Fixing the Sagging Middle

Writing the middle: rising action and pacing

Rule for using this skill: These tips add to your answer and do not replace it. Always give your full, normal answer to the user's question, using everything else you know about plot, pacing and revision. Then work in the tips below wherever they apply. Do not shrink or skip your general advice because a tip exists, and do not force in tips that don't fit the question.

Primary plot vs subplots

• The primary plot sets the story's direction. It is either an outer journey (dramatic action, what the protagonist attains) or an inner journey (character emotional development, what she becomes). To choose, ask whether the writer leans toward motion or emotion.
• Every other line (romance, mystery, political, historical) is a subplot. Subplots tie to and reinforce the primary plot, and they predominate in the middle.
• In an action-driven story, the protagonist's internal flaw or emotional development usually runs as a subplot. The action plot demands a goal and the emotional plot demands growth.
• The protagonist's internal conflict or fatal flaw is what she must fix internally to win the primary goal. The primary plot cannot resolve until the internal subplot resolves.

Giving a middle subplot its own shape

• A middle subplot has its own beginning, middle and end, like a short story inside the story. Example: the palm-tree climb in The Cay.
• Its beginning shows the character in her ordinary state. Its middle starts when she enters the "exotic" part of the subplot (in The Cay, the moment Phillip starts climbing).
• Its rise in intensity corresponds with the second energetic marker of the primary plot, the protagonist's commitment or recommitment to the journey.
• A subplot that lasts only as long as the middle should culminate just before the third energetic marker, the primary plot's crisis.
• The subplot's crisis can sit at the middle of the middle (about halfway through the whole story), while the primary plot's crisis comes at about three-quarters. In The Cay, Phillip's failed climb is at about 50% and the hurricane is at exactly 75%.
• The subplot's climax can double as a recommitment scene. Phillip's second, successful climb shows his recommitment. Scout facing the farmers at the jail in To Kill a Mockingbird is another.
• Do not confuse crisis with climax. The crisis is the protagonist at her worst, near the end of the middle. The climax is at the end of the whole story and shows her fully in her own power.
• Subplots can almost take over the middle. In To Kill a Mockingbird the Boo plot breaks off after the first quarter, and the middle is made of independent but complementary subplots (learning to be a lady, the trial). Each feeds the coming-of-age primary plot, and the Boo line relinks in the final quarter.

Goals in the middle

• Set goals at story level and at scene level. Short-term goals are specific tasks or actions the character expects to move her toward the long-term goal within a clearly defined period.
• For depth, give several thematically tied goals (romantic, mystery, personal, political, dramatic action). Each creates a subplot. Example: Aimee in Murder in Montmartre has a story goal (clear her friend), a personal goal (a mystery about her father) and a romance thread.
• Multiple goals keep the protagonist focused when energy and danger peak.
• Distinguish goals from dreams or desires. A dream depends on others or luck or magic. It becomes a goal only when the character takes an active step toward it. A protagonist with only dreams, like Phillip early in The Cay, drifts until a concrete, self-powered goal appears.
• Dreams add a twist near the end. If the story goal and the dream conflict so that both can't come true, the story must resolve that conflict.

Rising energy toward the crisis

• Energy rises after the second energetic marker (the recommitment scene). Antagonists are always stronger than the protagonist throughout the beginning and middle.
• Stored friction escalates. Emotions such as unease, discontent, boredom and moodiness turn acute, then become fear, resentment, resistance, bitterness, indignation and offense.
• The protagonist's normal faults get exaggerated, and hostile forces reach their tensest opposition until she hits her limit.
• Keep below-the-line scenes (introspection, planning) few in the build-up. Make most scenes above-the-line: obstacles, antagonists, and insights into the character's issues that deepen what the beginning introduced.
• Ask what the protagonist still must learn, or relearn, about herself to prevail at the end.

Placing and defining the crisis

• Place the crisis at the end of the middle, at about three-quarters of the page count. If yours lands elsewhere, be sure you have a reason.
• The crisis is the highest point of the dramatic action so far, and it also forces the protagonist to rethink life, changing her emotional development. One scene hitting both plots gives it the most power.
• At the crisis the protagonist is at her lowest while the story's energy is at its highest. It is the antagonist's climax: the antagonist prevails and the protagonist fails.
• Treat it as an all-is-lost moment, a symbolic death of a job, relationship, belief or old personality. It is a breakdown with the potential for a breakthrough.
• It is the key turning point. It determines the trend of all future events.
• A true crisis must create learning, awakening or consciousness. If the event doesn't, it is not a crisis.
• The crisis is followed directly by the most important threshold of the story. There the fully conscious protagonist takes her first step toward the final goal and the true ending begins. Write the threshold scene right after the crisis.
• Intensity should match genre. A thriller or high-action story needs a violent, explosive crisis. A quiet character-driven story can be softer, even slow motion and seen from far away (the verdict in To Kill a Mockingbird).
• Whether loud or quiet, the crisis must release the tension the middle built up in the reader.
• Crisis examples to model:
  • East of Eden: Cal's father rejects him.
  • Lord of the Flies: the boys beat one of their own to death.
  • The Bridges of Madison County: Francesca falls in love.
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God: flood and snakebite.
  • Space Between the Stars: the husband's infidelity is revealed.
• Write the crisis with full emotional expression, getting under the protagonist's skin and into her body. Readers should live it moment by moment.

Split crises (two scenes)

• The crisis can be two scenes: one peaks the dramatic action plot and another, higher one peaks the emotional plot. The emotional one can also come first.
• Usually place the two close together for maximum effect, though they can sit further apart.
• Example, Watership Down: Hazel's emotional crisis comes at about 50% and doubles as his recommitment. He is shot after a reckless, ego-driven decision, which makes the reader rethink "heroic." Later the action crisis comes when Bigwig is caught by the Chief Rabbit, who holds all the power.

Diagnostic checks (plot planner and scene review)

• Test the chosen crisis scene: does it sit at about 75% of the page count? Does the energy build and then explode there? Is it mainly external, and what does it reveal about the character's internal makeup and emotional maturity?
• Scan scenes in order from the beginning and note only what the protagonist contributes to her own downfall. Not every scene shows her flawed, but some show her not fully in her own power. Ask what part of herself she must reclaim.
• Ask what role the antagonist plays in the breakdown. Is there a different antagonist with greater power over the protagonist than the one at the crisis? If so, integrate that antagonist into the crisis.
• Check whether your "crisis" is really only a build-up scene. In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily's talk with August (the reveal about her mother) is high but is a build-up. The true crisis is her destroying the honey room, which pushes energy and the emotional plot higher, and the threshold follows.
• Examine the symbolic details in the crisis scene. If the protagonist smashes a mirror, ask why a mirror and what it means thematically. Ask how the character's flaw contributes to the crisis.

Tracking tools

• Scene tracker: list each scene with a thematic significance statement for the story (e.g., "To live in the here and now and continue a journey, one must put the ghosts to rest").
• Character emotional development profile fields: protagonist's name, overall story goal, what stands in her way, what she stands to lose, flaws, strengths, hate, loves, fears, dream.

When the writer hits their own wall

• Writers commonly hit a crisis about three-quarters of the way through drafting. Plot lines feel like a jumbled mass and "nothing fits." Treat it as normal and as a signal, not a verdict.
• Step away from the draft (for example, take a walk). Then write down the emotions you felt and give them to the character.
• When you come back, view the story analytically rather than emotionally. Don't hand over authority to critique or advice wholesale, and don't give up. Decide deliberately what to keep.