Writing How do you get through the dreaded middle point?

[Deleted member 84247]

Thinking of stories is fun, and often, you can come up with cool endings or beginnings. But what do you do to get to the middle point?

I feel like a lot of stories become deserted wastelands because authors give up at this point. They don't actually want to write the middle of the story, and many people won't tell you this when you start writing. The middle of the story is like the mountain you have to overcome to get to the end. It can get bogged down with random ideas because you weren't sure how to get to the next main objective.

Maybe your characters entered some side quest they got stuck on for 10 chapters? This stuff is all fun and good, but eventually that mountain needs to be overcome. You need those 60k middle words to get to the big reveal! Yet, you got bored writing the middle, so you gave up.

I speak of this because it's happened to me several times. Currently, I am on a roll with hitting deadlines in writing, but all of my stories ongoing have reached the middle point. I can always go back and revise, but this middle point is a great big thorn. Sometimes, I just stumble to the end of the chapter, and reader feedback can be so-so.

Anyway, I ranted long enough. The main point is in the thread title.

 

[LightNovelNovice]

Thinking of stories is fun, and often, you can come up with cool endings or beginnings. But what do you do to get to the middle point?

I feel like a lot of stories become deserted wastelands because authors give up at this point. They don't actually want to write the middle of the story, and many people won't tell you this when you start writing. The middle of the story is like the mountain you have to overcome to get to the end. It can get bogged down with random ideas because you weren't sure how to get to the next main objective.

Maybe your characters entered some side quest they got stuck on for 10 chapters? This stuff is all fun and good, but eventually that mountain needs to be overcome. You need those 60k middle words to get to the big reveal! Yet, you got bored writing the middle, so you gave up.

I speak of this because it's happened to me several times. Currently, I am on a roll with hitting deadlines in writing, but all of my stories ongoing have reached the middle point. I can always go back and revise, but this middle point is a great big thorn. Sometimes, I just stumble to the end of the chapter, and reader feedback can be so-so.

Anyway, I ranted long enough. The main point is in the thread title.

honestly I think you have to think of multiple 'endings' and 'plotpoints' that can happen along the story. I've managed to keep my story going for longer than I have in the past by simply thinking of several things I find entertaining, and then putting them together like puzzle pieces.

For example, I wanted part of the story to have the protagonist adapt to changed/deny those changes. There's like 10 chapters of that before a soft 'ending' and then it moves into a new segment of the story, one involving the protagonist gaining control of those changes they couldn't control previously.

I think it's best if you can come up with several ways to push the story further. For me it was from change to control to romance to upheaval, and so on. There's no universal solution, though.

(also if a part of your story is boring to write, it's going to likely be boring to read! So if that happens you might want to rethink that portion of the story.)

 

[LightNovelNovice]

I don't really want a universal solution. I'm asking a question of authors how they do it. There's no universal solution to do with anything in writing.

did you read anything else I said..?
- Try rewriting part of your story if it is boring you, it shouldn't bore you to write or read.
- Try picturing and planning out multiple arcs or plot points before settling on the plot as a whole.
- Don't force yourself to write something if it doesn't feel right. That first tip comes in handy when the story doesn't feel satisfying to you as an author.

 

[Kalliel]

That's the neat part. I don't have a way to get through it.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

did you read anything else I said..?
- Try rewriting part of your story if it is boring you, it shouldn't bore you to write or read.
- Try picturing and planning out multiple arcs or plot points before settling on the plot as a whole.
- Don't force yourself to write something if it doesn't feel right. That first tip comes in handy when the story doesn't feel satisfying to you as an author.

I read everything you said. I only responded to one bit. Sorry, I probably construed this thread improperly. I am asking how other authors do it. I am seriously considering what you said, but because there isn't a one size fits all, I want to see how everyone does it. I am fine with how my stories are going right now for the most part, but there was an idle curiosity in me.

I'm not really sure how to say it. Other than I was letting out my thoughts, so I want to hear other thoughts.

 

[Rhaps]

Just power it through, being a DM makes you feel like every point of the story is the middle point. Like always, I am fueled by spite and pure hatred.

 

[RiaCorvidiva]

You need those 60k middle words to get to the big reveal!

