What To Do When Stuck In The Middle Of Your Novel

In other words, how do you get out of the midpoint drag?

The midpoint is a point, or space, in a continuum that is bracketed by what comes before and what comes after. In your book, it comes after your beginning and before your ending.

In the three-act writing structure, there is a first act (beginning), second and third act (midpoint and ending, respectively) each with a general structure, or at least held to some sort of expectation.

You’ve probably seen this simple explanation:

Act 1: Force your character up a tree.

Act 2: Throw rocks at them.

Act 3: Get them down.

We know we need the midpoint to be exciting, but God knows somehow the story just lags when we successfully get this character up the tree. We wonder why we should even throw those rocks, what types of rocks to throw, and how to throw them.

The feeling of completing a part of the story—of completing something—might make it harder for us to move into the next phase. If you are feeling stuck at this stage, know that you are not alone and I am here to give you a few tips that I hope would get you unstuck.

Let’s get right into it.

In the beginning was the word. The word you need to shape your story. This could be hiding in plain sight in your Act 1.

Most of us pantsers start writing a story and let it take us wherever. We ride the high for as long as we can until that dreary midpoint where we go ‘well, that concludes this chapter and the whole of my writing career’ because it seems like there’s nothing new to add. We don’t take the time to revisit our story and find those flimsy mentions like a crazy cousin or a strange noise one forgotten night. These things are threads we can pull at to push the story forward.

For example, you have a character named Temi who stays at Abuja with her sister and their dogs. Temi wants to get a job online as a software developer because that is her passion, while her sister wants her to use her degree and work at a bank. Maybe at the beginning of the story, Temi and her sister talk about their mentally unstable cousin who fled a psychiatric hospital back in Owerri, and who has since been tagged missing.

Maybe you were just trying to give a little backstory and make a point about mental illness and Temi’s understanding of it. However, if you get to that midpoint drag and revisit your story, you could find that mention about Temi’s cousin and pull at that thread. Say, Temi’s cousin casually appears in their living room one night when the girls are just gisting. This brings me to my next tip.

Shock us, shock yourself. Have something unexpected happen at your midpoint. When you think shock, don’t you think bolting or quickening? Bringing something, or someone, unexpected into the story will quicken both your mind and the story.

So, Temi’s cousin appears in the living room. This raises questions. How? How did he find them? How did he get in? Why is he just strolling into the room like his presence is perfectly normal? You can decide to answer this however you want and have fun while doing it. If I was about to put your book down because I felt a winddown towards the midpoint, the curiosity would not let me go.

After those original questions are answered, I would want to know what the girls would do about his presence. How would they react to it all? How would his presence affect their life as they know it? And maybe I’d be interested in learning more about this ‘crazy’ cousin who somehow appeared in my unemployed baby’s house.

When you write a story, how many stories are you telling? If your answer is ‘one’, you are wrong, and you are a prime candidate for the midpoint drag.

A story might come to you as a complete thought (Temi tries to find a remote job while staying with her sister who doesn’t believe remote work is real work) but would usually morph into something more compound—something made of smaller parts. Your story has your plot and your character, but for it to be interesting enough to keep people turning 150+ pages, it must have subplots.

There should be experiences Temi has within the story that make for stories of their own and get resolved in a shorter timeframe. Let’s say Temi’s sister pulls some strings for Temi to work a 9 – 5 and she messes up big time. They have a fight that lasts for days with Temi’s sister calling Temi useless. Because of this, Temi doesn’t cook dinner for two days straight, causing her sister to finally give in and call truce because she needs dinner ready every day and realises that Temi’s ‘joblessness’ might not be all that bad.

That is a story within your story—they give payoffs we don’t have to wait too long for. It would take us on a trip while we are still on the journey (the main story) and ensure the journey is not just a boring stretch.

Scatter your sub-plots throughout the story and you would keep readers interested enough to turn the next page.

Sometimes we focus too much on the main characters and forget that our supporting characters add spice to the story. There’s an acquaintance of mine who will not watch a movie having anything less than five major cast. Focusing on just your main character may feel this way, and could very easily begin to bore even you at some point.

Pick a supporting character and reintroduce them to the story. Make them do something strange that piques our interest, and hopefully yours, and your story could regain its lost momentum.

This is a tricky one, and something I am writing about only in theory because I haven’t gotten round to trying it. I’ll try it with the book I’m working on, though, and write about my experience.

Writing gurus recommend interviewing your protagonists to let them guide you on how to move forward. I know it sounds strange, but it is a way to get into your protagonist’s head and, in my opinion, a good way to get to know your protagonist on a deeper level.

When you’ve written this character down with their quirks and all, and you’ve made them talk, act and be for a while, when they get to the midpoint and your story starts stalling, trust that they are solid enough to be their own person.

Read the story again, and maybe your character bible—if you have one—then imagine you met them somewhere and they’ve given you the permission to interview them. Interview them like you would an actual person. When you ask questions, put yourself in their shoes and answer those questions—not as you would, but what feels natural and honest to their character.

Some writers even go a step further to suggest that you journal in your character’s voice. That is a new level of dedication to knowing a character and I would love to hear from someone who has done this, so if you have, come closer let us gist!

You know how God knows the end from the beginning? Most writers know the end of their story from the beginning. That’s why I like to call creatives gods.

You probably thought about how your story would end in the same instance you got the idea for the story. Sometimes it happens that way. Sometimes, though, this can feel like a crutch because you are trying to get to that sweet end, but you are still at the middle of the story and you can’t just jump to the end now, can you?

Can you?

Yes, you can. As a matter of fact, you probably should. Writing out the ending you envision for your story could reveal those things needed to get you there. When you write the ending, it could raise questions like ‘how did she get to this store?’, ‘why is her sister not with her today?’, ‘why does she need a flower and why does she need this particular type?’. When you begin to answer these questions, you will be able to fill the gap between your midpoint and your ending.

Sometimes, to move forward and gain clarity, all you need to do is build your bridge from the other side of the river.

If you are feeling stuck and thinking of tossing your novel in the bin, try one of these tips first and see if you manage to wriggle out of the mud. If nothing on this list works, there are still a few other tips out there for you to try. Just don’t give up on that story yet: the world needs it. I’m rooting for you!