Dennis Lehane Solves Middle Problem
Bestselling author Dennis Lehane explains why novel middles are brutal — "The beginning is fueled by excitement, the end by resolution, but the middle needs discipline and structure." His fix: break the middle into mini-stories with individual tension and stakes to maintain momentum.
Lehane's approach to the "saggy middle" is a departure from traditional outlining; he is not a writer who maps everything out in advance. In fact, he typically starts a novel knowing only a few key plot points: one from the beginning, one from the middle, and one from the end. This method allows for a more organic, character-driven process where the plot serves to reveal who the characters are through their actions. This philosophy of character-as-action is central to his work and can be traced back to Aristotle's foundational principles of drama. For Lehane, the plot is merely the vehicle through which characters are tested and their true nature is shown. He emphasizes that a story must be about movement and that if a character is static for too long, they need to be propelled into action. His focus on character extends to his revision process. He has been known to rewrite a book multiple times to get it right. This dedication to the craft was honed early in his career; he spent seven years working on the manuscript that would become his acclaimed novel *Mystic River* after his professors encouraged him to revise a single short story. Lehane's work in television, particularly on the writing staff for the HBO series *The Wire*, further sharpened his understanding of narrative structure and momentum. This experience, which he considers his "perfect graduate school in screenwriting," likely influenced his scene-by-scene approach to building larger narratives. Each scene, in his view, must have a clear point and end with a character either achieving or failing to achieve a specific goal.
