Warriors Fanfics: Specialized Writing Guide

the Middle, or most your words

August 23, 2019

This section details the middle of the story, or any point after the beginning and before the climax/end. It goes over what could cause the middle to falter and how to go about fixing it. It does not discuss what exactly to add to a story.

So here you are a few chapters in. You have established the setting and main characters. The conflict has begun and some of the unknown elements have been foreshadowed. And your super fantastic ending dances around in your head. You just have to get through the middle. That dreadful area where the vast majority of your words are, and you cannot think of anything to put there. Why is this? Well, for most fictional works the low point tends to be the middle. Worse yet, many writers and bloggers will tell you to focus on the beginning and end instead. But the middle is just as important as the other two parts. It is most of your words, most of your character development, and most of your story.

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THE MIDDLE OF WARRIORS NOVELS & FANFICS

Describing what makes a good middle can be highly subjective, as it is mostly dependant on what kind of story you are telling (and subsequently, what kind of story the reader chose to read). But there are some things to look for from a literary and technical standpoint.

Our specific example will use the entire The Prophecies Begin arc, as the individual books are simply too drawn out and numerous to explain easily. Going over the main events of the arc:

- Rusty becomes Firepaw after being accepted into ThunderClan and leaving his pet life behind [beginning].

- Tigerclaw kills Redtail and betrays ThunderClan, getting him expelled. Fireheart becomes ThunderClan's deputy [middle].

- Fireheart becomes Firestar and clan leader after Bluestar is killed defending the clan from dogs [middle].

- The clans unite against the threat of Tigerstar and Scourge after it was revealed he was trying to divide and conquer [middle].

- Tigerstar is swiftly killed by Scourge; Scourge himself is killed by Firestar after underestimating the power of StarClan [end].

These are the most important events that happened within The Prophecies Begin arc and they have a significant impact on the rest of the series, up to A Vision of Shadows.

There are a few things to keep in mind with this one versus the others. The absolute most important thing to take from that arc is it does not save everything fun and interesting for the end or the beginning. That is great. Many fictional works have problems spreading the good stuff throughout the story. Character deaths, border shifts, major battles and disputes, none of it is hoarded to the end. Of course there are significant events that happen during the climax, like Scourge's invasion and Tigerstar & Firestar's first deaths. But the middle is not a dredge of words like it is in most books... or even most of the other Warriors books.

Looking at another arc, Omen of the Stars, it has more in common with the fanfictions out there than the first arc. The worst thing that it does is subvert the main characters and plot line with subplots, secondary characters, and a mess of ultimately pointless events. This is bad. In previous sections, I always have noted that the main characters and plot should always have the most time dedicated to them. Omen of the Stars was built upon two other faulty arcs before it that simply added too much to keep the story established in The Prophecies Begin on track. Each moment you spend away from the story you have built means those secondary events better be significant in some way, or interesting at least. They are usually neither in fiction that skimps out on the middle. Much of what happened after the first arc did not help conclude Omen of the Stars.