WHAT THE MIDDLE OF YOUR NOVEL MUST DO TO SUCCEED
- Cully Perlman
- Apr 29
- 9 min read
Us writers, we write novels we want to read. We want to create an experience for the reader they’ll enjoy, that they’ll mention to their friends, that will sit on their bookshelves where their eyes will naturally gravitate to when they walk by. At least that’s what I want to do (but I do write literary fiction, which I’ve learned from years of writing and reading that it’s the genre that sells the least and has the fewest “breakout” bestsellers on its roster). Fine. But what is true is that while we put a lot of emphasis on the first page and first few chapters so that readers want to keep reading after they pick up the book (because we’ve “hooked” them), it’s often the middle that suffers. I say this because I know we all want to end with a bang as well. We want to wrap up all the loose threads (denouement), by writing a great ending, and hopefully one that’s memorable. But what about the middle of the novel? Often, it feels like the beginning starts at a high (the inciting incident, the rising action, the climax) then slows down into the descending action, the resolution and denouement. But what about the middle? That’s when I find, for the most part, that I lose interest. And I’m speaking about all novels, not just the more contemporary ones.
As writers, we struggle daily when writing our first drafts, even when we’re having the most fun. The beginning of our novel is where the excitement of creating something out of nothing exists. We have to get something off our chests, or we have a great story we want to tell, or some character haunting us who we must follow to find out what happens in their lives. Then we write the middle, and the end, and, once we’re ready, we revise. Now, normally (and the hope), the ideal situation, is that the middle of the novel broadens the world we’ve created, the characters auditioning or already cast in our play, how they struggle to realize the goals they’ve set out to achieve, what the obstacles are before them that they must overcome (or not). We must move the plot along (remember, it’s about causality, not events just happening willy-nilly without any rhyme or reason, one after the next). And we must show how the character changes by the end of the novel, that the murder is solved, that our hero reaches the summit of that mountain she’s been wanting to climb since she was two. But as writers, it’s during that time that certain things plague what we’re trying to do. Here are some of the issues that affect us, and what the middle of your novel must do to succeed.
Before we get there, however, let’s refamiliarize ourselves with the structure of a novel using a couple fiction structures we’ve discussed in the past.
Freytag’s Pyramid (my preferred/go-to structure), shows the Rising Action, Climax, and Falling Action as being “the middle” of our novel. Sounds great, right? Once we’ve gotten the Inciting Incident established and clear (to ourselves and our readers), we jump right into the Rising Action. But what does that mean? What needs to happen at that time to keep the reader reading? Well, a few things. Here they are:
Some sort of life-changing event thrusts our hero into the world we were introduced to (or hinted at) during the opening chapters of our novel. Our hero must overcome these changes, fight against the forces preventing her from moving forward, and so on. Things need to happen, and they need to serve a purpose. Everything must serve to advance the plot, to advance our character(s), and, in the process, keep our readers hooked because there’s a story we’re telling that they can’t turn away from. This is when our hero/characters need to be active rather than passive. They need to “do” things rather than watch things happen. This is the shift in our story.
To do this, we must escalate the stakes that affect our characters, but especially our protagonist. The antagonist (the mountain they’re climbing starts to get more impossible to climb, our love interest’s other suitor is putting on the heat on him/her to get married, the murderer is threatening to kill more people in a shorter amount of time than they’d previously been doing unless our hero does x, y, z). And our hero, during this time, is taking more punches than she’s landing. Things look bleak for her, and we aren’t sure, exactly, how she’s going to get out of the situation(s) she’s found herself in. The consequences of her actions hit harder. It’s the “oh crap! What’s going to happen?” moments that we sprinkle in here and there during this section of our story to raise our readers’ blood pressure(s). What it’s not? It’s not the time to have her walking around, admiring her author’s ability to write beautiful prose (though a little of that doesn’t hurt), introduce red herrings that don’t pay off (red herrings need to come early, add suspense, be logical and convincing, and not seem contrived) or deliver inconsequential actions and events that have nothing to do with advancing the plot/building character. Anything that acts as “filler” for our little tome needs to go (yes, even experimental novels, though again, I stress, all writing rules may be broken if you know what you’re doing).
Seven-Point Story Structure
I won’t go too much into the Seven-Point Story Structure, but in 2013, at the Life, the Universe, & Everything conference, Dan Wells, a sci-fi author, introduced the seven-point story structure. Now, if you’ve read this far, you realize that a lot of the different structures share terminology, and the basic principles of what experienced writers already do when they’re writing. This is just another one of those structures. If you want to learn more about the main structures available to you as a writer, check out our blog post on the Save the Cat Beat Sheet post by clicking here.
The Hook: Pull the reader immediately in with an interesting beginning, world, etc.
Plot Turn 1: Something happens that thrusts our hero into the adventure.
