybe you have a slight reversal there's a moment shared and then something bad happens again you do need conflict keep going so when it comes to a series of unfortunate events you need to check yourself and when in doubt refer to the rule of threes I think three is a nice healthy number not only for your fun and games promise of the premise three setups but if you're doing a series of unfortunate events which can be the premise on the premise by the way they can be the same thing limit yourself to three if you're really unsure still Raiders can of course do more but three is a nice magic and compact number generally speaking if you do three that are well set up and paste you're good to move on you basically are looking for a balance between your cure reader going oh no what else wrong could happen I have to keep reading and getting really annoyed at you and giving up and generally your series of unfortunate events your conflicts your obstacles and some reversals are leading you up to the big mid-point turn it's usually right in the mid point of your book but not always exactly in the mid point because don't we love to be confusing but generally speaking it is going to be very very close to your middle I'm gonna talk more about that in a minute but first we're gonna talk about asking and answering questions this is an essential element of writing a page-turner if you've watched the video that I have on that which I will link to down below it's how I use micro cliffhangers which is essentially just a strategy I use for dropping into chapters and coming out of chapters that always leaves the reader with a question you always want them to have the question even if that question is what's gonna happen next it's how are they gonna get out of this how are they going to react to this is this going to teach them something are they going to learn and grow if it's kind of more of a mystery thriller it's are they going to figure out this clue what is the next clue did this person do it etc so you're always leading them through to the next section with a question but you need to be answering questions along the way it shouldn't just be question question question questions building sometimes it might just be you end a chapter on a question you answer it on the next page but you want to be building this and act - because that's what Act - the middle really is it is prompting questions answering them but leading to more questions balanced with fun and games promises the premise a series of unfortunate events and lots of reversals leading up to the midpoint turn and then to the break into three middles are hard personally when I write my middles and I'm actually drafting my middles this question-and-answer thing isn't just for the reader it's for me as the author I might literally jot down a series of questions that I need to answer especially as the writer but also the questions that my main character is asking themselves based on the information I've given them based on what I've written so far and I use these questions and answering them myself as the writer to push me through the middle when I get stuck I go back to asking myself questions okay well where do I have them right now what is the information that they have where do I need them to go and so what questions do I need them to ask and then have answered that will prompt more questions that will push the story forward there will of course also then be questions and answers for your reader but if this also works on the meta writer level I like to think of the middle as a trifle if you're familiar with that because you know I love half-baked baking metaphors but I like this one because you want to be always adding layers of cream sponge and fruit cocktail moments of tension and conflict followed by moments of rest and reflection for your characters yes I'm referring to my notes because I sounded smart when I wrote it down that essentially every time you answer a question and your character feels like they know where they are and what's going on you're throwing another obstacle at them to put them off-balance to propel them forward often this is part of the series of unfortunate events and this is how you're going to build not only the reading experience for the reader but the plot progression and character growth for your character you also by the way want to give your character ample time to reflect on things every time something bad happens or there is a reversal you need to give your character time to settle into that not too much time again you're gonna drag your pace thing be careful middle suck but you want to take that moment because your reader needs that moment to your reader needs that moment to digest what has just happened whether it's a new obstacle whether it's learning new information it's wrapping up one problem while opening a present for another these moments are essential throughout the book honestly you should also always have these kinds of moments of reflection throughout act 1 and act 3 especially my favorite thing I love to talk about books that miss the Daniel moth who don't have it whole other topic but you always want to take those little moments but again the push and pull the middle the trick that is so hard to land and sometimes does get fixed in revision is figuring out the balance how much time do you spend on one versus another do you need every reflection point sometimes it does benefit your story most to go from obstacle to obstacle to obstacle it's a balancing act essentially overall when you're thinking about the structure and the beats and the pacing talking about that midpoint turn again is it literally is the bell curve it is rising action coming up to a point up here where everything changes either for the for good or for worse though if it's for good you're quickly gonna do a reversal and that usually cause conflict everything changes and then it all kind of tumbles downhill and it should fall right into your third act from a pacing perspective you really I really do like to think of books as a row or coaster you're cranking people up and say it going up to the inciting incident and you go down it's like whoa it's it's right lots of ups and downs it technically isn't just a steady climb and an up and down they're going to be ups and downs within that and the key is not doing so many that people get bored or sick you don't want to make a vomit metaphor is always getting away from me but you definitely want to think about this and it's very easy to do too little rushing to the midpoint it's also very easy to do too much dragging before the midpoint or dragging after the midpoint to the break into third is a shorter section than you actually think it is because once you've done your big turn your big reversal if you do too much after that the reader is going to get bored / annoyed especially annoyed at your main character if it's a matter of them being too stupid to figure something out that they're trusting the wrong person that they took the wrong path whatever it is so once you hit your med point turn you want to get to your break into three pretty quickly I'll tell you when you read a well-crafted book on Kindle I always like to look at Kindle percentages you must have your break into to buy around the 20% mark 20% mark is always where you're gonna see the kind of second inciting isn't there's always kind of a first one and then there's the one that is the break into to the decision to go in the journey your midpoint turn is gonna fall between like 45 and 65 percent usually closer to 50 and you should be breaking into your third act by the seventy percent mark on your Kindle all great books do this I've noticed the pattern and then your last 30 percent of the book is Act three another thing just talking about beats in terms of being important in the middle of your book after the midpoint turn you always want to have a beach where things seem fine this is technically called the calm before the storm beat this is a very important beat before you get into that break into three because you need to lull your readers into a false sense of security before you screw everything up because it's an emotional journey you're bringing them huh and you're bringing them low and you're lulling them into a sense of security before punching them in the face so you you're always needed to balance this again this is my middles are so hard it's making sure that you are hitting all of these beats these emotional