Surviving the soggy middle

 I'm writing a short story this week about a woman being denied membership of a craft guild because she's female.  It's a straightforward challenge to the patriarchy, and of course she succeeds in the end.

The first scene for the story sprang fully-formed into my mind as soon as I got the idea.  This often happens.  I have to scramble to note down the first scene while I remember it, and then I have to take a step back and ask what the story is.

When I'm writing a novel I chapter plan in great detail.  I work out the story before I start writing a word of the chapters.  For short stories I work the opposite way,  I usually get the starting scene and I know what the end should be, then I have to link these two parts together.

This is where the soggy middle comes in, and usually the writing slows down at that point.  With this particular story I seem to have got stuck in the soggy middle.  I know that I want the guild which refused my character membership to lose its influence.  I want my craftswoman to thrive without it, but the problem with that slow and steady progress is that it makes for a dull story.

Today when I picked up the story another idea occurred to me.  I have my heroine being shaken awake by her mother who tells her she has a visitor.  That visitor tells her  the guildhouse is on fire.  It only takes a few minutes for my craftswoman to work out that those prejudiced old men will accuse her of burning down their guildhouse.

So now I have a much more exciting story middle.  My heroine has to prove her innocence, with the aid of her powerful new clients.

I can now see how the middle will lead to the end of the story.  The old guild will be dismantled and my craftswoman will be honoured by gaining the patronage of the most important client in the land - its queen.

It's unusual for me to struggle so much with the middle of a story.  One reason why I have this time is because the story has become much longer than I expected.  It also covers a much longer period of time.

Contrast that with my magical tea rooms story which is effectively one long scene in the present moment.  That story is also much shorter in length.  It deals with events in the present day only, with a few short flashback reminiscences.

I've fought my way through the soggy middle in the end, but I'm really glad I've found the way through.