DL White [00:00:14]:
Well, hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good night. Whatever day or time of day you may be listening to this podcast. I hope I've found you in a good place. And if not, I hope I put you in a good place.
DL White [00:00:27]:
Welcome back to The Bookcast, my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is episode 76 and I am your host, DL White, author of contemporary southern and romantic fiction novels that center black love and relationships. I am also a big fan of books, so we usually begin with the book report. We talk about writing topics, topics of the day, author stuff, and I'm continuing my How I Write series. Today we'll talk about that soggy, boring middle. And a reminder that I am not an expert, I'm not a guru, I'm not anybody's coach. I'm just talking about how I do what I do, how I dig myself out of the common problems of writing a novel. But you know who is an expert? You know who is a bit of a guru? You know who is be a leading ass leader? Tasha l Harrison.
DL White [00:01:17]:
Tune in to her new podcast from the Wordmakers Writing Group. It's called Making Words and it's a podcast for and about authors doing the actual work. It is brought to you by Tasha L Harrison, our fearless leader, fiction author, developmental developmental editor, and creative writer. I'm can I speak? Listen, we just talked about this yesterday, Tasha. Fiction author, developmental editor, and creator of the Wordmakers Writing Community. I'm not cutting that out because I think it's funny. It is already great. So add it to your podcast role this week.
DL White [00:01:50]:
She just busted down the door by talking about your inner critic and, my inner critic sometimes you need to shut the hell up. If you are a writer, I think you will love it so put that on put put it on your list. I am currently writing The Pearl at Black Diamond Bay. It is Black Diamond Romance 3. I will talk about my writing process in the writing update. The Bookcast is a production of books by D. L. White written, edited, produced, and supported by me.
DL White [00:02:20]:
If you would love to back me up, I would be most grateful. My podcast website is bookcast. Buzzsprout.com. It has opportunities to offer a one time or recurring monthly gift whichever is most appropriate for your financial situation. Thank you so much to my monthly supporters for standing behind me and offering, helping to offset the cost of bringing this show to your ears. The other way you can support is to buy my books. Books by dlwhite.com/books has all of the good stuff in ebook, print, or audio. And as a reminder, again, I'm phasing out print copies here in my personal inventory except for new releases so if you want a book signed we can arrange for that or I can send you a book plate or catch me outside.
DL White [00:03:05]:
I'm I'm never outside but if I happen to be outside, I will probably have books. You can find print copies at most online retailers and bookshop.org as well. All my titles are available wherever ebooks and audiobooks are sold as well as subscription sites like Everand and Kobo Plus and they're available to request at your local library through Libby or Hoopla. Today is Saturday, February 17th, it is 9:10 AM. It is cloudy in Atlanta. I have a mic, and I'm ready to dig in. But first, will you join me in a sip of coffee? Alright. Alright.
DL White [00:03:51]:
Alright. The coffee is hitting today, y'all. It is both fragrant and delicious. I'm back on the Bustelo. Mhmm. Yes, I am. I can smell colors. Ss strong.
DL White [00:04:04]:
Let us begin with the book report as always because I am a book head. If I'm gonna do anything, I'm gonna read a book. I have read 20 books of my challenge to read 150 books this year. I am ahead of schedule on my Goodreads challenge goal. I hope to have another good reading and writing week, so let's talk about what I read this week. This week I read 4 books, all pretty good. I read, 2 titles by Tina Martin simply because I needed to read some books. I read Ben in Love with You, The Love of Elias book 1, and, When Hearts Cry the Love of Elias Book 2.
DL White [00:04:43]:
This is, actually more of a serial and each book is like 5 or 6 chapters but it's a continuing story so you have to read the- you have to read them in order so they're more like episodes than they are, chapters, but, listen, this I it it had me by the eyeballs. I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna continue the series just so I can finish it out. I don't feel like this series is a romance, I don't feel like The Love of Elias is a romance, but it may end up being so. Been in Love With You ends on an incredible cliffhanger, so I absolutely had to get When Hearts Cry and read that. Tina Martin can write her tail off. Really good book. She has a couple of beach set romances that I want to read and I was trying to get to those but then I saw these and I was like, Oh, I wanna read those, because they were shorter and I was really just trying to get a couple of books in before, I went to bed so I enjoyed these. Has anybody read The Love of Elias the whole series? Is it good? Should I continue? Let a sister know.