beats and asking questions and answering questions without dragging your pacing the last practical thing I want to talk about is something that you're probably going to be looking at in revision though if you're really great at this you might catch yourself during drafting but something that I have found happens in the middle especially or perhaps is best fixed in the middle that making these fixes in the middle can transform a middle is over dramatizing things where you can be narrating and narrating things where you should be dramatizing things so again I have an entire video on this topic generally dramatization verses narration and I will link to that down below but pinpointing this editing tactic drafting and editing tactic has really helped me with my middles revising my middles and as I said in that video when you're drafting you should do whatever feels natural generally my advice on the muddled middle with drafting is to do whatever you can to write it trying to balance all of these different ideas and techniques and I hope that talking about them has helped you go aha that's what I need in my middle or aha maybe that's why my middle doesn't work because it doesn't have that or it has too much of that but very often one of the reasons pacing is going to feel off whether it's too fast or it's too slow is dramatization versus narration you might be overdramatizing scenes and that's why they feel very very long you're doing an entire scene or multiple chapters of reflection for example through dramatization people having conversations usually it's talking about things where you could have done a nice neat compact couple of sentences or paragraphs of narration to accomplish the same job or vice versa you might have a lot of things neatly tied up with a bow in narration whereas the emotional there isn't a rich experience of whatever that narration is because you should be traumatizing it you should be very carefully crafting a scene in a specific setting with specific characters to add to character growth and plot progression in a smartly dramatized scene which often making that kind of switch can make the entire middle work I have definitely had this happen on the stars we steal my second book I had a section that was I actually switched the dramatization I had one dramatization I had one thing happening but it was really just people kind of logical things out through conversation it was conversation that was happening and in an art setting to get from one plot point to the other and I realized if I changed it for a different setting with a completely different dramatization I could actually have a richer emotional character moment a character beets which actually ended up being the essential calm before the storm for a romantic reversal that just it means the entire second act a lot more exciting I essentially realized in hindsight that I had like a flat line in this section of the middle where I needed a little Boop little Boop an emotional Boop for my characters essentially and once I made that change it sewed up the whole middle so when you're going in to revise you can look for these spots where yeah you have a scene and maybe it's okay but is it really doing all the work that it needs to be doing or could be doing and so one tip I can give you if you realize that you've dramatized something but it's just not performing enough work you could literally take the same dialogue and transpose it onto a more interesting setting and dramatization so that it performs greater plot and character work I've definitely done that now just some more practical tips for revision that are gonna help you in kind of fixing some things in your middle you want to look for places in scenes that repeat certain character beats and traits Act two is a lot about developing characters and character relationships but you can definitely have too much of a good thing as I mentioned in the fun and games promise of the premise and even series of unfortunate events if you have four you know scenes of building a romance do you need all four can you kind of tighten them to just have three you want to look for those spots try not to beat anyone conflict too far into the brown I find this a lot again my some of my best examples are romance but this could work for a friendship any relationship that's in trouble where it's just beat after beat after beat of well you said that one thing and I'm mad about it well at a certain point you need to resolve that and move on and create new more interesting conflict you can definitely have too much of essentially beating a dead horse so you want to look for those spots where you can tighten essentially every single scene in your second act in your middle should be building both to the midpoint and the break into three every scene and moment is performing a function it is adding information for your reader it is developing character it is you know asking questions and answering questions about the main mystery thread in hindsight when your readers think about your your big twist in the middle and you're breaking to three so the dramatic thing that happens to propel you into the third act to the book all of those things that they read in the middle they should go oh that is what that was building towards oh oh they need to think back to moments that happened and they will feel more significant now or have greater impact really your second act is the place of change but that change needs to be subtle and gradual you are definitely delicately building something in act 3 your character has changed or has the thing that really articulates the change but Act 2 is when you are going to be laying all of the breadcrumbs perb growth development and change it's really really hard and that's kind of my disclaimer my letting you off the hook middles suck there's no one cut and dry solution to writing better middles to fixing middles we all just have to muddle through our own middles looking at what we're doing on the page kind of are worst impulses and then thinking about what the middle needs to do paying attention to story beats paying attention to story structure and just doing our best to fix it because the scary awful thing is that the middles are really the most important part of the book although first acts are really really important third acts are super super important to I think they're all important in different ways but I'd say more books fall apart in the middle and more writers get stuck in the middle and never even finish a book so to that end that's why I feel that middles are the hardest and middles are the most important and you need the most pep talks and help for the middle but it's also thus the hardest to talk about the most difficult to articulate because it is so complex and specific to different people and it's just the sheer size of the middle the sheer number of beats the balancing act the delicate magician's act you need to pull off to create this beautiful perfect middle this was my best try it helping you guys out I hope this helped I hope I kind of illuminated some things maybe you hadn't thought about articulated things you kind of knew but maybe didn't know what to do with I challenged myself to work on this one to really articulate it as I am struggling through a middle right now I started the outline when I was fixing the middle for my last book and I'm filming now drafting the middle of my next one it's just always an evolving challenge of how to do it right the first time knowing that you probably won't and then figuring out how to fix it give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and I will make more very long hopefully helpful slightly rambly videos about things that are hard about writing if you're not already subscribed to the channel go ahead and do that I post new videos two to three times a week thank you so much for watching and as always guys happy writing and good luck with the middle

Channel: Alexa Donne

Views: 77,955

Keywords: alexa donne, author tube, writing advice, how to write a book, publishing advice, writing the middle, middle of your book, how to write the middle of a book, how to fix the middle of your book, muddled middle, writing the middle of your novel, slow middle, middle book pacing, sagging middle, How to Get Through the Sagging Middle of Your Book, sagging middle of your book, dragging middle

Id: aq6UddAXmeE

Length: 23min 59sec (1439 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2019