In a post on the Killzone blog, James Scott Bell suggests a trick you can use to make sure your novel makes it past the muddy middle. “As we all know, that long Act Two can frequently become a slog,” Bell writes. “There are many possible reasons why this happens.”
Once you set up your protagonist and the general gist of your story, writers often get stuck. How can you get your hero from Point A to Point Z while raising the action and avoiding coincidences and clichés? When you get to this place, Bell suggests entering the mind of your antagonist.
“You probably haven’t been paying much attention to him or her,” he says. “Now you get in the antagonist’s head and you’re looking back at the story to date from that point of view.” By this point in your story, your antagonist has probably become aware of your hero and their goal. This is your chance to have your antagonist throw a monkey wrench into your hero’s plans. Now you’ve raised the stakes and created new goals and challenges for your protagonist.
“The shadow story is what goes on ‘off screen’ (or ‘off page’ if you will),” Bell explains. “Just pause every now and then and ask what the main characters not in your current scene are doing and planning. What are their motives? Secrets? Desires? Your shadow story will give you more than enough plot material to get you through that long middle portion of your novel.”
