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Problem with a sagging middle
Hi, everybody. I'm new to the forum and slightly nervous about posting.
After reading this month's copy of Writing Magazine and really enjoying Margaret James' article Stuck In The Middle, I decided to take her advice. It says to stop a sagging middle, ask what your main character wants in life and give them a big shock with the complete opposite happening. My women's contemporary novel is about a woman trying and failing to get over her ex-boyfriend and his affair.
Obviously, by asking the main character what she wanted it, she responded by saying she wanted to get on with her life and find someone new and show her ex and his new woman that she was okay on her own. My original "shocker" was to make her pregnant and find out while she was trying to have a one-night stand with someone else; however, due to her consuming too much alcohol over the course of the last six weeks in order to help herself get over her ex, it will have had some effect on the baby.
With only a slight bit of research under my belt, it seems that the baby would have foetal alcohol syndrome, which will probably take my novel into a slightly different direction that I didn't really want to go in, as it was eventually going to end in a romance and I believe the pregnancy and FAS will change the tone of the novel. Also, part of me feels that a pregnancy is not a very original idea.
Has anybody got any ideas? She hasn't been dealing with his betrayal and has already been stopped and arrested by the police for loitering outside his house. She has also let down his tyres after seeing them on a night out and finding out the affair had been going on for months and all her friends knew about it.
I really could do with a sounding board, as my boyfriend seems to not really want to talk about my story or where it is going.
After reading this month's copy of Writing Magazine and really enjoying Margaret James' article Stuck In The Middle, I decided to take her advice. It says to stop a sagging middle, ask what your main character wants in life and give them a big shock with the complete opposite happening. My women's contemporary novel is about a woman trying and failing to get over her ex-boyfriend and his affair.
Obviously, by asking the main character what she wanted it, she responded by saying she wanted to get on with her life and find someone new and show her ex and his new woman that she was okay on her own. My original "shocker" was to make her pregnant and find out while she was trying to have a one-night stand with someone else; however, due to her consuming too much alcohol over the course of the last six weeks in order to help herself get over her ex, it will have had some effect on the baby.
With only a slight bit of research under my belt, it seems that the baby would have foetal alcohol syndrome, which will probably take my novel into a slightly different direction that I didn't really want to go in, as it was eventually going to end in a romance and I believe the pregnancy and FAS will change the tone of the novel. Also, part of me feels that a pregnancy is not a very original idea.
Has anybody got any ideas? She hasn't been dealing with his betrayal and has already been stopped and arrested by the police for loitering outside his house. She has also let down his tyres after seeing them on a night out and finding out the affair had been going on for months and all her friends knew about it.
I really could do with a sounding board, as my boyfriend seems to not really want to talk about my story or where it is going.
Comments
A lot will depend on your character. The pregnancy for example.
Once she realises she's pregnant would she want to continue with the pregnancy?
There's a risk of FAS, but it's not a done deal.
She's been behaving in a way that suggests she's not a stable personality, and does she want to have a baby that is going to be a permanent link to him for as long as she's alive?
They may never be reconciled in any way- that depends on the male in the story.
As an alternative to the pregnancy, consider an STD. It would play into the affair issue...
You said;
my boyfriend seems to not really want to talk about my story or where it is going.
I know the feeling
She's of the mind-set that he was her last chance of having a family, as he was the only man that really knew her - or she thought he did. As she is nearing 30 and constantly being told by her mother that all men are scum, she seems to be believing that. She is an unstable character, so I'm starting to think that a baby would stabilise her, as well as the hero that she will eventually fall in love with. She needs to grow as a character, so maybe the pregnancy is a way forward, as long as there is no FAS in there. She would cherish the baby and the chance of being a mother.
I did also consider a miscarriage and how she thinks she has lost the baby, but then she becomes pregnant by the hero of the story later on in the novel.
I'm wanting her to move on from the ex and his new woman because I seem to be replaying over the same ideas and thoughts from her plus there is no reconciliation on the cards.
It would be fun to see how she takes to being told she is pregnant and how it will change her.
What do you think?
You need to sit her down and get her to talk about it all, and you'll probably find she'll give you the answer.
Try making decisions for her, and if she doesn't like it she'll tell you- when they've got inside your bit of creative mind they won't do what they don't want to...
If what you've written so far doesn't feel right, then it isn't and you can't force it into your mould.
One way to decide for or against the pregnancy could be to research all the possible consequences in more depth. Research can clear the mind - possibly give you that one detail that will kick the idea into life again or into touch!
And good luck - I know all about sagging middles, figurative and literal!
"my boyfriend seems to not really want to talk about my story or where it is going."
Probably best not to try. If he wanted an in depth discussion about his plumbing job, or Chelsea's chances in the cup or whatever else fascinates him but doesn't interest you, how helpful and supportive do you think you'd be?
Could she just suspect pregnancy? Being really stressed could give her cause to do that. She could then, temporarily, go through all the same emotions as if she were pregnant, but that part would be shortlived so not need to completely change the tone of your book.
Thanks everyone for the help and welcomes.
I will take on board all the suggestions with more research and the idea of a false alarm and see where it takes me. I do worry that because I have been writing it for so long, I have lost where it was going.
I also know I shouldn't really complain about my boyfriend, as he's really into oriental tea... and well to me all tea tastes the same.
Write the wrong thing...bear with me.
Write a scene where she's doing something completely out of character...and I mean COMPLETELY out of character. Have her kill somebody, or get locked up in an insane asylum, or develop a penchant for hiding in trees. The more you write your character into nonsense situations the more you'll learn about her. It's a good way to separate her personality from your own, leading to a distinct and interesting MC that makes decisions of her own.
She'll be telling you what she should do before too long
If you think one of our suggestions might work, try that. Or try b-r's suggestion of a scene you don't think will help at all and see what happens there.
Or, if you feel you're so close to it you can no longer judge what might work, maybe work on a short story for a while, or a poem or an article and come back to the book when you can look at it slightly more objectively.
Thanks everyone for responding and making me feel welcome.
YES! That sounds a LOT more fun than finding out one is pregnant. And chucking in a miscarriage - oh dreary me. What is this novel based on, Eastenders?
IMO, a baby is unlikely to stabilise an unstable person, just add more problems to their tale of woe.
Oh and if may just add, 30 years is still quite young to have a baby, except by those obsessed with a need to give birth.