The middle of a chocolate raspberry bar is really tasty, as is the middle of a turkey that has the stuffing in it.
You can probably tell I wrote this just before lunch.
The delicious part of most novels is also the middle section--the hero striving toward a goal, the strange and wonderful obstacles that pop up, the battles, the love developing with another character, the confrontation with the three horned monster.
It’s the section of your story where all the fun and wonderful stuff happens.
In my opinion, the middle is the key to a successful novel. That and changing your name to James Patterson.
Starting to write your book with the middle section makes the process of writing much easier.
There is an old quote about how we really learn what people are like when they are tested by fire. And that’s what the middle is about—testing your main character by fire.
Even if you didn’t know your characters or story before, you will after writing the middle.
Some people suggest that a novel is divided into three sections—beginning, middle and end. In a romantic novel, it might play this way. Beginning—Boy meets girl Middle—Boy loses girl. End—Boy gets girl back.
If we start with the middle, we would show how the boy copes and struggles with losing the girl. Maybe he tries to date other girls and it doesn’t have the magic of the one he met in the beginning section. Perhaps he tries to do things to forget her, but he keeps running into
this lady or finds gifts she gave him and it makes him tink about her. You get the idea.
After writing the middle, we now know what we have to include in the beginning section. We need to know who this boy is, how he meets this girl, why he likes her etc. There would probably be lots of scenes showing how well they get along, doing various activities together.
See how easy that was! So write the middle first while I enjoy this fabulous turkey stuffing
with the raspberry chocolate filling.
Have fun every day
Steve