If you’re writing a novel, an essay or a memoir, the rumors you’ve heard about reaching the midpoint are mostly true. The middling middle can create headaches of course, but there are tools you can use to get past it and sail on toward your climax.
Writing Tip for Today: Here are some resources to help you get the middle right:
Where are We?
The middle of any story shows the POV (Point of View) character as they have identified their goal. They’ve been spurred to action by the inciting incident and are working to overcome the obstacles you’ve placed in the way.
These three forces: Goal, Spur to Action and Obstacles, must engage the reader. Readers follow the character to see if he/she is able to accomplish the goal . Your character’s drive, actions and background all help to solidify these three important principles. You write scenes which illustrate what a character does, how that character reacts to challenges to that goal and how the tension grows stronger.
By the middle of a story, readers should understand what the character wants, what is standing in the way and what the character is willing to do to overcome the challenges and win the goal. If you don’t clearly identify goal, obstacles and stakes by the middle, readers are likely to be confused or stop reading.
The Middle Moment
Even though readers must understand by the middle what the character is chasing and why, there’s a special point in a story, where the character reveals what the story is really about. In essay writing, this is often called the Turn—writer turns to the readers and provides a takeaway or some universal truth that readers can apply or relate to in their own lives.
In a story, this midpoint isn’t a scene where everything changes. It’s more of a moment—maybe overt, possibly metaphorical, where the character reveals the true purpose of their quest. This moment is a place near the midpoint where a death occurs. According to James Scott Bell, who wrote a good little book on middles, this death is usually the death of some attitude, resentment haunting feeling or awakening.
The midpoint features death because it allows the character to move with renewed focus and energy. Maybe the character pursued a goal for selfish reasons. The death moment might be that she/he recognizes that the fight is actually larger or more meaningful. In plot-driven stories, your character might calculate the odds against him. This point sparks the beginning of a transformation. This transformation enables the character to fight harder at the climax and enjoy redemption at the end.
The midpoint features death because it allows the character to move with renewed focus and energy.
The Middle Way
Bell has constructed a Triangle to help writers remember the structure to a gripping story. The first leg is what happened BEFORE the story begins (aka Back Story). I’ve written extensively about Back Story and how to handle it. The writer must know the Back Story in detail, but readers only need to know these things through attitudes and inner thoughts, and sparingly at first.
The second leg of the triangle is the Middle Point. This is that death spot where the character weighs the odds of succeeding and/or looks in the mirror to assess what they’ve become or want to become. A moment—not a scene—lets readers know that they can relate in some way to the basic needs we all have: Love, acceptance, belonging, compassion and so on.
The last leg occurs at the end, when Transformation is completed. Your character has grown or changed in some way. The transformation in the story—as in life—has come at a cost to the character. That cost has been worth it to make the world a safer place or more loving, more compassionate—redemptive. Keep this triangle before you as you write, knowing that the middle is more than a bunch of scenes. The Middle keeps readers reading and propels your character forward.
