The Mess in the Middle
By Brunonia Barry | April 14, 2011 |
One year into a two-year book deadline, I have reached page 165 in my manuscript. So far, my characters have obediently done everything I’ve asked of them, but today something changed. This morning, they couldn’t seem to take a step without tripping over their feet. So they decided to stand still. I couldn’t make them go forward, and I couldn’t make them go back. When I asked what the problem was, they told me they were confused.
I’d be panicked about this situation except that I’ve been here before. Twice. And even more if you count the screenplays I wrote when I lived in LA or the books I’ve written for ‘tweens. While I don’t like it, I have come to expect that there are times when characters just won’t move.
For me, this always happens in the same place, maybe not always on page 165 but some place close to it. It’s always in the middle of the book. “What was it you wanted me to do?” seems to be the question my characters ask, and when I tell them, they become skeptical. Since I trust characters over plot every time, I tend to listen when a character tells me “I wouldn’t do that kind of thing.” And the middle of the book is always where they seem to doubt their motivation.
There’s a name for this. It’s called the mess in the middle. It’s an expression I first heard when I was enrolled in one of Robert McKee’s screenwriting workshops. I was writing a comedy called Sluts, a sort of West Coast Sex in the City with an edge, when my characters refused the adventures I was trying to send them on and threatened to infect me with a case of writer’s block if I persisted in giving them directions. They were angry with me, and who could blame them? As a relatively new writer, I was lost and confused.
Confusion, in itself, doesn’t bother me. I honor it as part of the writing process, a byproduct of communing with the muse. It is a frequent ailment, but not a serious one. Unfortunately, the mess in the middle is a different illness. If left unchecked, it can be fatal. I’m willing to wager that this midpoint is where most writers abandon their projects. I know it has been true for me. I have several unfinished manuscripts sitting in drawers, including that screenplay. One day, knowing what I know now, I may open the drawer and dust off those stories. Meanwhile, I’ll tell you exactly what the mess in the middle is, and what you can do about it.
I’m sure you’ve heard that old story about the mountain. You are climbing a tree lined mountain trail in an effort to see the view from the top. You’ve been walking for quite a while. About halfway up, you realize that you don’t have any idea where you are. You can no longer see the bottom of the mountain, and you cannot yet see the top. You begin to panic. If it were up to you, you’d just quit, but you can’t. You’re halfway up the side of a mountain for God’s sake.
So what do you do? If you’ve prepared for the hike, you’ve been smart enough to bring a map. Though it’s an exercise in blind faith, you have no choice but to follow it.
In writing, my map is my step outline. Though I write free form for quite a while when I’m starting a project, I am not a pantser. I believe very strongly in outlines. Once I’ve captured the voice of the characters and know them well enough to ask that first what if question that propels them forward, it is time to create a step outline.
My outline is simple enough. It contains only the major steps of the story. Sometimes it’s a sentence or paragraph, sometimes a list of bullet points. I spend more time on it that any other aspect of my writing, because it’s the only tool that allows me to see the big picture. It particularly helps with pacing and with the progression of character changes. If I follow it, I seldom get into trouble.
The problem is, sometimes I don’t follow it. I am moving along so fast, and the story is going so well, that I just keep writing. This is exactly what I discovered this morning when I went back to look at my outline. A few days ago, I was writing so furiously that I skipped a step, and, as a result, my characters missed an important turn. If they had reached the impasse immediately, I might have spotted my omission. Unfortunately, the dead end hadn’t come until the following chapter, several turns later.
If I hadn’t taken the time to create my map, I might never have found my mistake. The manuscript might have ended up in that drawer with my screenplay. Luckily, with my step outline and just a bit of work, I was able to get my characters back on track. They are now happily moving forward.
How are your story maps constructed? Do you outline? Have you experienced the mess in the middle?
Image: Evgeni Dinev <click for portfolio> / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Brunonia Barry is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lace Reader, The Map of True Places, and The Fifth Petal, chosen #1 of Strand Magazine’s Top 25 Books of 2017. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages and has been an Amazon Best of the Month and a People Magazine Pick. Barry was the first American author to win the International Women’s Fiction Festival’s Baccante Award and was a past recipient of Ragdale Artists’ Colony’s Strnad Invitational Fellowship as well as the winner of New England Book Festival’s award for Best Fiction. Her reviews and articles on writing have appeared in The London Times, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. Brunonia served as chairperson of the Salem Athenaeum’s Writers’ Committee, as Executive Director of the Salem Literary Festival, and as a member of Grub Street’s Development Committee. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her husband, Gary Ward, and their dog, Angel.
