Let’s Fix Your Novel’s Saggy Middle

Oh, I’ve been there. Languishing in those blasted middle chapters and wondering, but how do I get to that climactic end scene that’s so clear in my mind?

Out, damned mushy middle! – The Bard. Or something along those lines.

Our goal is to get through the center of your novel, and not with a heavy Phew! at the end. But with intention. In a way that keeps readers engaged in your story, and that makes the ending believable and feel earned. Not only will structure give parameters around which story elements go where, but most importantly, it helps you through that dastardly middle where everything tries to go sideways. Or worse, stalls.

We’ve even created a guided worksheet to help you plan your story using the 5 act play, or use this structure as a diagnostic tool for your completed manuscript.

Enter Stage Left: The Classic 5 Act Play

Because I tend to be a more plot-driven writer, I love the 5 act play structure. Using the 5 Act Play can keep you on course, especially when you’re a bit of a planner and a pantser all in one. I’m going to use A Gentleman in Moscow for my example because it’s set up in 5 books within the novel.

Notes before we begin:

• I’m well aware that this is a character driven novel. The structure still works.
• There will be spoilers. And honestly, if you haven’t read this book by now what’s the hold up?
• A Gentleman in Moscow exceeds 100k words.

Because you might be writing your debut, you already know how vital it is to stay between 80 and 100k words. While I’m outlining AGIM, I’m doing the math for a debut novel. The numbers aren’t set in stone, but are very helpful guidelines.

Act One

Set up the story, the primary characters, the setting and time, and the inciting incident (that will be resolved in the final act). This covers about 10% of the story or 10k words.

• Inciting incident: Count Rostov is given a life sentence of house arrest and imprisoned in the Metropol Hotel – all because of a subversive poem that’s been attributed to him.
• We meet a few of the staff and hotel guests who will be with him for the ride, most notably Nina. She’s 9, and she shows Rostov the inner workings of the hotel, and also gives him a master key to the place.
• We get our first glimpse of the hotel antagonist, The Bishop, who grates on Rostov because he’s a terrible waiter. Lolz. What a snob.
• The stakes are defined – life of death. If Rostov steps one foot outside the hotel, he’ll be shot.

Act Two

The protagonist begins their move toward the conclusion. Yes, already here. Most of the characters (At least 90%) must be introduced by the end of this act. The most significant complications to the narrative are also seeded here. This covers about 30% of the story, or 30k words.

• We meet Anna Urbanova, the willowy silver screen darling who Rostov tumbles into bed with. But she’s only in town off and on.
• The antagonist, The Bishop, becomes a greater threat. He’s promoted in the hotel, and begins to actively poke at Rostov, complicating his house arrest.
• Mishka, a radical old friend of Rostov’s visits and we learn he’s dating a woman named Katerina. Seems benign. It’s absolutely not.
• Nina, now 13, will be leaving the Metropol Hotel soon. Rostov gets progressively more depressed and decides to take his own life, but his plan is foiled. The reader is reminded of the stakes.

Act Three

Characters are on a path toward the point of no return. The complications of the story escalate, and additional pressures/stakes present themselves. Characters move into place, and situations arise that will help resolve the inciting incident. This is about 20% of the story, or 20k words.

• Rostov and Anna start seeing each other regularly.
• Rostov takes a position at the hotel restaurant and helps plan restaurant activities. There, he befriends Osip, who asks Rostov to show him the manners and ways of the noble class. Seems benign. Absolutely is not.
• Nina, now a woman, visits the hotel and asks Rostov to watch her small daughter, Sofia, for an afternoon. Nina is arrested and never returns. Rostov enlists the hotel staff to help him raise Sofia.
• When Sofia turns 13, she falls on the stairs and Rostov leaves the hotel to take her to the hospital. Osip helps him get back into the hotel, but the stakes are tested and Rostov is nearly caught.

Act Four

Revelations come forward, secrets get spilled, and something must change for your characters or they must make a very scary decision. The story builds steam, and pressure, for the crisis or inflection point. This is about 35% of the story, or 35k words.

• Sofia, now 17, has become a world class pianist thanks to her instructor, Viktor.
• Katerina tells Rostov that Mishka has died. Rostov confides in her that the poem that made him famous, and also landed him on house arrest, was written by Mishka. She gives him Mishka’s final writings – work even more subversive than the OG poem.
• The Bishop is on a mission to make Rostov’s life a living hell, and they now absolutely hate each other. If The Bishop learns that Rostov has Mishka’s ultra damning work in his possession, he’s done for. Rostov must escape.

Act Five

The Conclusion/Climax/Catastrophe. Characters either die or get married. The hero is going to prevail or not. Either way, the inciting incident must be resolved. It’s the last 5% of the story, or 5k words.

• Sofia has been invited to Paris to perform a piano recital. Rostov has a letter delivered to Richard, an American in Paris, who had asked him to be a spy decades ago but Rostov refused. Even so, they remained friends.
• Rostov oversees a dinner at the hotel, and notes the seating arrangement of the high ranking Soviet officials and their power dynamics. He also creates a map and gives it to Sofia before she leaves for Paris.
• Rostov locks The Bishop in a storage room in the basement the night of Sofia’s recital. Afterward, she uses the map to contact Richard in Paris and gives him the seating arrangement.
• Inciting incident resolved: Richard floods the hotel’s switchboard, creating a diversion so Rostov can leave the hotel. Viktor dresses identically to Rostov, and creates another diversion at the train station, allowing the Count to escape Moscow.
• When Rostov arrives to his family’s estate, their mansion has been burned down, but the willowy Anna Urbanova is waiting for him in a nearby tavern.

Instead of wandering the desert (the damned middle) for 40 days and nights, you can start seeding ideas, building pressure, and moving your characters into position for the finale. And thanks to Shakespeare, you now have a rough plan for how to do it.

How to Implement This Strategy

• You can outline your entire book using this structure and then chip away at your chapters, making sure that each act is doing what it’s meant to do.
  • You can set up loose parameters and pants your way through each act, create a chapter by chapter breakdown, or something in between. Do what works for you while also keeping in service to your book.
• If you’ve completed a draft, you can go back and section it off by approx word count and see if your sections are doing the work they need to do in each act. Then ask:
  • How can I move what I’ve already written around so it works harder for this story?
  • Which parts are lovely to read but aren’t really pulling their weight narratively?
    • Do they get the axe or can they be reworked to make this story sing?

A word of caution/a diagnostic tool: The percentage/page count is flexible. But if you go too far beyond it, your reader will start to ask: Where is this going? And so…? What’s the point of this? And eventually – Who cares?

Even A Gentleman in Moscow runs longer than these suggestions, and while I love the book, it’s a reason why it’s DNF’d. Readers often cite it as too slow – aka – where the F is this story going?

5 Act play too structured? Bri’s uses thematic story structuring and gives us the full breakdown next week.

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