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Jump Over Obstacles In The Middle
Author: Arline Chandler
You have an idea for a story or book, and you developed a character. You wrote a beginning with a strong hook for the reader. Now what goes into the middle of the story? “Troubles. We got troubles right here in River City,” as the lead character in the musical Music Man sings. A character has to struggle to gain what you outlined in your opening. It your hero gets what he wants with little or no effort, the reader will not stay with the story. Put your hero or heroine immediately into the proverbial “hot water.”
Writer Lee Roddy says, “Introduce catalysts such as change, hazard, menace, or danger. Add complications and borrow troubles. Progress through these incidents point by point, letting your character win a little, but lose a lot, win a little, and then lose even more until you come to the darkest moment in the story. Save your worst incident for the last obstacle—a time when it appears that the main character has lost every chance of getting what he or she wants.”
Sandy Asher in her book Wild Words: How To Train Them To Tell Stories writes that there are basically three kinds of obstacles for your character to overcome: physical impediments, other people, and the character himself or herself.
Physical problems could be distance, weather, terrain, sickness, personal injury, the breakdown of a vehicle, or any number of catastrophes that beset your character. Hindrances from other people come in numerous forms: parents, teachers, friends, figures of authority, siblings. And sometimes a character himself is his worst enemy with personality traits such as jealousy, anger, timidity, insecurity, aggressiveness, or over confidence. Perhaps, he cannot overcome a poor self image—or his own idea that forces are always against him. Often we only need to look around to come up with these obstacles to place in a character’s pathway. In writing the middle of our story or book, we can draw from all three categories.
In Creating Unforgettable Stories for Children, Nancy Lamb discusses "Throughline," a term used by Hollywood screen writers. She explains that a Throughline is the central plot point, the impelling and motivating theme that leads the main character all the way from the beginning to the end. Some people describe the Throughline as the spine of the book or story. “This Throughline propels the hero from beginning to end, from one scene to the next,” Lamb says. “The character knows what he wants and knows that he wants it. This personal hunger, shared by the reader, drives the story and shapes the narrative.”
Lamb points to stories we all know and the Throughline that is evident in each: Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind strives to keep Tara against all odds; Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga struggles to be a Jedi knight and battle the evil Emperor against all temptations to join the Dark Side; Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz wants to go home to Kansas.
There are obstacles to the main character's goals (Yankees; Darth Vader; the Wicked Witch of the West), and there are helpers along the way (Rhett Butler; Yoda; the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion). Yet, in each story, there is no negotiating the Throughline. The main character is determined to achieve his or her desire. That urgent goal and the character’s attempts to accomplish the goal make a strong middle to your story.
After you have developed a character and have an idea of his or her problem, make a list of possible incidents or traits that could throw obstacles into the realization of the goal. Make the situations realistic and fitting to the characters age and culture. Choose which ones might allow him or her to gain something. Then determine what could happen next that would take away that gain, and make things worse. Remember to imagine the hardest and most difficult obstacle for the last one.
A simple formula offered by writer Dorothy Mock states that in a 1,000-word story have perhaps seven incidents with three favorable. “Every incident has to count,” she says. “Make the beginning twice as long as the ending, and make the middle equal to the beginning and ending combined.” Test this formula for yourself!
This column first appeared on DM in 2009, but we think you'll agree that it still has some good information!
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