Beware the Sagging Middle.
Posted by Rowena Cory Daniells on May 15, 2010
This one was for Cat, who asked for a post on narrative drive.
‘Beware the sagging middle’ refers to the middle of your book.
Or more precisely:
Narrative Drive
There’s quite a lot on Narrative Drive out there on the web on writers blogs. Here’s a post about The Hero’s Journey. This offers building blocks, ‘beats’ to hit to construct a plot. And here’s one from SFF net on how to tighten up that sagging middle. They talk about structuring the middle of the book. And here’s another one on how to rescue your sagging middle. They say a well balanced story will have four main through lines and offer help on writing an outline.
And there’s Richard’s Writing Tips. He has a whole section on Story, specifically on Middles, with lots of useful tips on reversal, subplots, overlapping waves and rising tide.
For me writing is less about planning and much more organic. For me, the thing that gives a book narrative drive is the Worry Factor. The ROR writers will recognise this term from our critiquing sessions.
I’ll say things like: ‘The pacing is off here. You need to raise the worry factor.’
What is the worry factor?
It’s the thing that keeps me turning the pages long after I should be in bed fast asleep. And I keep turning those pages because I’m worried about the characters.
So first of all, you have to capture me with a character that I fall in love with. I don’t mean love as in ‘desirable’. The character can be irascible, as long as hey have redeeming features. In fact I prefer characters who are less than perfect, quirky is good, tortured is better.
Once you’ve got me hooked on the character, you’ve got to make me Worry about them.
Give them a problem, more than one, preferable big problems.
Give them secrets they don’t want anyone to find out.
Give them a deadline.
Give them hidden threats they don’t know about.
Give them blind spots, so that they can’t see the looming disasters that your reader can see.
Give them friends they trust who will betray them.
Give them the best of intentions, that will lead to disaster.
Give them powerful reasons to do terrible things.
But most importantly, make them SUFFER.
This is the Worry Factor. If I have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens to the character, because I care about them, you’ve captured me.
Why is there a picture of bare foot prints in the sand?
Because there’s no worry factor unless we care about the person who is walking along the beach and we know there is a big wave is coming to sweep them out to sea.
Can you think of a book that you’ve read recently, that you couldn’t put down?
Lisa Hayward said
Changes by Jim Butcher. Jim’s expert at the Worry Factor. He pretty much hits every one of those points, especially the ‘make them suffer’ one. But enough about him. Let’s talk about me.
I write organically as well and there is a danger in letting the middle sag simply because most of the time, I’m working with a few plot points spaced very widely. I generally have a couple of Big Things at the start, one Big Thing in the middle and a couple more at the end and that’s my entire ‘plan’. The rest just gets made up as I go and it’s very easy to lose sight of tension. But at the same time, it can be fun dropping your characters into something they didn’t expect. Watching them scramble to get out is always good and the repercussions of something going Wrong are better.
Cheers, Lisa.
Rowena Cory Daniells said
‘Watching them scramble to get out is always good and the repercussions of something going Wrong are better.’ LOL, Lisa. You are cruel to your characters!
Chris said
Things that sometimes turn me off a story half way through:
1)Plot becomes too entangled
2)Characters haven’t inspired empathy
3)One of the characters does something out of context. Even if it’s explained later on, it’s often too late for me as I’ve lost confidence in the author.
I don’t much care if the action slows down or quickens too rapidly, so long as none of the above rear their ugly heads.
As a writer I enjoy dropping little hand grenades strategically throughout the story and ending with a bang, rather than saving it all up for a climactic nuclear inferno.
Having said that, I only give up the pieces of my puzzle when the story absolutely demands it, even when my characters would sometimes have me do otherwise.
Rowena Cory Daniells said
Chris, what turns me off a movie or a book is when the characters do something stupid.
‘What? You’re going out of a safe house to investigate a sound late at night when you know there’s an axe wielding psychopath on the loose?’
jason nahrung said
Some excellent links in this post, Rowena. Cheers!
Rowena Cory Daniells said
Thanks, Jason.
How is Melbourne? Cold enough for you?
trentjamieson said
Great points, Rowena! I suppose you could say that if your characters don’t suffer your novel does
Rowena Cory Daniells said
LOL, Trent. I can remember us sitting around at Varuna, with a fire crackling in the hearth, critiquing our books, while we sipped red wine and talked about the Worry Factor!
Jasper Flood said
If only more than 71 people would read this!
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