I wish I could get to my big reveal in 60k words. I'm at 400,000 and I still have more things to add even before I get to the halfway point in the saga.

To answer the question, I'm able to do so because I want to find out what happens just the same as anyone else. And as I write, I come to understand the story and the characters that much better. But it is difficult. I often want to give up when I see that people aren't really reading / enjoying it, and every bad rating and unfollow makes me sick and wish I'd never posted it in the first place.

I persist writing because I want to find out what the cool ending is.

 

[Zinless]

I'm constantly worried that I might add ideas that will detriment future plot points whenever I'm writing the middle part. A series of those mistakes is what led me to make a reboot of my series lol, it was just a bit too fucked.

I need to learn how to write faster, but also be more careful and not just do it for the sake of finishing a deadline, which is sadly what I've been doing for the past week.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I read everything you said. I only responded to one bit. Sorry, I probably construed this thread improperly. I am asking how other authors do it. I am seriously considering what you said, but because there isn't a one size fits all, I want to see how everyone does it. I am fine with how my stories are going right now for the most part, but there was an idle curiosity in me.

I'm not really sure how to say it. Other than I was letting out my thoughts, so I want to hear other thoughts.

My method is:

1). I planned the whole thing. Yes, there are cases where the 'interest' is lost because you already know what happens, but that's also why I just plan the direction and not go deep into details.

On a related note...

"But Hans, I want to surprise myself on how my story will develop."

Yes, same methods work, too. Don't go too much into details; have a clear vision of what is your ending. You will discover fun and interesting ways to get to that end.

2). Boredom and disinterest will come. In that case, I will stop for a few weeks to gather more ideas, or rest my brain so that I will be refreshed when I come back writing. Most of the time, what I wrote earlier turns out to be the best thing, and I'll just have to follow it up.

In case that it doesn't, at least I have a clear and refreshed mind to think of next scenes that can help reaching and going past the middle parts of the work.

3). Aye, a little self-discipline, and knowing your strengths and weaknesses as an author goes a long way. Sometimes, even taking it to the extreme. Like I always say, I'm a lazy author, but I get around it by writing in bursts, which worked for me. And you know my story ever since we got to meet sometime in 2022; I self-isolate and force myself to write until the 'writing mood' kicks in.

That way, I finished my novel series with 20 books and a 1.2+ million total word count. ??

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Part of why I got into fantasy roleplaying games was so that the PLAYERS could write the middle and I only had to write the beginning, set up a few key scenes, and then one or more possible end points and use what they did to direct the story to the key scenes and the most logical endpoint based on their actions.

Now, if I get stuck, if I have a group handy I can come up with a scenario like the area where I am stuck, or, if not, I can put myself in the mindset of a player and figure out what they would do to advance (or derail ... or both) the plot.

I was very surprised to read in the introduction to the "X-Men/Teen Titans" comic book crossover, both Chris Claremont and John Byrne plotted (at least back then) the way I do - key scenes. Plan those in detail, and let the characters figure out how to move between them, with or without your guidance.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Use condom.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Use condom.

You can't keep getting away with this!

 

[theInmara]

We're plural, and we write our stories like a TTRPG compaign run off the cuff. We don’t actually know the end until somewhere in the middle.

This works really well for certain kinds of stories that are NOT murder mysteries. But we still seemto get stuck at least once per book.

When that happens, we stop writing and start tackling the story as a puzzle. We listen to different music, get out of the house, go to different places to get different stimuli, and ask ourselves pointed questions.

We might take a sketch pad with us and jot down questions and ideas on the paper.

The biggest question we ask ourselves is, "What do we want to say with this story?"

It doesn't have to be a good moral. It can be something as simple as "sometimes everything is just so messed up and gets worse."

Then we also look for things we already foreshadowed, even accidentally, by rereading what we wrote.

But once we've identified the themes we've successfully included and the themes we want to include, that usually unsticks us. And if not, then we take it step by step.

At the point we stopped, we'll ask, "what kind of exciting disruption here will be on theme?"

And we keep asking that and writing the next scene, over and over until it clicks.

There are two stories we've been stuck on for over a year now: a murder mystery, and a first contact with aliens turned intellectual space opera bent on social commentary we're probably not equipped to navigate.

