Novel Writing Software – When The Muddle In The Middle Drives You Mad

Do you have a world of exciting ideas to get your novel off to a smashing start and take it to a climatic finale? But, connecting the start to the finish has you mystified? Or worse, do you have a drawer full of beginnings and fabulous ideas for endings, but trying to pull the plot together has you banging your head against the wall?

If so, you are not alone. The middle is where all of the subplots and story threads take your characters, as well as your readers, on the ride of their life. Or, it should. Creating intriguing story threads, and tying them together with surprises that will keep your reader’s eyes glued to the pages of your book, requires forethought. And yes, the dreaded outlining process. Most of us abhor outlining อ่านนิยาย. Yet, it has advantages that make it well worthwhile. Novel writing software offers the benefits of outlining without the boredom and complications that many writers dread.

The middle of your novel takes up half of its length. The beginning and end each comprise one quarter. Within the middle will be the primary action of the main character’s storyline along with all of the subplots. This is also where you will create twists, surprises, and complications that will hamper your lead’s efforts to achieve her story goal.

Keeping the readers off track is a game we play with them. It’s a game they love. Who wants to read a book that holds no surprises? Who wants to write one? The answer to both those questions is nobody. If that type of story were of any interest, we would all have one book on the shelf that we read over and over again.

The trouble for most of us is that creating a complex novel filled with twists, subplots, and surprises, requires us to weave all those story-lines together in a way that will make perfect sense in the end. Yet, we don’t want the readers to figure it out too soon.

As you plot your middle, you will increase the seriousness of your lead’s failures as she strives to achieve her story goal. The worse her failures are, the more disastrous her situation becomes, and the more urgently she strives to achieve her goal. The stakes rise and her options diminish.

As in real life, your lead will have more going on than the pursuit of one specific goal. Perhaps she has a difficult romantic involvement. She may find out that someone she knows and respects is involved in the crime she is trying to solve. This will bring up difficult emotions. At this point, the readers should also have come to know and trust this character. Several more surprises like this will keep your readers interested.

That character should also have his own story goal and purpose for his actions. Developing an intriguing novel will require you to create many subplots like this. They will, seemingly, go off in different directions during the middle of the novel. Yet, you must have it organized in such a way that there are no loose threads in the end.