Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 6: Writing the Middle.

W.I.P. Section. Writing the Middle.

Writing the middle of your book should come quite easily. The first chapter will have helped to bring the characters and setting alive, and you should have presented your Protagonist’s situation and either hinted at, or delivered, a challenge or choice.

You have already begun Chapter 2, so now continue where you left off. It is sometimes helpful to keep a running word count as you write. Remember your chapters don’t have to be the same length. It’s quite common for the last chapter to be shorter than the others.

Use Chapter 2 to build on the situation already presented. Let your protagonist react, but remember to keep him/her firmly in the driver’s seat. Even if the character is behaving weakly or wrongly, make sure s/he is a prime mover of the plot. Remember the saying that “a person who never makes mistakes never makes anything else, either” and apply that to your protagonist.

By the end of Chapter 2, the change or challenge should be well underway, and the plot should intensify in Chapter 3. If your character has made an effort to solve the problem or achieve the goal in Chapter 2, show the results of that effort. If the initial problem/goal is solved, set a new problem/challenge.

This new challenge should evolve from the original situation.

In “The Orange Outlaw”, the children find that clearing one suspect leads them to investigate another. Discovering the identity of the thief leaves them needing to prove it. Each new challenge builds on the one before.

In “Alien Dawn”, Jed’s and Karen’s experiences become more and more complicated. Some challenges devolve directly from the UFO and the stone, and from their efforts to keep these secrets. This book is longer than “Orange Outlaw”, though, so there is room to show more challenges building from the children’s own natures and family situations.

In “Trinity Street”, Tell’s initial suspicion of Gerhardt is magnified as the shocks keep coming. By the time she knows she can trust him, the situation is out of hand. Tell’s predicament (being stranded seven centuries out of her own time) springs directly from her initial interest in/suspicion of Gerhardt. Her telepathic connection with him is what carries her through the veil. The connection proves both a danger and a blessing as the suspense mounts.

In “Selka”, Mari’s ability to take Selka and the others for granted begins to work against her when she takes friendship (and not mere existence) for granted. Her move towards sophistication and knowledge looks set to deprive her of her older gifts of faith and acceptance.

Depending on your plot, you might choose to bring your story to a climax in Chapter 4 or Chapter 5. Don’t do it in Chapter 3, because that will lead to a too-early peaking, and a too-long conclusion.

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