In a new post, mystery writer Zara Altair says that crime writers have an advantage on working through the muddy middle of their novels.
The muddy middle is the vague part of many novels where the promising beginning starts to meander and can’t quite find its way to the big finale. The lack of connecting tissue kills the story’s momentum and most never recover, leading to a finish that has all the excitement of wet tissue. “The middle becomes muddy because the story doesn’t progress,” Altair says. “There’s one scene after another. The story becomes episodic—this happened and then that happened—without building stakes or heading toward a climax.”
However, mystery writers have genre on their side. By further dividing your middle section, you can better identify what needs to happen next and keep your momentum going.
“In the first half of the the middle, once your detective takes on the case, they need to gather information,” Altair writes. “This is the section where you introduce suspects, new characters for your reader to try to understand. Just like your detective, your reader wants to know more to try to identify the villain.”
By the midpoint, your detective has gathered his information and may think he knows the answer to the story riddle. Of course, since this is only the midpoint, your hero is wrong and the investigation is going nowhere. “Your detective may feel like giving up,” Altair says. “But then they have some new insight: a what if, a reinterpretation of what a suspect did or said, a new piece of evidence. And that new insight sets them on a new discovery path.”
In the second half of the middle, your detective begins looking at the crime from a new angle, and start on a path that filters through the vast amount of info that’s been gathered. That contraction narrows the field of suspects. This path is filled with obstacles. “A suspect may reverse what they said earlier,” Altair says. “The most likely suspect, so far, now has a steadfast alibi that means they can’t be the villain.” This is where your subplots start to boil and cause trouble as well. The stakes get bigger and your detective is threatened on multiple fronts, personal, professional, physical, emotional.
“The middle is where you deliver on the story promise you made in the beginning,” Altair writes. Now you’re ready for the final act.
