Tonight
I'm chatting with one of my online classes. Our topic is slumped
middles--not in our bodies, but our books. Many books slide down the
tension scale in the middle, as the initial action subsides and the
finish line is still far in the distance.
Keeping the middle
active and interesting is not easy. On our chat, we're talking about a
few proven techniques for brightening up the middle of your story.
Becky,
who reads this blog, sent a great question about slumped middles. She
called this the part where "your character rallies and makes some kind
of decision after hitting a low point, and things get a little better."
Yes, that's true, I told her. The character (or narrator in memoir)
will usually fall for a while after the story starts. Things often get
worse. The character hits a low point and there's a kind of leveling
out. Some writers call this the "first turning point" of the story.
This
is where things can get a little dicey, in terms of tension. As the
character is "recovering from the problem" that the book started with,
it can easily get slow. As Becky says, "How do you keep the tension and
suspense in that section when the trajectory is supposed to be bit more
positive?"
Here's the short list from my online chat tonight (thank you, writers!):
1.
Create a twist at the end, and work it backwards, planting clues that
change and enliven the middle. Such as . . . an enemy turns out to be a
friend or vice versa.
2. Introduce a new character or a mentor.
3.
Create dramatic action--this was a big one!--and place where slumps
usually occur. If you can't think of actions to try, make a list of 10
dramatic events and try out one of them in a freewrite.
4. Change locations! (Think Eat, Pray, Love)
5. And my favorite . . . stay away from interior monologue (thoughts, feelings, memories) and get people moving onstage.
Your Weekly Writing Exercise
Take a middle chapter and try one of the ideas above. See if it makes your middle less slumped and more on edge.
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