{"id":7520,"date":"2013-01-18T03:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=7520"},"modified":"2020-08-28T18:43:43","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T01:43:43","slug":"character-development-conflict-and-your-novels-sagging-middle-by-beth-barany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/18\/character-development-conflict-and-your-novels-sagging-middle-by-beth-barany\/","title":{"rendered":"Character Development, Conflict, and Your Novel&#8217;s Sagging Middle by Beth Barany"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/WFZ_Character-Development-Conflict-and-Your-Novels-Sagging-Middle-by-Beth-Barany_2020_08-28.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-23379\" src=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/WFZ_Character-Development-Conflict-and-Your-Novels-Sagging-Middle-by-Beth-Barany_2020_08-28.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/WFZ_Character-Development-Conflict-and-Your-Novels-Sagging-Middle-by-Beth-Barany_2020_08-28.png 300w, https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/WFZ_Character-Development-Conflict-and-Your-Novels-Sagging-Middle-by-Beth-Barany_2020_08-28-80x80.png 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>When authors work with me, some of their challenges surround how to help the <strong>sagging middle<\/strong> of their novel. That sagging middle is often due to not knowing their characters well enough. All good conflict, in my opinion comes out of your character&#8217;s worst fears.<\/p>\n<p>You may have heard the saying, &#8220;Put your character into a tree and through stones at them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When I first heard that, I was terrified. What? I had to do bad things to my lovely precious characters?<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Yes! My critique group shouted at me, politely.<\/p>\n<p>Okay so I went about the hard work of figuring out how to create realistic and ever-escalating conflict for my dear\u00a0characters.<\/p>\n<p>Now I want to back up a step. You still need to\u00a0understand\u00a0all the other aspects of your character:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>What they want (Goal)<\/li>\n<li>Why they want it (Motivation) (See Deb Dixon&#8217;s book, <em><a title=\"Goal, Motivation, Conflict by Deb Dixon\" href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/9tSY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Goal, Motivation, Conflict<\/a><\/em>, for more on his topic.)<\/li>\n<li>Strengths (Deb&#8217;s book doesn&#8217;t cover this; it&#8217;s my innovation to her robust and useful book.)<\/li>\n<li>Hobbies (My husband always asks people this; it&#8217;s such a great opener.)<\/li>\n<li>Lifestyle (Social drinkers? Salsa dancers by day; Porche drivers by night? Could be!)<\/li>\n<li>The way they dress and why (Are they preppy, wearing\u00a0custom corporate apparel (like company shirts or polos),\u00a0because they want to get into the country club; or do they wear the latest grunge apparel because they&#8217;re part of the underground resistance and their clothes are all hand-me-downs?)<\/li>\n<li>What they carry in their pockets (See Tim O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s book,<em> <a title=\"The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien\" href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/FBYzy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Things They Carried<\/a><\/em>, for inspiration on this.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Okay. That&#8217;s a start.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s get to the heart of conflict for the character.<\/p>\n<p>To know what kind of stones I should throw at my characters, specifically my main characters, I like to brainstorm all these points, then my goal is to prioritize them. I&#8217;ll get to the prioritization in a moment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Childhood scarring trauma (This event defines the character&#8217;s limited sense of self that needs to get healed in some way so that the character can succeed by the end of the story.<\/li>\n<li>Phobias (This could or not come from the childhood scarring trauma.)<\/li>\n<li>Irrational\u00a0fears (Same as phobias.\u00a0(This could or not come from the childhood scarring trauma.)<\/li>\n<li>A list of the worst things that could happen to my character, at least 10 things with ever-escalating real or imagined danger. Push the envelope of your tolerance here. End with the real or feels-real death for your character, whichever is appropriate for your genre.<\/li>\n<li>Secrets from herself. What she can&#8217;t even admit to herself but maybe others know.<\/li>\n<li>A secret from herself and one that others don&#8217;t know.<\/li>\n<li>Secrets she must keep from others or else? (What is the &#8220;or else&#8221;?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve brainstormed this list, then prioritize the bad stuff from the least impact to your character to the biggest impact. As I was reminded from a <a title=\"\u201cHave a Body Hit the Floor\u201d Writing Wednesdays by Steven Pressfield\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stevenpressfield.com\/2013\/01\/have-a-body-hit-the-floor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steven Pressfield post<\/a>, make sure that your character faces a real or imagined death. That is really what we&#8217;re heading towards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve got your stones lined up, start lobbing at your character. Then voila, your sagging middle will disappear, and you&#8217;ll have a lean, robust middle of your\u00a0novel\u00a0that will keep your readers at the edge of their seats, turning those pages.<\/p>\n<p>And that, after all, is our goal.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<h2>ABOUT BETH BARANY<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Beth-Barany-image_2020_06-22.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-23155 size-full\" title=\"BETH BARANY, Coach, Novelist\" src=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Beth-Barany-image_2020_06-22.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Beth-Barany-image_2020_06-22.png 200w, https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Beth-Barany-image_2020_06-22-80x80.png 80w\" alt=\"BETH BARANY, Coach, Novelist\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a>An award-winning novelist, Beth Barany writes science fiction and fantasy for young adults and adults. Her first novel Henrietta The Dragon Slayer won Grand Prize in a California Indie Author contest.<\/p>\n<p>Based in Oakland, California, with her husband, Ezra Barany, also a novelist, Beth has lived abroad three times \u2014 Quebec and twice in Paris, France \u2014 and speaks fluent French.<\/p>\n<p>Known for creating rich world, tough and kick-ass heroines, and refreshing romances, Beth creates cinematic stories to empower readers to be the heroes of their own lives.<\/p>\n<p>When she\u2019s not penning rip roaring reads, Beth runs an\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/school.bethbarany.com\/p\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">online school for fiction writers<\/a><\/strong>, speaks at conferences and international cultural centers, most recently in Saudi Arabia, and enjoys her many dragon figurines sprinkled throughout her house.<\/p>\n<p>For freebies, excerpts, and more about her books, go to Beth\u2019s site:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/author.bethbarany.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>author.bethbarany.com<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When authors work with me, some of their challenges surround how to help the sagging middle of their novel. That sagging middle is often due to not knowing their characters well enough. All good&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":23379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[140,1029,8,1720,1721,1296,931],"class_list":["post-7520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing-tips","tag-beth-barany","tag-character-development","tag-conflict","tag-sagging-middle","tag-story-conflict","tag-writing-fiction","tag-writing-novels"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Character Development, Conflict, and Your Novel&#039;s Sagging Middle by Beth Barany &#183; Writer&#039;s Fun Zone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When authors work with me, some of their challenges surround how to help the sagging middle of their novel. 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