DL White [00:05:51]:
I listened to Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver. I was gonna plan to read this later, but then I got approved for the audio advanced listener copy, so I decided to go ahead and listen to it. The stories are set in, I believe no. It's not, is it reconstruction? I forget what I forget what time period these stories are set, but there are a set of short stories set in a particular time in black history. I really struggle with short story collections because I feel like when they go to the next story, it's the next chapter and the thing starts over and I'm like, what now? What does that have to do with the story before? Oh, it's a new story. Dang. That's right. So I feel like I get a taste and then and then it's gone.
DL White [00:06:40]:
And I- I really prefer a novel. I really prefer a longer continuing story in themselves. The stories are great, the first couple of stories are really good, and the last story really, really got me. The others, I was just kind of listening to listen. The forward or the introduction, I believe, is written by one of my favorite authors, Tayari Jones. And I'm gonna be seeing her and Wanda Morris at the end of February and I am ultra excited because I love both of those authors. So, yes I mean to brag, I am going to be seeing them at the end of February. If you live in Atlanta, you should look up that event.
DL White [00:07:20]:
It's on Eventbrite. It's at the one of the Gwinnett County libraries. Definitely sign up, I will see you there. I also read 1 Summer of Love by Rees Ryan, now I love me a Rees Ryan novel. I just do. Cis can write, I love a Rhys Ryan novel and this one in particular was, fitting because I needed something for inspiration for, the pearl, and this one is a short it's a short workplace romance, and I'm writing a workplace romance, so I kind of I like to read what I'm writing and just one of those things where if I'm writing romance, I like to read romance. If I'm writing a workplace romance, I like to read it because I wanna be in that world and I wanna get ideas and I wanna see how other authors bring that situation to the page and how they deal with things and how how how soon do do the does the getting on get on because I okay. Don't ever do this.
DL White [00:08:22]:
Like comparison is a thief of joy, but I got to compare, like, compared to mine, am I on track? Am I am like is is mine as good as this? Am I on the same track? And for me when I read something that's similar to something I'm writing, I hear so many authors say, oh, I'll accidentally start writing their book in mine and I do not understand how that happens. I don't is that like is that a real thing? Is that a real thing? Like you're reading a book and then you autumn you like, just like subconsciously start writing somebody else's book in yours. Like, do you not know your story? Do you not know your characters? Does that not fit in the realm of your work? What? Because I get inspiration. I am motivated by stories that are like the one I'm writing because I jump off from that. Like, oh, I like how they said that. I like how they did that. Okay. These people met in this place.
DL White [00:09:23]:
So for my story, my people met in that place and then this happened. I can jump off from other people's ideas, look at the work that's been done, and come up with my own way to get to the happy ending. But if anybody feels like I read their work and absolutely copied them, Hey, come at me, reach out. I don't believe that I have. I don't think that's a thing that I do because I am so much not into being like other girls. I'm not like other authors, I don't want to do the same thing other people are doing. I do want to know what other people are doing so I can, a, be different and so I can jump off from that. So anyway, I read 1 Summer of Love.
DL White [00:10:08]:
It's a, steamy workplace romance. I love me some Rhys Ryan. This was a 4 star read, absolutely adore her. So this week I'm reading Candidly Yours by Rhys Ryan. I believe this is a carnival themed novel, really looking forward to it. It has a really pretty illustrated cover which are not my favorite, but if the authors are good, I tend to overlook a cover I may not be particularly in love with. It is a very pretty cover and then of course I have my advanced reader copies that I need to get Red, Love, and Hot Chicken by Mary Eliza Hartung comes out, February 20th. I may wait for audio on this one.
DL White [00:10:50]:
This just looked like a sweet story. I don't believe Mary Liza is a black author so it is not at the top of my list. I'm definitely gonna be reading Rees Ryan first but, I do have this on my list. It looked like a sweet story so I I grabbed it and then The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin and The Rumor Game both come out February 27th. This week I did not put down any books and that was mostly because I did not really have time to read. I had a really busy on-site week at work, we are in the office a lot lately and this Q1 is ugly, it's just I can't wait until the end of March quite actually. I was in the office Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, late evenings, and I was just so frustrated because I didn't have time to do the stuff that I normally have time to do when I'm not running around the building for 11 hours a day. I really do enjoy this, meeting that we put on about, February, April, June, September, December.
