The Missing Middle

The middle of a piece of writing is by far the most difficult. It is where the lack of a structured plan (like the kind we develop with The Book Architecture Method) shows itself most clearly. Writers get to page 70 or 120 or 180 and then our efforts start to stall, often because of one of two common challenges that present themselves:

We haven’t figured out how our storylines will interact, and

We haven’t effectively charted new complications for their characters. 

When the questions are answered, the play is over

Talking about writing for the theater, Louis Catron once said, “When the questions are answered, the play is over.” At the same time that we have to satisfy some expectations, we have to create others by opening up a new round of complications and concerns. It is this balance between the familiar and the fresh that allows us to navigate the middle.

Meeting in the middle

There were stories in the 19th century where energetic engineers would start building train tracks from both stations at once…and they would fail to meet in the middle. One set of tracks would then need to be ripped up, or complicated switching systems installed that delayed the trip and jostled the passengers. It is this way with writing as well—we may have a beginning, and we may be sure of the end—but then we just try to force those two to meet and call that the middle.

Can’t I just skip the middle?

Another strategy I have seen employed (and have tried to employ myself) is to simply eliminate the middle. If we know both the beginning and the end, can’t we just stick them together? In the classic five-part Shakespearean structure this would be the same as eliminating part four, the “falling action,” and proceeding straight from the climax to the conclusion. This may say something about our attention span these days, but it probably isn’t anything good. What about playing things out, letting things unfold?

Short stories that grow up to be books

What we need to realize is that the reader does not want her book to end! She only starts longing for the end when we have failed to balance our initial exposition with its necessary and probable ramifications, in other words: when there is no middle. Most readers will give you the first 60 pages, or even 100 – especially if they paid $21.95 for your book, or were wait-listed for it at their local library. But to get them to page 320 you have to have an effective middle. The middle is where short stories grow up to be books.