Bronwyn Jameson ~ Romance Author

Spinning Plates and Sagging Middles

I want you to do something before you read too far. I want you to close your eyes and picture one of those cleverest of jugglers — no, not the ones who juggle running chainsaws with live cats, but the ones who set plates spinning atop sticks. You know the kind of juggler I mean? He starts with one plate spinning on one stick, adds a second plate on a second stick, then a third. Sometimes he puts more than one plate on each stick, but he keeps on adding and spinning and building until he has a whole row of spinning plates on his table.

Now, close your eyes and picture that delicate balancing act. Picture some of the plates slowing, their smooth rotation starting to wobble. Heart in mouth you wait for the plate to teeter and fall...but the clever juggler intercedes in the nick of time, saving the plate from crashing to the floor.

Sometimes he simply gives the slowing plate another spin to restart its rotation. Sometimes he lets it wobble to almost a standstill. Sometime he even dives in and captures it en route to the floor.

Think of the tension that creates in the audience — anticipating the next wobble, watching the juggler dash from one end of his table to the other — even though you know he will save the plate from destruction at the very last second. IF he’s a very clever juggler, of course, because he knows exactly how to manipulate interest and tension, milking every last “ooh” and “ahh” from his riveted audience.

He is as much a juggler of his audience as he is of spinning plates!

Have you ever thought of yourself, the story crafter, as one of those jugglers? The plates are the elements of your story. The key characters. The plot elements. The conflicts or sources of tension. At the start of the story, you put some — or all — of those elements into action. In other words, you set your plates spinning.

Perhaps you start them all at once, spinning them into action side by side in a neat, tidy row. But if they’re all spinning at the same speed for the same length of time, will that not be predictable for your readers? But what if they’re spinning at different speeds, so their rotations come unstuck at different times? Or what if you start with only a few plates and introduce the others one at a time? New elements, new action, upping the stakes, creating greater risks of disaster.

It is up to you how many “plates” to include, how and when you put them into action, at what pace, for how long. Remember how our juggler builds tension in his audience through fear of the falling plate? You, as the story juggler, decide how long to allow each conflict to wobble before saving it. Or you may choose not to save one, but allow it to crash and splinter on the floor.

Or perhaps you add a new twist to the juggling act and really surprise your reader/audience. The plate crashes but doesn’t shatter. It was built of sterner stuff.

So, the next time you’re concerned about falling tension in your story — the next time you encounter the dreaded sagging middle — think about your plates. Perhaps you started with too few or set them spinning at the exact same speed. Perhaps it’s time to up your reader anticipation with a wobble and teeter. Maybe it’s time to set another one spinning, or to bring one crashing to the floor.

Manage your plates cleverly, keep the tension high, and avoid the sagging middle.