If you’re working on the beginning of your novel, the following article will help:
How to Write the First Chapter of a Novel
In this article, we look at the topic of how to write the middle of a novel. Take a read of the six tips below.
1. Expand the world
The middle of the novel comes after the inciting incident has happened and the protagonist has decided to solve the problem as presented by the inciting incident. Since in the first arc (the introductory part in the beginning of the novel, which lasts until the inciting incident), you only have time to briefly introduce the world and the protagonist’s position in it, the middle part is where you can expand upon the world.
The protagonist, in the course of solving the main problem at hand, could visit different locations in the world – within one city or multiple cities. They might visit their place of work, they might go to their favorite bar (or a bar they had not been to before).
Use the knowledge the protagonist has of the world to briefly explain the places that the protagonist visits (if they are familiar with them), and if the protagonist is visiting places that are new to them, then make sure to describe both how these places are like, and what the protagonist thinks and feels about them.
If you are writing a genre like science fiction or fantasy, this is also the time to expand upon the world itself, not just in locations and landscape, but also in objects and artefacts that the protagonist will use during the course of the story. These can be interesting gadgets, spells (if the world has magic), or other magical artefacts that allow for fast travel or that have other purposes.
Take a read of the following articles:
How to Write an Inciting Incident
How to Use Setting and World Building to Enrich Your Stories
2. Introduce new characters
In the middle part of the novel, you can introduce the major and minor side characters. Some of these will be strangers that the protagonist will meet, while others will be the protagonist’s family members and friends.
The key here is to try to introduce them in the beginning of the middle part of your novel. Imagine that you are dividing the middle part of the novel in four equally long pieces (word-wise and chapter-wise too). You can introduce new characters up until the third quarter.
Introducing a character in the final quarter of the middle part can only be done if the protagonist is already familiar with that person, or, if that person is someone whom the protagonist knows of or hears about earlier in the novel. For example, perhaps the protagonist has a family member who is not present because they are abroad, or for another reason. If this person appears near the end of the middle part, it is expected by the readers at that point because that person has been mentioned so many times.
The same applies to characters that the protagonist hears about (but they have not met them yet). As such, when they finally meet, it does not seem like this new character has popped up out of nowhere.
Randomly introducing new characters in the final quarter, however, feels precisely like that – especially if that new character has a solution for a problem the protagonist has been facing. It feels like that character was introduced just to solve the problem, which indicates a lack of cohesion for the overall story – it makes the story less credible and less believable for the readers.
You might find the following article useful:
How Not to Write Minor Characters
3. Add complications
The middle part begins after the protagonist has decided to solve a certain problem. As such, they will take a step towards solving that problem. This step is the easiest one to do, because that is what human nature is like – when presented with a problem, we follow the easiest road ahead we can think of.
For example, let’s say that in a science fiction novel, a doomsday device has been stolen from a very securely guarded vault that also has video surveillance. The protagonist is tasked with finding the thief (or thieves). Their first step would be to check the security videos.
And this is where you add complications, like the footage of the theft on the security videos is deleted, or if present, maybe it points to the thief. The goal is to give clues towards the solution of the problem without solving it (who the thief was and where they took the device).
4. Create an adventure
As the protagonist keeps trying to solve the problem, create an adventure where nothing is easy to do. If the protagonist needs to be quiet to sneak into a house, have a dog bark to make them move quickly to avoid being seen. Or, if the protagonist needs to take a taxi to reach a certain place quickly, have the taxi driver drive really fast and almost crash into other cars, or drive really slow while trying to engage the protagonist to chat.
If you are writing a fantasy novel, for example, have the protagonist set off on a short (or long) journey to reach a certain place, where they have to face different difficulties due to the way the world is. For example, they might have to face a dark forest with monsters, or cross a rapid river with only a small boat.
These types of events add a sense of adventure to the story and keep the readers engaged. Additionally, the goal here is to make it as difficult as possible for the protagonist, and as less enjoyable as possible, because this will make it more entertaining for the readers.
If the protagonist goes on a journey and nothing really happens to build a tension, the less adventurous it is for the readers. Or, to use a sentence that no writer likes to hear – it makes the middle part of the story boring, and this is where the phrase “sagging middle” comes from. The action should not really pick up only at the end of the novel (climax point and resolution), but it should be present from the beginning of the middle part to keep the readers engaged.
Are you writing an adventure fiction novel? Our guide below will help you:
How to Write Adventure Fiction
5. Focus on inner conflict
In the beginning of the novel, you do not have a lot of time to establish and develop the protagonist. You have time to introduce the protagonist briefly before they set off to solve the problem. In the middle part, as previously said, you need to make things as difficult for the protagonist as possible.
This is done by putting the protagonist in situations that cause them an inner conflict in regards to their principles and ideals. For example, a protagonist who has never committed a crime, now has to break into a house to look for a clue to solving the problem.
Or, a protagonist who constantly uses humor (as a defense mechanism) is faced with a character who is very serious and has no sense of humor. The protagonist needs this person to work with them, and in order to achieve that, they have to find a different approach that is less humorous; a more serious and sincere approach, which make the protagonist uncomfortable.
Each major step that the protagonist has to take to get closer to solving the problem (or achieving the goal they set out to), should cause some kind of conflict between what they believe in. And this way, you make the protagonist reevaluate their own beliefs and ideals, which ultimately helps to not just establish the protagonist (as they currently are), but to also develop them and their character’s arc.
Take a read of the following article:
How to Write Meaningful Conflict in Your Stories
6. Build up to the climax
As previously mentioned, the action needs to begin at the beginning of the middle part of the novel. When you have conflict and tension with each step the protagonist takes, you need to ensure a certain gradual increase of the tension.
For example, let’s go back to the division of the middle part in four equally long pieces. The conflicts in the first quarter will be easier to resolve, will challenge the protagonist less, and then in the second, the difficulty of the conflicts should increase by a certain degree, and then the same applies to the third one, and in the fourth one, the obstacles and complications should seem almost impossible to resolve.
This way, you will be building up to the climax of the novel, the culmination point of the action. The protagonist has resolved a major issue, but now is facing a bigger problem with far worse consequences.
For example, the protagonist has finally discovered who stole the doomsday device in the science fiction example above, but they are nowhere close to finding the device and the thief has threatened to detonate it within 24 hours.
Building the action and the tension in such a way allows you to get to the climax point in a way that feels natural, and then you can proceed with the next part of the novel that follows, the peripetia (twist) part, where the protagonist now takes action in a different manner than before, which leads to the resolution of the novel.