The middle of your novel collapses. You started strong with an exciting premise and compelling characters. You know exactly how the climax resolves. But the 40,000 words between Act One and Act Three feel aimless and slow. This problem plagues nearly every novelist at some point.
Why Do Novel Middles Sag in the First Place?
The sagging middle happens because writers confuse plot motion with plot progress. Your characters do things, scenes happen, pages fill up. But nothing meaningful changes. The protagonist at page 150 has the same knowledge, skills, and relationships as the protagonist at page 100.
Strong beginnings are easy because you are setting up conflicts. Strong endings are easier because you are resolving those conflicts. The middle requires escalation without resolution. You need forward momentum that raises stakes while withholding payoff. That balance is difficult.
According to The Writer Magazine, the sagging middle is the number one reason agents reject otherwise promising manuscripts. Readers forgive slow starts if the middle delivers. They will not forgive a strong start that leads to 200 pages of wheel-spinning.
What Are the Most Effective Plot Devices for Act Two?
Here are 21 specific devices that add momentum to sagging middles. Use two or three in combination for maximum effect. Each device either raises external stakes, deepens internal conflict, or reveals new information that recontextualizes earlier events.
1. Reveal a traitor: Someone the protagonist trusts is working against them. This device adds paranoia and forces your character to question all relationships.
2. Introduce a ticking clock: Give your protagonist a deadline. The bomb explodes in 24 hours. The evidence disappears in three days. Deadlines create urgency.
3. Kill a mentor or ally: Remove the character who provided guidance or support. Your protagonist must proceed alone with less help.
4. Discover the problem is worse than expected: The protagonist thought they were dealing with one corrupt official, but actually the entire system is rotten.
5. Force an impossible choice: Make your protagonist choose between two things they desperately want. Save the city or save their family. Both options hurt.
6. Add a rival pursuing the same goal: Competition accelerates pacing. Your detective faces another investigator. Your treasure hunter learns someone else has the same map.
7. Have the antagonist win a major battle: Let the bad guys score a significant victory. The protagonist loses ground and must adapt strategy.
8. Reveal a secret about the protagonist's past: Something they thought they knew about themselves or their history is false. This device shifts internal conflict.
9. Introduce a red herring that seems crucial: Lead your protagonist down the wrong path. They invest time and energy solving the wrong problem before discovering the misdirection.
10. Escalate the antagonist's methods: The villain was careful and subtle. Now they are reckless and violent. The rules of engagement change.
11. Strand your protagonist in hostile territory: Cut them off from resources and allies. They must improvise with limited options.
12. Create an alliance with a former enemy: Force your protagonist to team up with someone they hate. The friction generates conflict even while they cooperate.
13. Have a plan fail spectacularly: Your protagonist executes their strategy perfectly, but it backfires. They must recover from unexpected consequences.
14. Reveal the protagonist's flaw causes major harm: Their anger, pride, or fear directly hurts someone they care about. This raises internal stakes.
15. Introduce new information that reframes the quest: What the protagonist thought they were pursuing is not actually the real goal. The treasure is fake. The murder victim is not who they thought.
16. Have a supporting character make a transformative choice: The sidekick decides to pursue their own goal. The love interest chooses a different path. Supporting character agency creates complications.
17. Force your protagonist to use a skill they lack: The fighter must negotiate. The diplomat must fight. Pushing characters outside competencies creates tension.
18. Reveal partial but misleading information: The protagonist learns something true that leads them to false conclusions. They act on bad assumptions.
19. Have the protagonist's world collapse: They lose their job, home, or reputation. External security vanishes and they must rebuild from nothing.
20. Introduce a moral complication: Achieving the goal requires doing something ethically questionable. Your protagonist must decide if the ends justify the means.
21. Create a cascade of consequences: One problem triggers three more. Your protagonist solves issue A, which creates issues B, C, and D. They fall behind instead of catching up.
How Do You Choose Which Devices to Use?
Select devices that align with your story's core conflict. If you are writing about trust and betrayal, revealing a traitor works better than stranding your character in hostile territory. If your theme explores moral ambiguity, use devices 5 and 20.
Combine external and internal devices for maximum impact. Raising external stakes alone creates action without meaning. Deepening internal conflict alone creates navel-gazing without momentum. Use a device that does both simultaneously for efficient storytelling.
Space your devices strategically. Place one major complication every 10,000 to 15,000 words in your middle section. This pacing maintains reader engagement without overwhelming them. Each device should escalate from the previous one.
What Should You Avoid When Fixing Your Middle?
Do not add random action that does not connect to your story's throughline. A car chase might be exciting, but if it does not change your protagonist or advance the plot, it is just filler. Every scene must earn its place by serving character or plot development.
Avoid repetitive complications. If your protagonist faces the same obstacle three times, readers get bored regardless of how exciting each individual scene might be. Vary your devices. Create different types of problems that require different solutions.
Do not fix a sagging middle by adding more worldbuilding exposition. New readers do not need 5,000 words about your magic system's history. They need your protagonist facing escalating challenges. Save exposition for moments when it enables understanding of immediate plot events.
How Can You Test If Your Fix Works?
After revising your middle, read those 40,000 words in one sitting. Does the pacing feel natural? Do complications arise from character choices rather than random coincidence? Does your protagonist grow and change between pages 100 and 250?
Ask beta readers to mark where they felt bored or wanted to skip ahead. Those spots indicate remaining sag. Use plot devices to add tension or revelation at those specific locations. Let reader feedback guide your revision.
Tools like River's writing assistants can analyze your manuscript structure and identify where pacing lags. AI can spot patterns like repetitive scene types or chapters where nothing significant changes. Technology catches problems that are easy to miss when you are deep in your own work.
The sagging middle is fixable. My last three novels all collapsed around page 150 of their first drafts. I used combinations of these 21 devices to add momentum, raise stakes, and force character growth. Those books sold because the middles worked. Strong beginnings attract agents. Strong middles keep readers turning pages past bedtime. That difference matters.