Does this sound familiar? You’re deep into your manuscript and your characters are doing lots of things. The plot is moving, you think you’re adding new and important scenes. But everyone who reads it says that it feels like nothing happens.

So you return to what craft books taught you to do: escalate everything. You raise the stakes. You add in more complications. You make things harder for everyone in the narrative.

But it doesn’t fix the problem of having a middle that sags.

That’s because having a midpoint without a hinge is like having a house without its foundation. The midpoint has to be the moment that divides your narrative in two because it changes what the story is about on a fundamental level. It gives everything on the other side a reason to exist.

Once you know how to find your midpoint, plan for it, and write toward it, the middle stops being an insurmountable problem. It becomes the fuel that keeps the entire story moving.

WHAT THIS COURSE IS

The Soggy Middle is for writers at all stages, working in all narrative forms. The course begins with the basics, exploring what a middle is, what it needs to do, and why it fails.

We then work to locate your midpoint and built the right supporting scenes around it. After that, we’ll write the actual midpoint scene. With that bit of the narrative strong, we then turn our attention the second half of the work.

Each week includes homework that will help you identify the gaps in your middle and understand how to revise so that the middle is the hinge for your story.

In Week 4, we’ll meet for a one-hour Zoom session to discuss the material, workshop questions, and learn from one another. The Zoom session is optional, but you’ll benefit greatly from attending.