DL White [00:11:55]:
So like 4 or 5 times a year, we do this 2 day meeting, April's gonna be a 3 day meeting actually and it's my show. People you know, my meeting runner basically pulls together the documents and he sends out the emails, but all the setup and logistics and all of that is me. So, I really enjoy that work. It just takes a lot. I was having a conversation with my boss about, like she's like, like, how do you when you when do you find time find the time to write? Like, are you able to, like, pull away from the work and, like, do things that bring you joy? And I said honestly, like this job pays my rent, it pays for my health insurance, it gives me my four zero one ks and my pension, it It definitely gives me the quality of life that allows me to dream and to write. I've said it many times before, I cannot dream if I'm worried about how I'm gonna pay my rent and how I'm gonna pay my bills if I've got issues, with money. I don't write because it's my priority is trying to, like, stay fed and warm and dry, so, this job is, it's not difficult but it is complicated, there's a lot involved in what we do and I can't be sleepy, I can't be half step in, I can't, it is hard for me to, like halfway do it. I I have to be on, so when I'm in, I'm in unless it's, like, a very slow day, like, everybody's out of the office and nothing's happening I might be able to read something I might be able to like you know do some editing or whatever but for the most part when I'm at work I'm at work so I do try to give myself time to get to some writing and get to some reading, but like Monday through Wednesday for the most part, like, a lot of Thursday, I'm I'm all about the work.
DL White [00:13:55]:
That's my priority because if I don't feel safe, if I don't feel if I don't feel stable and secure, I don't feel like I have the freedom to dream. So that's my priority and that's what I set myself up for. So, on to the writing update. I have made it through 6 of the 9 chapters that I started with. Again, I'm just going through and I'm smoothing things out. I'm punching things up. I'm deleting unnecessary detail and information, I'm reforming the story, I'm bringing more of Davis's history out, I'm rewriting Kari's history because again, I need to age her up some and, yesterday, I went through a chapter where Kari is dealing with her little sister, Reyna is nineteen, she is a college freshman, she's not doing very well, she's very rebellious and Reyna is, well, Kari is at a point where she has taken this job at an island on an island 4 hours away and she's kind of concerned that maybe she didn't make the right choice, that maybe Reyna needs her a little bit more, but Reyna is also, really not hearing that, really not hearing Kari trying to control her life. So there's definitely a clash and a power struggle there.
DL White [00:15:18]:
I'm really enjoying writing it even though I wanna grab Reina by the shoulders that scene was really fun to write and then Moses is very much the glue. Moses is the older of the 2 of her siblings. Moses is the glue that really keeps the family together, and with Moses gone, things are really kind of falling apart. Moses is out in Houston, he is at University of Houston Premed, Reyna is at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Kari lives in Austin, and she's kind of, like, at home at the house by herself. Now the kids are gone and it's time to live for her, and so, that's kinda where we are right now, and I'm just really sort of getting into the nitty gritty of the book. Kari and Davis have met, I'm also really trying to fold, Dion and Jason who are a little bit from book 1. Dion runs Tikis and Cream while Amina is, back in New York helping her family run the restaurant group, and then Vance and Athena are from book 2. So I feel like if I continue this series, it's I feel like it's going to be more difficult to bring in previous characters.
DL White [00:16:39]:
I don't think after this book we'll see Wade and Amina again, you never know, like they might like pop up just randomly, but I don't want to plan another book around recurring characters because it just becomes more difficult to keep track of and this is why I say I'm not a series writer because this mess be hard, so especially since I'm a pantser, so, so that's where I'm at. I have 75 days of writing left and about 65,000 words to write, so I better get on it. My boss is gonna be out of office for sometime beginning Wednesday, so I have a little extra time to devote to writing and a little bit less stress and pressure, so hopefully it'll be a little bit easier on me. In author news this week, if you upload your books and distribute audiobooks independently through Findaway Voices, now known as Spotify. Ciao, they almost jumped the shark. Keep an eye on them, I'm a keep calm and see how things fall out kind of person, but I also like to be informed and prepared, so here's what happened this week. I'm taking this background from Courtney Milan who is an author, and also an attorney and she says a PSA if you're using Findaway Voices to distribute your audiobooks, you should know that the new terms of service have significant problems, the new TOS contains a section that says basically they can take your books and reproduce them if they want, they can use your books to train artificial intelligence models and when you log in, you have to agree to terms to even log in. You also cannot delete your books without contacting Spotify and asking them to remove your titles.