Pinch 1: We learn what the conflict is (the inciting incident), and maybe our hero’s antagonist jumps into the fray.
Midpoint: Something major happens, and our hero goes from reaction to action.
Pinch 2: Something doesn’t work out for our hero. Everything appears lost.
Plot Turn 2: Our hero goes head-to-head with their antagonist (whether it be an enemy, a mountain, themselves, whatever).
Resolution: Everything is resolved, and everything goes back to normal, our hero having transformed in some manner.
At any rate, our characters must struggle, they must be resilient, they must want to give up (but don’t), they must face insurmountable problems only they can solve (or not). The middle is also a great time to drop in a subplot or two (again, only if it helps and is related to our main plot, otherwise it’s just filler). Subplots should manage pace. They should introduce complications to our hero’s journey. They should deepen our hero (or another character’s) development. They can (and should) reinforce theme(s). They can fill plot holes. And they can do a lot more. Just make sure they add value. If they don’t, get rid of them.
Now, all of the above may be obvious. They may be common sense for you, and something you strive for every time you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. Or voice to text. Or however you get the words written. But it’s the execution that’s important, for without that, knowledge is just knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Meaning you may know that you need to have all these things in order for the middle of your novel to be successful. To not sag. To not bore your reader(s) to death so much so that they toss your novel into the dollar bin at your local bookstore. So, you ask, how do you do this?
My advice? Well, it’s twofold. First, read widely. Pick a few books that, as I like to say, are “hard to kick holes through." There’s a reason some books are “unputdownable.” Sure, authors can hook you. A lot do. But books (and authors) that are successful keep you guessing. They provide insights and aphorisms that make you see the world in different ways. They continue building upon the hook they put into your lip and give you more hooks to make you stay. Which books do that for you? For me, books like Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a masterwork. I can read that book five times a year just for the themes Morrison touches upon, but also the subject matter and the plot. A tombstone with the name beloved marks a baby’s grave. A mysterious woman called Beloved arrives . . . and, well, I’ll not provide any spoilers. Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies, I mean, like Mystic River and many of his other books, how anyone can avoid reading the entire book(s) front to back is beyond me. Lehane plots his books so perfectly, this happens which leads to this happening which leads to this happening, he’s a genius at it. That he’s giving us the cultural landscapes from certain regions, as well as the diction and delivery, the historical lessons and brutal progress of a character’s path to change, man, it’s awesome to watch (or, rather, read).
The second piece of advice? Edit and revise. And revise again. And again. When I write, I tend to have some of my favorite books next to me on my side desk. And by next to me I mean right there, where I can just grab one of the books, read a passage, and get back to work. Good writers borrow, great writers steal, right? For me, I steal the emotion of other authors’ works. I focus on the specifics of how they’re able to pull off certain moments, certain scenes, certain emotions, and I try to mimic them in some sort of way. Now copy, mind you, but mimic, and in my own way. Duplicate, if you will, what they have done, but in my own words, in my own style, in my own language. And you can do that too, once you have your first draft. Give it a go. And I lied. It’s not twofold but threefold, at least for me. When I complete a first draft of a book, I’ll often outline the novel so that I know what stays and what goes. Sure, the beginning hooks you, the end’s goal is to wrap everything up in a satisfying way for the reader with the hope they never forget what happened. But in the middle of the book, in the rising action and the climax and the descending action, I outline what other novelists have done in terms of plot. I strip down what’s worked for them, and I try to make sure I do the same in my work. Outlining my novel helps me do that. It highlights for me what’s working, what’s not, and where I need to focus my attention. Think of your novel as a tree: you know the roots, as they’re the beginning, they’re where the tree started. You can see the top of the tree: you’re looking up to see how high it’s grown, what the leaves look like, and if there’s a bear or cougar up there ready to pounce on you (well, maybe not, but I’ve lived and worked in national parks and grew up by the Everglades, so that was always possible). But the outlining part of the tree is where you figure out how the plot points are or aren’t necessary to continue that promise you made to your readers when you started out. When the roots began and your readers started climbing that tree. You have to make sure you’re putting in the large branches for them to climb onto and to hold while they keep heading up to the top of the tree so they can see the eagle’s nest. So they can view the forest beyond. So they can experience the reward of what you’re trying to do, not just for the dessert at the end but for the entire meal.
So, get to it. Get that first draft of your novel done. Hook your readers with those awesome first few chapters so they’ll keep reading. Pull them along with your talons by giving them the nuggets of information, the surprises, the hurdles, the character developments, the intense scenes, the desire to give up only to get that fire burning under your characters’ butts again. And have no shame studying how your favorite authors did it in your favorite books. When you start to get bored 2/5ths or halfway through your novel, that’s where you focus your attention and where you start revising. And do that everywhere it happens. Again. And again.
Cully Perlman is author of a novel, THE LOSSES. He can be reached at Cully@novelmasterclass.com
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