Great article! I have flailed through that mess in the middle. I’ve discovered that in my first draft, I am a pantser, but I need the single step outline when combing through the second draft. That map is key, at least for me, when it comes to establishing a decent structure and making sure I hit the high notes with some balance to the story framework. That being said, I can’t get too granular with my outline or I lose interest in the story. It feels like there’s nothing left to discover and my mind starts committing adultery with other projects.
The single step outline is a great way to have a map, but still leave areas for exploration and massage. I think it’s a psychological ploy too, because it reassures me that there’s still room for creativity and to veer if I find the current path to the mountain top too predictable.
Thank you for sharing!
I love the idea of your mind committing adultery with other projects. I’ve definitely been there!
“Confusion, in itself, doesn’t bother me. I honor it as part of the writing process…”
What a healthy, mature attitude. I try not to be bothered by confusion, but I don’t think I’m quite as confident as you are. Yet.
I like the term “step outline” — because “outline” always makes people think you’ve got every last thing down and there’s no room for discovery. Which isn’t true at all. I like to map out the major events (inciting incidents, crisis, climax, etc.) and the turning points (which kind of come in between those major events). The rest I let come naturally. I also just spend a lot of time *thinking* about my characters and my story. I find that my writing is more productive after those kinds of sessions.
Kristan,
I spend a lot of time thinking about the characters as well. If you know them well, it’s much easier to figure out what they’ll do in a given situation.
What a timely and helpful blog post. I have always been a pantser, but I have been giving a lot of thought lately to outlines. Somehow, I find them more daunting than free writing, I think because I also trust the characters more than the plot. However, this certainly leaves me in those situations with unfinished work when the characters seem to know I don’t have an ultimate plan for them.
I definitely need to take the plunge into outlining, loose as it may be, and see what that does for my productivity, and my characters.
Sara,
I think keeping the outline loose is key. Otherwise you become overwhelmed. At least I do. I stick to the major beats.
Extremely useful post, Brunonia, and well timed for me as I find myself on page 210 with characters digging in their heels.
I hate it when they dig in their heels, Juliet. Let me know how this works for you.
A road map sounds very reassuring! I tend to write to ‘landmarks’ — major plot points that I know — and when I’ve reached one, write to the next. Putting those landmarks on paper sounds like a good idea, and less intimidating than a full outline. Thanks for this post!
I like the image of landmarks, Liz. That’s the way I navigate in real life.
Wow, you are so in my head. I’ve had the same thing happen to me on book 2. My characters just absolutely refused to do what I asked them to. I even thought about blowing something up just to see what would happen but they didn’t care. They said they’d just call the fire department.
So I did what you did. I step outlined, and boy howdy, did that work a miracle. We got through to the end without nary a fire.
On my 3rd book, I wrote the first 50 pages, and then did my outline, and lo and behold, not only did I follow it, I wrote faster, with revisions along the way, finished within 4 months, sent it out to beta’s, revised again, closed the plot points and voila, it’s now out to query.
I can’t do a full on outline because I know I won’t follow it. I need wiggle room, but a step outline is fantastic. I KNOW I have to have another emotional upheaval in Chap. 17, so it really works.
Thanks Brunonia.
Anne,
Your characters are nicer than mine. I don’t think my characters would even call the fire department. They’d just stand around hoping for complete destruction.
Fingers crossed on your latest book. Keep me posted.
Same here. I use a similar ‘steps map’ (and I’m still often confused). There were several times in my WIP that I detoured without realizing it. Then had to decide whether to ditch a lot of material or alter the steps. As much as I hated to admit it, the answer was invariably to ditch the material, and stick to the steps. Altering steps creates and even bigger ‘mess in the middle.’
Great post, Brunonia! Good luck keeping them moving forward.
Vaughn,
I’ve ditched a lot of material along the way as well. I hate to do it, it’s often some of my favorite writing, but it just doesn’t work.
I spend a good deal of time outlining, but it’s with the full awareness that how a schematic breaks down cleanly doesn’t always work with full characters. The outline for me is a series of road signs, and I often find my characters taking detours. The result is that I usually have to break from the prose and return to the outline to see how I’m diverging, how to stay on track, or if I need to re-conceive the journey.
Kurt,
Good point! I have altered my outline more than once as characters develop. It’s as easy to make a mistake in the outline as in the manuscript, so we always have to allow for that possibility. Thanks for pointing that out.
This is such a hopeful post, thank you. I need to try a step outline for book 3, because book 2 was a poor attempt at organization for this pantser-at-heart.
Thanks, Teri.
Thanks Brunonia — Great article!
