Necessity of Nipping.

This photo is on a tin sheet nailed to our bathroom door!

I have my beginning, and I have a fair idea of my ending so, what's my problem? It's always the MIDDLE.

We always strive for enough great lines to capture our readers in the beginning. And without a doubt the final pages need to have a very satisfactory ending. But that vexatious middle always gives me a headache.

I suppose it's because I want to reach my predicted
word count that instead of a nice, neat nipped in middle, it gains far too much weight.

Incidentally, in the Victorian Era, the ridiculous ideal for a woman's figure caused many deluded darlings to go under the surgeon's knife to remove two of their lower ribs. Then again who's to say we are any wiser in the twenty-first century with many a young woman happy to go for cosmetic surgery for the addition of silicone pads to enlarge their perceived small breasts?

Back to my writing. Nip and tuck it is.

• Must have nice description but only where needed. All right cut down here  and slash away there. Does it still read with sense? Yes. Then why did I have it in the first place? 
•  Must get to the point in the dialogue. Our characters should always sound better than our actual speech. And we get to have them say what we wished we could have said in certain situations. I guess we've all experienced what we should have said at one time or another.
• Too much convoluted thinking here. Leave it out. Mustn't confuse readers.
• Beware of too many characters, or those with similar names.

Hey, I think I've got it, by George I've got it! My novel now has a nice slim middle.

Any other writers out there struggling with overweight middles? (In their novels.)

Indie Publisher, Rita Galieh, has written a trilogy of historical novels & also contributed to several US anthologies. She is now completing a third historical romance series. Besides her weekly blog, she can be found on Facebook and www.ritastellapress.com  

Rita studied art at the National Art School then joined the family ceramics studio. After their marriage, she and her husband attended Emmaus Bible College, and currently co-presents Vantage Point, an Australia-wide Christian FM radio program. She enjoys giving her fun-filled presentations of ‘Etiquette of the Victorian Era’ in costume.