PROPPING UP the MIDDLE

By Kasie Whitener

On last week’s episode of Write On SC, we discussed the challenge of writing the middle of the story.

Often, as writers, we are inspired to write the beginning when some specific inciting incident catches our interest. My vampire novel begins with Lord Byron being rescued by a vampire. My GenX novel begins with Brian learning his best friend is dead. I’ve started short stories with a character recognizing a high school classmate in a magazine, making eye contact with an old lover across a lobby, and pulling into the driveway of a ski cabin on a summer night.

The beginning sometimes feels easy. Or sometimes we draft the beginning and decide during revision to start the story earlier or later. The beginning answers specific questions like, “What makes this day significant?” and “Why are we seeing this character now?”

Sometimes it’s the ending that comes easy.

The inevitable outcome of the vampire novel is that the protagonist will murder the woman he loves. Brian must return to San Francisco after burying his friend. And in the short stories: a football game ends in defeat, a couple agrees to stay committed even while the woman takes an overseas assignment, and power is restored to a community after a Derecho allows an old woman to relish the freedom of being alone.

The ending is where we’re headed and usually writers know where we’re going before the story even begins. The ending can feel inevitable, can feel like closure, and can feel satisfying.

But what happens in between?

What happens between rescuing Lord Byron and killing his sister? Between learning the best friend is dead and letting him go?

The middle of the story is where a lot of writers get stuck. We struggle to line up a good progression of action and settle for a series of conversations. We fail to escalate the action and settle for a series of events that all have the same ebb and flow. We fail to select the most relevant scenes and cut the superfluous chatter from the story.

The middle is also where we lose momentum. We know the beginning is compelling and we know where want to go, but the middle may sag or stall.

What I loved about that Write On SC episode was all the different suggestions for how to prop up the middle of the story. I found this resource and this one, too. Both offer advice for adding the necessary action, tension, and escalation you need to drag the reader through all those long pages before the climactic end.

I immediately went home and looked at each of my stories with a more critical lens. Specifically, I applied these actions to the short stories:

1) listed each scene by what action occurred in it;

2) evaluated whether the actions got progressively dramatic;

3) re-organized the series of actions to ensure they were progressing, and

4) raised the stakes in each scene.

Stories are not compelling without action, tension, and escalation. The middle of the story is where these progressions occur. Taking care to craft the middle of the story can help you ensure your reader’s journey is as compelling at the protagonist’s.

For more craft talk and South Carolina writers, listen live on Saturdays at 9 a.m. at makethepointradio.com or visit our podcast channel on simplecast.