DL White [00:18:26]:
So that caused a giant storm, a huge fury, I got an email, several authors sent me messages, my editor also sent me a message like hey, are you seeing what Spotify is doing? I said yes, I am seeing it, I wanna see what the attorneys say because they're definitely, smarter. Spotify then sent out a message and said, hey, we're gonna clarify our terms because it seems like we got some things wrong. Stay tuned. So I was just basically in a holding pattern because right now the only way to distribute to libraries, and Hoopla, like Libby and Hoopla, is through Findaway slash Spotify. We used to be able to do that through Kobo and they gave up that right so really the only way now to get through to libraries is through Spotify. So I don't wanna pull my books until I absolutely have to, but there are some other options on distributing your books wide and I I grabbed a list from the Marketing Audiobooks Wide group and I will post that list in the show notes at booksbydylwhite.com slash bookcast in case you are looking to move your books. So Spotify then sent out an email late last night that said hey we got the language wrong in the new terms, we're gonna fix it, and they the message they sent out last night was basically, our bad. Just kidding.
DL White [00:19:51]:
We aren't going to assume rights to your books. We aren't going to reduce reproduce them without permission and we won't use AI, we won't train AI with them without your permission. So it's the without your permission part that kind of makes my head tilt. Also, new terms don't go into effect until mid March, and so what are they doing right now? It's still a little bit iffy. There's still some language in the terms of service that we need to watch out for. I feel like we should not have to threaten suit to these platforms to get people to act ethically. It does not miss me at all that this is the stuff they pull on indie authors because they think we're dumb, because they think they can push us around, they think that we won't notice a change in terms, they won't notice, and that we won't take our books and leave the the playground. They really think that they can take our books and train AI with them and we basically let them know we're not dumb, we see you, stop it.
DL White [00:20:51]:
So I know a few authors who plan to move their books anyway because they're just a shady company and I I had a feeling with Spotify bought find a way that things are gonna go downhill. I make money on wide audio but only if I discount books. I can make $30 a month on audiobooks anywhere so do not threaten me with a good time. I definitely have my eye on them, I am not ready to pull my books from marketplaces until I find a spot where I can upload my books, directly for library distribution and access to Hoopla. Otherwise, I mean, I sell audio direct and I distribute through BookFunnel, so it would not be a problem if I was not on audio platforms. I think I made, $12 on Audible last month, so it's not like I'm losing out on a ton of money, but a of authors will lose out on a lot of money if this is, this is a tack they have to take. And so, just kinda looking to the lawyers, to the experts to see like, what does this mean? Are we okay? Should we continue? Should we pull our books? We don't know yet. I'm in a holding pattern right now and any promotions that I have going, I do have one for beach thing coming up I think in May, so we will see.
DL White [00:22:10]:
Also the only way to get to Chirp, which is where a lot of my sales come from, is through Findaway, So I don't wanna pull my books, but I will if I have to. Do you have a topic you would like me to cover on the BookCast? Something you want me to talk for, like, endlessly for 20 minutes about, shout me out a holler. I'm always on Instagram. I'm always on Twitter. You can visit the show notes of this episode at booksbydlwhite.com slash bookcast or send me an email it's author dl@booksbydlwhite.com. I welcome your message. Let's talk about how I write part 3, just when you thought quicksand was not something you had to worry about. The middle of a novel is hard because that's where all the work happens, so says Fiction University.
DL White [00:22:56]:
The middle of a book is a beast that will call you a talentless hack of a writer. You hit 150, 200 pages and then an absolute wall just throws itself up there because you don't know what you're writing but you know it's soft and it's boring as heck, how how do you fix that? What is a sagging middle? Writingmastery.com says it's when the midsection of your book feels less exciting or more formidable to write than the beginning or ending chapters. This is often because the story has become bloated with so many threads to keep track of that the task of weaving all the character arcs, plot twists, and bits of world building together while keeping the flow seamless and engaging has become paralyzingly daunting. Middles make up roughly 50% of the novel, says Fiction University, it's where all the try and fail plans occur and where the protagonist does the most plot driving work. Beginnings are all about setting up the story, endings are all about resolving your conflict, bringing it all home, but the middle is where you do all the work and it's critical to hold reader attention through this section because the readers don't care, they will put down your book and never pick it up again. You have to connect your beginning and your end and make it interesting. No pressure, no pressure at all. A thing to remember is that the middle is not where you dump all the backstory you've been holding back since chapter 1.