My “mess in the middle” usually happens 2 to 3 times per story. I get an indication it’s coming on when a character suddenly hesitates in doing what I’ve outlined. For me, it takes a good scrubbing of the outline to figure out why the road has gotten rocky. Usually there’s something missing to motivate them, but sometimes there’s something too much, that scares them off their journey — that either requires buttressing the character’s backstory, or reworking the obstacle so that it doesn’t seem so daunting to the character (even though it may be just as dangerous for the character as before).
I tend to do a full scene by scene outline. When my characters go on strike, it means scrubbing all the scenes for the offending plot line. The plus to this is that I don’t have to immediately go back and rewrite each of the affected scenes — I note them on my scene card, and move on. When the second draft comes along, I scrub out the problem areas and smooth the transitions in later revisions But without that outline I’d be lost.
Brian. I love the image of “scrubbing the scene for the offending plotline.”
I had to return to outline several times in my first book. The ending wasn’t what I had outlined, not at all. I found the offending plotline several chapters earlier.
[…] their motivation. There’s a name for this. It’s called the mess in the middle.” — Brunonia Barry, putting a name to the thing we’ve all […]
Read this just as I was thinking about ditching the current work in progress. A story map may be just what I need. (If I don’t reappear on the other side of chapter six soon, send in the search and rescue team.)
Pamela,
I’ve had to call for that search and rescue team more than once. Fingers crossed. Let me know how it goes.
The middle of the novel is that portion many authors find the most difficult to plot and write. At times like this the fun of writing disappears, and the end of the project seems farther and farther away. Why is writing the middle of a novel often hard? Why do I slow my pace, waste time, become and discouraged? The reason the middle is often so hard to write for me is that my story doesn’t yet have enough story. That is, there aren’t enough obstacles. Almost all popular fiction is about a protagonist who wants something he or she can’t have, and the story is about the struggle to get it. She wants love, wealth, revenge, safety, redemption, freedom, or she wants to solve a mystery. Someone or something is placing obstacles in her path. The middle of the novel seems hard to plot and write because I haven’t yet invented enough obstacles. I haven’t come up with a sufficient number of things to block the hero from obtaining his goal. Maybe if we sit down and come up with a few more roadblocks, the middle of the novel will start to play out for us.
James,
You’re right about putting those roadblocks in her path. Sometimes I create an early (and easier) obstacle, but my character reacts as if it were the most difficult she’s ever faced and gives it her all. That doesn’t leave her anywhere to go later in the story. Or sometime the obstacles get easier instead of more difficult with the same results. I can see this much better in outline than on the page for some reason.
I was surprised when I turned in my debut novel and was asked for an outline. Isn’t that crazy? Marketing wanted it whether I thought I needed it or not. When I made one, I was able to see missing links that needed to be corrected.
Tina,
That surprises me too. I’m glad it had such positive results, though.
The longer I write the more I appreciate outlining, but I can’t bring myself to call it that. Outlining reminds me of speech class. I think about novel structure like a play. There are three acts and there is an inciting moment, rising action, turning point and climax for each. I can visualize these broad strokes and they guide me. As I write I also keep track of ideas that may be applicable for the upcoming acts, but I don’t force them in. I just allow them to tempt me when the going gets tough.
Jocosa,
I write with a three act structure as well. I do a step outline for each act as if it were a separate story to incorporate all of the elements you mentioned.
Wonderful post! I’m at this point right now.
What helps is for me to get out a fresh paper and write down all the things I need from the next part in no particular order (whether I have an outline or not). That way my brain is free to move things around as needed. Characters might jump up and point out what they’d like to do next. Or maybe I’ll just write a scene that will unlock something.
I love this idea! I’m going to try it. Thanks.
As a (dare I say it!) plotter, I always find it so interesting that other writers are daunted by the idea of writing to an outline. I’m daunted by the idea of NOT having one– pantsers are brave! Not to say that I don’t spin waaay off course, and adjust the outline itself a million times, but I always need:
1) A tentative list of the next six or so scenes
2) Some idea of where this is all going in the end. My characters are guided by that end goal.
I love Liz Michalski’s idea of landmarks. I also use them. Usually three or four major spots throughout the book. Sometimes I end up in with a “Parts 1-4” format, and sometimes it’s just for my own mental reference. This gives each “section” an arc of its own and helps me keep the momentum going.
Thanks, Brunonia! Great post, and it’s fascinating to see how everyone deals with the same problems!
Thanks, Stephanie. I think pantsers are brave, too. I need structure or I’ll wander off.
This was an excellent post. In addition to feeling somewhat lost in the midst of a story, I also sometimes run across the dreaded “Act II sag.” It’s not the excitement of the beginning, and we haven’t reached the brilliant conclusion, so what happens in the middle? I think a combination of freewriting and outlining helps me move past that creative bump in the road (or the mountain hike, as you put it).
