5 Common Problems With Middles

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The irony of working on Labor Day urged me to dig into the archives today, so before you head out to BBQ and visit friends and family, enjoy this look at common problems with a novel's middle.  
The only thing tougher than a middle is an ending. Except for the maybe beginning.

For a long, long time in my early writing days, middles were the bane of my existence. I could start a story no problem, but once I got past the beginning, I narratively drove into the deep weeds. I don’t think there was a problem I didn’t run smack into when it came to middles--which is why I spent so much time figuring out how to make them work.


What makes middles so tough is that middles are where most of the plot happens. The protagonist tries and fails to resolve the story problem, the antagonist makes things harder and harder, the character arc unfolds, and all this stuff has to support whatever the beginning set up.
Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com