Hi everyone–
I just saw Star Trek this weekend. If you’ve seen it, you know that it goes a mile a minute. The tension and action never let up. As romance writers and readers, we don’t want or need action quite that intense, but we still don’t like books that sag in the middle and get boring. I recently judged a writing contest for unpublished authors. One of the submittals had a synopsis that said “various misunderstandings ensue”. I laughed, This was a person confounded by the middle of her book and that was a sure invitation to sag!
There are lots of techniques for avoiding the saggy middle. One of the best is what i’m calling the “Star Trek” method in honor of the film.As you get to the notorious middle of the book, you ask yourself “what’s the worst thing that could happen here” and you do it! Watching Star Trek, you can almost hear the writer asking that question again and again. What’s the worst thing that could happen? (Spoiler Alert) Kirk’s friend and mentor dies. What’s the worst thing that could happen? Kirk and the Enterprise are set up? What’s the worst thing that could happen? Kirk dies! And on and on.
If you’re not fond of angst (like me), forcing yourself to both ask and do the worst thing is really hard. But it works! I just finished the third Aloysius Tale called Cataclysmic Shift. In it i had to force myself to put my hero in a spot where he has to choose between his two passions. He can’t have them both. I cried, but i did it. As readers, do you have scenes in books where the authors have made the worst thing happen, leaving you on pins and needles? What are your favorites?
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