Novel Middles

In this class, students have the opportunity to learn how to avoid a sagging novel middle. This is accomplished through creating enough complications that rise logically from the circumstances set up in the beginning chapters and lead inevitably to the climax and resolution.

Topics covered are
careful plotting and outlining,
complications that relate organically to the characters and plot,
and building scenes that in turn build the chapters and novel.
Other "middle issues" of backstory, foreshadowing, symbols, and narrative voice will also be discussed.

Students will have an the opportunity to complete the middle portion of their novels.

Week 1: Where to go from here? Revisiting your story outline and beginning. Planning the middle.

Reading: Revisit "Great Gatsby" outline. Identify the major complications of the beginning and middle. How do the complications relate to character and situation? How do they lead to the climax?

Read also chapter 4 of "Great Gatsby." Identify narrative voice, symbols, minor characters, backstory, call to action.

Writing: Identify elements of your novel middle. Write next pages and/or a novel outline. (Note the amount of writing is approximate. Writing is self-paced.)

Week 2: Linking the complications to the climax. Building the scenes and transitions.

Reading: Read chapter 5 in "The Great Gatsby." Study how the scenes rise in tension and build on each other logically to a minor climax that foreshadows the major climax. Note symbols.

Writing: Write your next pages, again focusing on typical novel middle concerns.

Week 3: Heightening the tension. Tension should build steadily to the climax. Building backstory, so the plot moves back in time even as it pushes forward.

Reading: Chapter 6 of Gatsby. Note how the complications grow increasingly more serious, building in backstory at the same time. Note also the element of unreliable narrator.

Writing: Write your next pages, considering heightening tension and backstory.

Week 4: Crisis. All the complications lead inevitably to the climax.

Reading: Study chapter 7 of "The Great Gatsby." Identify the climax and what leads to it. Note also the use of setting and how this affects the plot complications.

Writing: The next pages of your novel. Build the complications and consider use of setting.



Instructor: Stacia Ann

About The Instructor: Stacia Ann is an Linguistics Lecturer and Writing Instructor at the University of California. She has a doctorate of Education, Master's of Art in English/TESOL. This instructor has taught writing classes for over ten years. She also teaches academic writing and English as a Second Language at the University of the Pacific. A published author including works of short fiction and academic nonfiction including contest winning stories.