Crafting the perfect story – Part 2: The middle

Crafting the perfect story – Part 2: The middle

This is part 2 of a series of articles about the different elements of a short story. If you followed Part 1, you’ve now got a strong opening and the reader is in the palm of your hand. The middle can be difficult to get right because it’s the meat of the story. The start and end are exciting – you can begin and close with a bang – but if the middle fails to engage the reader, a strong beginning and ending are useless.

If the middle of your story is weak, here are three options to consider that could spice it up and ensure your reader remains engaged...

Make your reader feel something

Make your reader feel something

Writing with a good degree of sentimentality is a tricky thing for any writer to do well. There is a fine line to walk between being sickeningly sweet and turning your back on emotion altogether. These two pitfalls, which we see regularly, are:

  1. Writing for sentimentality’s sake. Here, the writer seems more concerned about the effect on the reader than the content of the story. The images used to convey emotion are carefully constructed, yet the reader is aware of the construction...