How To Avoid A Weak Or Boring Middle Of Your Novel

Sometimes when you have a draft, or if you are plotting in some details, you realise that your novel opens and ends well, but the middle is, well, a bit boring. The middle of a story is often where writers struggle the most, falling between two key parts of the plot—the inciting incident and the resolution. Here are some reasons why this might happen.

1. Lack of Direction or Purpose
2. Repetitive or Predictable Conflict
3. Lack of Emotional or Thematic Development
4. Pacing Issues

So those are the problems. What are the solutions?

New Challenges

New challenges and obstacles will escalate the stakes and keep the plot moving forward. If your conflict has become static, introduce a new twist, complication, or revelation.

Introduce a new antagonist or challenge. This doesn’t necessarily mean a physical antagonist—it could be a new emotional, personal, or external challenge that complicates the protagonist’s journey. For example, in a romance novel, a new love interest or a betrayal could raise emotional stakes. If the protagonist thought they could resolve things quickly, let them realize that the problem is much bigger than they thought.

Introduce new subplots. These can be related to secondary characters or the primary conflict. Subplots can help sustain interest by providing more variety in the story and creating additional layers of intrigue.

Deepen Character & Emotion

Maybe you have plenty of plot, but we still are not caring enough about the story. Then the issue might be with your characters. You can sharpen or widen character motivations, back stories, and relationships. If you haven’t yet explored your characters’ inner worlds, now is the time to do so. Around the midpoint, you can have both a period of reflection and a subtle shift as the book enters its second half. Work out what will be best for you, on the basis of what you feel it currently lacks.

Characters can face dilemmas that challenge their personal values, desires, or goals. For example, a protagonist may have to choose between love and duty, or self-interest and the needs of those about whom they care.

Allow for personal growth and love. Develop relationships. Relationships (romantic, platonic, or familial) can take center stage in the middle of the story. Here you might have a Golden Time. I write about how to manage the Golden Time in How To Write A Novel Chapter By Chapter and cover it in these articles.

Raise The Pressure

Your characters and plot might be fine, or maybe you can’t change the bare bones of the story. Then redraft to raise the pressure. The middle section should be a subtle shift in the stakes. Make the situation more dire or more mysterious, through increasing stakes, or increasing atmosphere.

Create time pressure. A classic technique to increase tension is the introduction of a time constraint, often called the ticking clock.

Show that failure has consequences—whether it’s a relationship, their reputation, or someone’s life. If it is appropriate to your story, kill someone!

Think About Pace

Make sure that each scene has a clear purpose and pushes the plot forwards. Cut unnecessary scenes. Be brutal. Review your story and cut anything that feels extraneous. If scenes do not either advance the plot, develop character relationships, or deepen themes, consider losing them.

If something is repetitive or irrelevant, it should be removed. Make points only once. No second declaration of love. No second speech by the antagonist on how they plan to destroy the protagonist. Sometimes pace can be too much. Then balance action with reflection. If you have too much pace going on, allow moments of introspection, reflection, or quieter character interactions. These provide breathing room between high-octane sequences.

Retool chapters to introduce cliffhangers. Rather than having one climactic moment, consider building smaller, suspenseful peaks at chapter ends, although be careful to maintain a principal midpoint. This will keep things moving.

Plot Twists and Surprises

Introduce new information that changes the way the protagonist or the reader views the story. This could be a hidden motive, a character’s secret, or a new perspective on the conflict. You don’t necessarily have to create an entirely new narrative moment. Retool what you have, to make it feel like a surprise. Or you can use a twist from elsewhere here, if it works, or even add in an apparent reveal, which the later twist will reverse, a classic countertwist. Think of the moments you have, or the plot or character moments you need to achieve, and rework them into something surprising. It will propel the story forwards.

Betrayals are powerful tools in drama. An ally of the protagonist may turn out to be working against them. Someone can declare love for the protagonist. Let the protagonist gain the upper hand only to lose it again, or a previously minor character is revealed as being important.

Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent your whole narrative, you just need to think about the tricks available to storytellers (golden times, ticking clocks, cliffhangers, twists and counter-twists) and rework what you have. And you always have the Delete button when things are just plain boring 😉!

How To Write A Novel Chapter By Chapter available here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Novel-Chapter-Outlining-ebook/dp/B0DJ8TMVWL?ref_=ast_author_mpb

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