The middle of a novel is where momentum often stalls. You start strong, full of energy, and then—somewhere around chapter ten—you hit the wall. Scenes feel sluggish. Plot points blur. You keep rewriting the same paragraph, hoping something clicks.
This is normal. It’s fixable. And no, it doesn’t mean your story is falling apart. It just means it’s time to adjust.
Here’s how to get moving again.
1. Get Clear on What Your Protagonist Wants
When the story drags, it’s often because your character’s goal isn’t sharp enough. Ask yourself:
- What does my protagonist want right now?
- What’s getting in their way?
- How does that struggle force them to change?
If you can’t answer those clearly, pause and find those answers. A compelling middle needs tension—and tension needs clarity.
2. Drop a Bomb (Metaphorically)
Raise the stakes. Add pressure. Break something.
The middle is the place for setbacks, complications, and the unexpected. If everything’s going too smoothly, it’s time to stir the pot. Don’t be afraid to throw your characters into deeper conflict—emotionally, physically, relationally. Disrupt the plan. Undermine the goal.
A twist doesn’t have to be dramatic—it just needs to shift the balance. Introduce a new obstacle. Reveal a secret. Force a decision that can’t be undone. Even a small shift can ripple outward and transform the story’s momentum.
A compelling middle builds tension. It should force your protagonist to act, adapt, or question what they thought they knew—and ideally, change the way they approach what comes next.
3. Check Your Antagonist (or Antagonistic Force)
If your middle is sagging, take a look at who—or what—is pushing back. Is your antagonist (or whatever force is opposing your protagonist) strong enough? Present enough? Interesting enough?
Your story needs friction to move. If your protagonist doesn’t have a real challenge to face, it’s no wonder things are stalling.
Whether it’s a person, a system, a secret, or an internal fear—your antagonist should be showing up in the middle, tightening the screws and raising the stakes. Make sure the pressure is real. That’s what forces growth, tension, and forward motion.
4. Know Where You’re Going
If the middle feels murky, take a look at your ending. Do you know how it all wraps up?
Sometimes, getting stuck is a sign you don’t have a clear enough target. Knowing where your character ends up—emotionally, thematically, or literally—can help you reverse-engineer what needs to happen in the middle to get them there.
Even if you’re not a planner, sketching a rough version of your ending can help illuminate the path forward. The middle becomes less about “what happens next” and more about “how do we build toward that moment?”
5. Skip Around
Still stuck? Write out of order.
Jump to the scene you’ve been thinking about since you started—the one you can’t wait to get to. That energy can pull you forward. And here’s the bonus: writing that high-impact scene can often unlock things you didn’t even realize were missing elsewhere.
When you write the moment you’re excited about, you tap into the heart of your story—its emotion, its stakes, its momentum. That clarity can ripple backward. You might realize what needs to change in earlier scenes to better support that payoff. Or discover subtext, motivations, or connections that make the middle stronger.
Sometimes, writing out of order isn’t a detour—it’s a shortcut to insight.
Bottom Line: If you’re feeling stuck, it’s not a sign to stop. It’s a sign to refocus. Revisit your character’s goal. Raise the stakes. Strengthen the conflict. Find the thread that connects the now to where it’s all heading.
This isn’t the finish line. But it’s not a dead end, either. Keep going. The path forward is already in the story—you just have to uncover it.
