How to Stop Your Novel From Sagging.

Writer’s Blog

It’s easier than you think!

I always found it challenging to come up with the middle to any of my stories. I would know the beginning, and I would see the ending, but getting characters from A-B was tricky.

I knew everything about how my character needed to develop by the end of the book. I knew what they had to go through to complete the story. I just wasn’t very creative when it came to putting them into the correct situations and allowing them to do the actual growing.

This is a frequent issue of mine, I’m a notorious underwriter, meaning that I tend to finish a book too early, this often results in an unsatisfying finish and having to beef up edits to make my storyline work.

One way that I combat this unfortunate writing dilemma is by considering what I would like to happen to any given character in a story.

Who do I want them to have a conflict with, who do I want romance with? Where would I like them to visit? What catastrophes can occur throughout the book in whichever locations I’ve chosen?

These events can be written in retrospectively, after the completion of a first draft (although that is much trickier), they can also be thought of before the writing process begins.

As I said, I often already have a beginning and an end when it comes to plotting but some people start with characters or scenes and build their plot around those.

Whatever you start with I’m happy to report that this method can be used by any type of writer. It’s a great method to build up an idea or figure out what you may want to happen in your book.

I start with a giant cardboard rectangle that I keep in my room for outlining. I also use a collection of sticky notes. These are incredibly useful, and while you can use this method on other materials, I find that these items allow the most flexibility.

I use a system which creates a rough outline without any pressure. I take my stack of sticky-notes and consider what I might like to happen during the story. Each idea that pops into my head (good or bad) I write down on a…

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