Who hasn’t heard the phrase in writing of the “sagging middle?” Have you met it, when your book just feels flat and you just know your reader will be bored (because you are and you’re writing the thing) and they will put your book down and maybe never pick it up again? What do you do to avoid it, or worse, get out of it once you confront it?
Years and years and YEARS ago, I went to a writers’ conference. In one of the sessions, they gave a whole list of ideas to help fill in that sagging middle when you just can’t figure out where to go next. Blessed with packrat tendencies, I saved that list. And even was able to find it!
So here it is: WHAT TO WRITE NEXT:
(There obviously are more ideas than presented here; this was just what came from that conference.)
- Write a love scene (it was a romance conference, of course, that would come first!)
- Write an argument or confrontation
- Describe a location
- Go shopping
- Go to a wedding
- Go out on a picnic
- Write a moment of fear
- Give or receive an unexpected gift
- Introduce children or animals
- Introduce a rival
- Stage a rebellion
- Have a betrayal
- Create a home
- Write a scene around a costume, anything from something you’ve always wanted to a ballgown or wedding (see above)
- Work in a scene or memory about a famous place
- Bring in an object or prop, from a family Bible to burnt biscuits
- Put your character in the hands of their enemies . . .
- . . . have them in the bosom of their family (maybe one and the same?)
- Require them to hide
- Order Chinese food, or Mexican, or Italian, or Thai, or . . .
- Recall their first kiss (romance conference, remember)
- Take them out for an evening, to a restaurant or a brothel, a square dance or a political meeting
- Put them to work, physical or mental, creative or menial, dangerous or boring
- Introduce someone famous
- Make them sick
- File a lawsuit against somebody
- Bring them to a royal court
- Work in an event, from a holiday to a rite of passage
- Kill somebody off
- Have a baby
With each of these, you also have to describe your character’s reaction. Do they meet the world head on, and would sickness and being stuck in bed drive them batty? Or are they very accepting, and will the same thing give them a chance to shine with their courage and acceptance, and maybe inspire the other characters in the novel?
I also ordered a game that is filled with idea possibilities perfect for writers, but that’s for another time.