As we self-edit, we must watch out for the sagging middle! “A middle”, said Aristotle, “is that which
follows something, as some other thing follows it.” Fine! We know how to write the middle section
of our stories—by manipulating search and struggle, sequel and scene. The middle links these things together. Our focal characters (heroine and hero for a
romance) find their suitable goals. In
the middle our characters struggles to attain it. Further difficulties assail them.
The beginning starts a fight between tension and
danger. The end resolves the conflict,
and the middle lies in between. It’s the
body of our story, the portion detailing the ebb and flow of the battle. Starting with the story question, it carries
our focal character forward to the moment of decision. This marks the beginning of our story’s end.
At the moment I’m self-editing the middle of my new adult
book, INTERVENUS: A BRAND NEW
ADDRESS. Hero Marchand LaFont, groomed
all his life for the space race to Venus, can’t let emotion get in the way of
his mission. At times spent alone with feisty
Yardley Van Dyke, he lets his guard down but then must close himself off. Yardley promised her dying mother she’d care
for the family by growing food in her ice age greenhouse, but family dynamics
have changed. Her dad’s fiancĂ© pushes
her out. Nothing stands still in the
middle. She wants to be his but learns
what he’s like under pressure. She sees
the sullenness in his glance, the wrong words are spoken, and then there’s
tenderness. Yardley, a gardener, feels
as if a new bud is about to open.
Yardley's hydrangea