We're now writing and finishing other books as a way of procrastinating on those two.

 

[Corty]

My method is writing the story in smaller arcs. Every volume is its own adventure, and doing it this way makes it easier to contain the story at a manageable size and pace. I can keep writing as long as I have ideas I want to use and include in an arc before reaching the end.

Plus it makes me to always focus on the current events, aligning them with previous plotlines and reviewing how they lead to my desired endings. Although this method only works if you are not a planner but an improviser type.

 

[melchi]

Thinking of stories is fun, and often, you can come up with cool endings or beginnings. But what do you do to get to the middle point?

I feel like a lot of stories become deserted wastelands because authors give up at this point. They don't actually want to write the middle of the story, and many people won't tell you this when you start writing. The middle of the story is like the mountain you have to overcome to get to the end. It can get bogged down with random ideas because you weren't sure how to get to the next main objective.

Maybe your characters entered some side quest they got stuck on for 10 chapters? This stuff is all fun and good, but eventually that mountain needs to be overcome. You need those 60k middle words to get to the big reveal! Yet, you got bored writing the middle, so you gave up.

I speak of this because it's happened to me several times. Currently, I am on a roll with hitting deadlines in writing, but all of my stories ongoing have reached the middle point. I can always go back and revise, but this middle point is a great big thorn. Sometimes, I just stumble to the end of the chapter, and reader feedback can be so-so.

Anyway, I ranted long enough. The main point is in the thread title.

Personally, I don't actually write like that. Instead of a beginning middle and end, I tend to think of a premise, a theme and a far off goal.

So like if the theme was vampire mama, then it would just be brainstorming different things that drive home the vampire mama theme.

Vampire mama getting kids to school chapter
Vampire mama playing in the park chapter
Vampire mama PTA meeting chapter
Vampire mama new school year shopping chapter

Repeat until ideas start running out and focus more on wrapping things up.

Not that I've ever finished a novel... so what do I know :P

 

[greyblob]

I have quit at the middle but for different reasons. I didn't plan much when I used to write. I had a main objective in mind: developing the characters in a certain manner. The challenges and plot points faced were crafted for the characters' development. I'm not sure how effective this approach is as I have yet to implement it to the very end.

 

[HungrySheep]

You simply suffer and endure...

 

[Deleted member 84247]

You simply suffer and endure...

What a sheep! Oh, wait...

 

[LilRora]

I actually never had that problem. My issue is that once I get to a crucial scene, I have imagined it in my head so many times that I lose a lot of motivation to write it and am afraid it won't be as good as I want it.

The middle, for me, is where I have the most freedom. Sometimes that causes indecision, but generally I just roll with it, keeping in mind what I want to happen to certain characters, and see where it takes me. It's fun in its own way.

If I do need to achieve something very specific in the middle to get me to the end, I just create a crucial scene somewhere in between and end up with two middles.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

Thinking of stories is fun, and often, you can come up with cool endings or beginnings. But what do you do to get to the middle point?

I feel like a lot of stories become deserted wastelands because authors give up at this point. They don't actually want to write the middle of the story, and many people won't tell you this when you start writing. The middle of the story is like the mountain you have to overcome to get to the end. It can get bogged down with random ideas because you weren't sure how to get to the next main objective.

Maybe your characters entered some side quest they got stuck on for 10 chapters? This stuff is all fun and good, but eventually that mountain needs to be overcome. You need those 60k middle words to get to the big reveal! Yet, you got bored writing the middle, so you gave up.

I speak of this because it's happened to me several times. Currently, I am on a roll with hitting deadlines in writing, but all of my stories ongoing have reached the middle point. I can always go back and revise, but this middle point is a great big thorn. Sometimes, I just stumble to the end of the chapter, and reader feedback can be so-so.

Anyway, I ranted long enough. The main point is in the thread title.

Maybe it's because I prefer to write shorter works, but this is exactly why I use a detailed outline. It's usually like 10-20 pages of "this happens, then this, then they go here, etc" which is not very pretty at all but I never get lost!

It is very infrequent that I find myself asking "What should happen next?" because I've given myself a literal road map