Athena, I like the term “Act II sag,” because that’s exactly what it feels like.
I’m right there with you. I used step outlines and a three-act structure in my latest completed novel. Just finished a reread of the full first draft, and it’s MUCH more solid than any of my previous (less-outlined) WIPs. I still spent plenty of time flailing through the middle, probably because my main plotline got a bit buried and the obstacles/conflict didn’t escalate properly (nodding to James Thayer here). As others have said, step outlines appease the pantser in me while giving mostly the right amount of guidance.
The WIP I’m currently writing, however, is resisting all attempts at outlining more than a little ways ahead, and pantsing it isn’t working very well either. Not good, since I’m smack in the middle of it at 50-odd K words. Argh. Any suggestions?
great article. I find it best to stubbornly write on despite the arguments with my characters. I do have the outline to help me go ahead. My guess is that about this point you are committing to the end that you are aiming for and sometimes it’s not set up well enough to do that.
I tend to love the challenge it presents. And often I have to listen to the characters before I push through.
You’re right, Perry. Sometimes the ending is not set up well enough. In fact, sometimes the ending is wrong. I had that experience with my first novel and had to listen to the characters to figure it out.
I’m on my third draft. For the original draft I was a definite pantser. While not without it good points, it didn’t work. In large part because the story’s time scale was too long. In the second draft I used only the last part, where all the important events and tension occurred anyway, and referred to the earlier events with flashback instead. That worked much better, though I was still mostly pantsing my was through. For this (hopefully) last draft I used a ‘sort of’ outline. A calendar, actually. The time scale is a month now instead of years, and for plot reasons certain events had to occur at very specific times. That meant that everything else had to happen between those times. The calendar has helped tremendously.
I listed the days in a column and wrote notes next to each one what happens on that day. My purpose originally was only to keep track of the days, but it turned out to be so much more. At a glance I could see the flow of events much better, recognize opportunities for inserting new scenes or re-arranging existing ones, and, importantly, get a much better feel for the build-up of tension.
Boy, do I wish I would have used it from the start!
Jeffrey,
I think the calendar idea is a great one. I need a timeline for this book. I like the idea of the two columns. I’m going to try it. Thanks.
VERY helpful to me right now! Thank you.
[…] in quagmire of the messy middle. Of course, now I think it’d be a blessing just to get to the mess in the middle, since I’m stalled at the starting […]
My middle mess can get VERY messy… but I very rarely find myself stalled. Which is probably a bad thing in the end, for my word count. haha
I’m definitely smack-bang in the messy middle of my romance novel at the mo (the benefit being that I’ve attacked my YA WIP with all the gusto of procrastination!). I’m actually halfway through a massive rewrite, and my problem is kinda the opposite of what Perry was saying.
I feel like I’ve improved my novel so much – all the motivations, characters, themes etc – and now I’m terrified that I won’t be able to make all that hard work pay off.
I’ve been writing loads of notes about what the major payoffs need to be, and have discovered a lot of wonderful stuff about the characters. The next step is to pick the major points and then figure out what to have happen (plot) that shows these in the most ultimate possible way.
Easy!
“When I asked [my characters] what the problem was, they told me they were confused.”
LOL! I love reading posts that confirm for me I’m not actually crazy (or at the very least that there are other crazies out there).
Thanks for this post!
Love this article! I’m learning my characters stall and fiddle and generally force me to go shopping for new clothes (that I don’t need) when I get near a part of the story that’s going to be really emotional for them (and for me, for that matter). I’m there now, which is why I’m typing on this blog instead of on my manuscript. But alas, we will get through it. Thanks to writers like you who help writers like me know I’m not alone.
I think of middle as the swampy, boggy part of a novel. The idea that it can and should be that way–for a while–is very well taken. To return to the metaphor, swamps are fertile places. You just have to figure out what is worth going in for and what should be thrown back. Thanks for an enlightening post.
[…] As originally published on “Writer Unboxed“ […]
For all the writing you’ve done, the fact that The Mess in the Middle has happened only 3 times is amazing! Really interesting reading this article and knowing that you’re half way done. Bravo Brunonia! keep up the good work.
I use a mid-size erasable market board (cheap at Walmart) where poster board is sold). I flow chart my story when I find I’m getting stuck or off track. The main characters each have a color and I chart it so that I can see the scenes and changes on the board. Use arrows, symbols, colors, etc. to help organize. This method works well for visual writers. Also, you can erase over and over and redraw the flow of the story, characters, scenes, plot, etc.