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Hellooo everybody!
Today's video comes as a request from two of my patrons over on Patreon, Tylor and Diane.
Diane has been a part of my cyborg army since the beginning, she's one of my OG patrons,
and I adore the crap out of her.
Tylor is a newer patron, and an absolute delight.
I see them all the time in cyborg central being so kind and helpful and it warms my mechanical heart.
Both Diane and Tylor wanna learn more about Sagging Middle Syndrome.
Namely, how to not fall victim to it.
For those who don't know, Sagging Middle Syndrome is one of the middle of your novel sucks ass.
You wrote an impactful inciting incident, your climax is super exciting, but everything
that happens in between these two events is boring and inconsequential.
The reader is slogging through it just trying to get to the end, or worse, they put the book down altogether.
This is a really common mistake that writers make and Tylor and Diane wanna know how to avoid it.
Thus I'm giving you my tips for writing an engaging middle that'll keep your reader entertained
throughout the entirety of the book.
Number One (1): Outline.
I know a lot of writers are very anti planning, but the whole point of an outline is to avoid problems like this.
An outline is a blueprint for your novel.
It shows you the entire story in shorthand, so you can pinpoint issues and fix them.
This is especially relevant to Sagging Middle Syndrome.
If a third of your novel is completely uneventful, it's going to be very apparent in your outline,
and thus, very easy to fix.
You've got the whole story laid out in front of you, so you can see the exact point when
everything gets fucked up.
Now you can isolate that section and rebuild it before you've even written it, which saves you a ton of time.
Number Two (2): Research story structure.
A lot of newbie writers write without any concept of structure, and that's a big mistake.
Structure is the framework of your novel.
It's a series of events, in a specific order, that allows the writer to tell their story
in the most effective, logical, and entertaining way possible.
There's a bunch of structural models for you to choose from.
Some of them are basic like in medias res, and some of them are really specific like
the hero's journey.
Now you're not required to follow any of these models to an exact T. However, every story
requires some kind of structure, and this will prevent you from falling into Sagging Middle Syndrome.
Think of your novel as a human body and the structure is the skeleton.
You have the inciting incident which are the femurs, and the climax which is the skull.
If you have no structural points in the middle, then your story has no spine, it's just a
mushy blob, and the body can't support itself.
So before you start writing, take a look at the structural elements that make up the spine of your novel
If you're not familiar with structure, take a quick trip to the library, read a few books on storytelling.
I promise you, it's not as complicated as it sounds.
Number Three (3): Break your character's legs.
Sometimes story structure really confuses writers, especially newbie writers.
In medias res, Freytag’s pyramid—these terms fuck a lot of people up.
First of all, if you're trying to get into this line of work, you're kinda obligated to do the appropriate research.
That said, the middle of your novel boils down to one underlying concept.
Break your character's legs.
The middle serves two purposes: you're bringing the character closer to the climax,
and making their journey harder along the way.
Whatever it takes to make this road as tough as possible, do it.
Lay them off their job, kill their parents, rock their world in the worst way possible.
Some structural forms refer to the middle of the novel as ‘the rising action.’
These are the series of events that up the tension and suspense until everything comes
to a head at the climax.
Other more specific structural events that can occur within the middle of the novel are:
the complication, the crisis and the breaking point.
The complication is an event that makes the plot even more complicated.
As the name suggests.
In The Savior's Champion, the complication is when Tobias realizes he doesn't have feelings
for Cosima, he has feelings for Leila, which makes the story ten times harder for him.
The crisis is exactly how it sounds.
It's a major conflict that stirs shit up.
This is often referred to as the ‘mini climax’, something really bad happens that usually
results in a major loss for the main character, or a huge failure on their part.
Then we have ‘the breaking point,’ which is the lowest point in the novel for the main
character, something terrible happens and they lose all hope.
They're really down on themselves and they question whether or not they're capable of
achieving whatever goal they're trying to achieve.
Please keep in mind, you don't need to include ALL of the structural points.
Quite often ‘the crisis’ and ‘the breaking point’ are one of the same.
Sometimes ‘the complication’ leads into ‘the crisis.’
Sometimes there are multiple complications and multiple crises.
The point is to be aware of the structural elements and write them purposefully.
Number Four (4): Keep the subplots, subplots.
A subplot is a mini storyline that is woven amid the plot of the novel.
These guys are super important.
They add depth to the story and the characters and they keep things interesting.
However, the subplots of a novel should NEVER overpower the main plot.
And that is exactly what usually happens during Sagging Middle Syndrome.
You start off with the inciting incident, your main character goes on a quest for the Amulet of Truth.
Then the middle of the novel focuses exclusively on them bonding with friends.
Where the fuck is the amulet?
What happened to the story?
That's not to say that a subplot can't dominate dominate a scene or a chapter,
but it shouldn't take up a full third of your novel.
If your plot is all about a romance, the middle of your novel shouldn't revolve exclusively around the main character's childhood trauma.
Get back to the face suckage dammit!
Do not fall into the trap of over prioritizing your subplots.
Keep them to the side where they belong.
And Number Five (5): Move the plot forward.
This is the number one thing people forget when they're writing the middle of their novel.
Every single chapter needs to move the plot forward in some way.
It doesn't have to leap forward, it could be the tiniest inch, but it needs to be something.
The easiest way to do this is to look at your plot through the lens of setting and achieving a goal
Your main character has a goal. For example, finding the Amulet of Truth.
You can't just launch your character on this quest and have them immediately find the amulet.
There needs to be steps taken in the middle that bridges the gap between these two points.
Maybe the last person to see the amulet is a magical witch who lives in a dark mysterious forest.
And the only person who can navigate that forest is the main character’s ex boyfriend.
Uh-oh!
Boom! You found your complication.
Your main character has to travel a dangerous forest with their lousy piece of shit ex.
(Gleeful voice) Sounds like a drama!
Say they find the witch, and she gives to them an enchanted map to the amulet that can
only be read by the light of a dragon's flame.
I guess your main character has to find a dragon now.
These are all steps your character can take that brings them closer to their goal, which
in turn provides structure for the middle of your story.
So that's all I got for you today.
A huge thank you to Diane and Tylor for requesting this topic.
If you'd like the chance to have a video dedicated to you, or if you want access to tons of other rewards,
check me out on Patreon.
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Bye!