I’ve been giving a lot of thought about how to post prompts to inspire the middle of a story. In Write Your Novel from the Middle, James Scott Bell says that a main character should have a mirror moment in the middle, a time to reflect on his or her past and make a decision about the future that’s irrevocable. That decision determines his or her actions through the last half of the book.
I’ll go into more details about Mr. Bell’s book on in my next post. But if this teen or young woman is your main character, and she’s having her mirror moment, what is she facing?
It’s got to be something huge. The wind is tossing her hair, but she’s staring straight ahead, not bothering to brush it aside. She looks a bit scared, a bit determined, concentrating a lot.
Here’s my inspiration for her mirror moment:
This was it. I either trusted God or I didn’t. If I didn’t, I could go back to a life of fear and lies and running.
And if I did? I had no idea. At least the fear and lies and running were familiar. Leaving them behind made me head into a future of complete unknowns.
But He promised to be with me. God wasn’t a liar.
I stared at my so-called friends and my so-called parents, partying like it was any other party, laughing like nothing had changed. They were known, part of my fears.
My stomach crumpled. Unknown and God had to be better.
Hmmm. I never considered the middle of a story, being a (mostly) pantser.
Powerful piece.
I’m a plotter and I try to work from beginning to end to save time. As I reviewed my rough draft, I realized I’d included a mirror moment in my WIP without thinking too much about it. So I’ve gone back to improve it.
I love your idea for her mirror moment! Here’s mine:
I’ve always been a rule follower. Never one to cross the line. But not this time. It’ll go completely against company policy, and I’ll be done for, but I’m not going to stand by and let our best safari guide risk his life again for the rich tourists to get their photo op. I won’t have a job, but at least I’ll save his neck and be able to sleep at night. It’s go time.
Wonderful! I love how two people can look at the same photo and come up with two totally different interpretations of it. Thanks for sharing!