DL White [00:24:21]:
Your backstory should be liberally spread throughout I'm gonna say liberally spread throughout act one, the beginning of your story. I feel like when when people hop into the middle they should have almost all of the information they need. The solution seems very simple though save some plot for the middle, save some detail for the middle. You don't have to dump all your backstory to the middle, you don't have to start explaining things in the middle, but save a little bit for the middle. Remember your story pacing and save some space to bring a little bit more story to the middle of your book, add a twist, add a plot point, throw the story on its head, tell the reader you thought you knew what was happening here but you don't. The key to avoiding a boring middle is for it to not be boring. Follow me for more writing tips. A good midpoint reversal will also raise the stakes even if they were high to begin with, so says Fiction University.
DL White [00:25:23]:
So, 5 questions to ask yourself as the author to get through a sagging, soggy, boring middle. If you're stuck, step back, look at what happens in the middle chapters of your novel and ask what's the absolute worst thing that can happen to your protagonist at that moment? Remember we talked about this last week, here's where you put this in action. Find a way to make it happen and force the protagonist to work overtime to get out of it. If you've not read Brunch at Ruby's, I'm about to spoil it for you so fast forward a few seconds, but I'm writing Brunch at Rubies and I'm thinking what else could happen to Deborah? She is already, separated from her husband and her child, she is already, facing some backlash at work, what is the worst thing that could happen? Make that happen. She then had to go in front of the school board and defend her job, and then she started drinking, and then she got in car accident and it was like it was like difficulty after difficulty after difficulty, not only with Deborah's story but then Maxine's story. As she's trying to attract this man and he is not getting the picture and then Maxine sees Renee with the man she was trying to to attract, right, and so now Maxine is off the rails and then Renee is dealing with her father who is, has Alzheimer's and he's declining and Bernard reaches a point where his decline seems a little more sudden, he starts, you know, being disoriented and not really knowing where he's at and, he definitely has a significant change in behavior and circumstance and so that's all in the middle of my book. It just gave me so much more to work with to, as I said last week, like the words just kept coming because I had so much to dig my characters out of. Question 2, is there a way to make your protagonist's inner goal clash with the outer goal in a disastrous way? An external plot is kindling to me.
DL White [00:27:34]:
Throw something in there that is you can't you can't think it out, you can't therapy it out, it can't be fixed with, good intentions and, a positive thought, it can't be fixed with sitting down with your dad and having a good conversation. It's something that can't be controlled by your characters and your characters have to just react to it and try to resolve it or go around it. Impossible Choices almost always grab a reader and create an unexpected plot path, that old damned if you do, damned if you don't dilemma can really crank up the tension in a story and make it so your middle sings instead of sags. Question 3: what is the 1 thing that could happen that would make your protagonist give up? Then do it. Even if it's hard, even if it's dramatic, even if it's angsty, but not cheesy and in easy reach. Like, I I feel like a death or a pregnancy to me is such an overused plot device and it bores me. I'm bored with that. It doesn't ramp the stakes up at all unless there's something tangibly meaningful attached like money.
DL White [00:28:42]:
You have to get married, otherwise you don't get this money. You have to have a child, give me an heir, otherwise you don't get this money. It's a great motivator, right? Then think of a way to keep the protagonist fighting anyway. There's a good chance it'll create some wrinkles to get out of, but the story will be better for it. If it was working as is, your middle wouldn't be sagging. Right? Question 4. Are there any deep dark secrets that could be revealed and ruin everything? If so, reveal them. And for extra fun, see if you can make the result not be the one the protagonist was worried about.
DL White [00:29:21]:
Make it worse. Question 5, can you mirror the climax in any way? Sometimes a midpoint reversal will foreshadow what's to come either by showing the protagonist failing or hinting at what they need to do to win. It's often referred to as a false victory or defeat. In romance, it is, if we're talking about, like romancing the beat, everything's great right before that black moment so everything is all peachy keen and you think everything is about to work out and then. It's like I used to watch behind the music and it's like, oh, this story is awesome and it's like 33 after the hour, you get the sad music and then the narrator's like, and then. You need your 33 after the hour. If the protagonist has to rely on others to win and show them trying to do it all by themselves and failing that way the growth of accepting help by the end shows in how they change their behavior and they succeed. Getting through a saggy middle is a lot easier if you have some stepping stones, Look at your plot as a path through the swamp.
DL White [00:30:31]:
Each stone is another step toward a major set piece and once you get there, each stone is a step toward how the protagonist gets out of it and for me, this is really how I plot. Like I'm not planning out every second of the novel, but I do have stepping stones. I need to go here, here, here, here, and even sometimes working backwards. Here, I wanna end at point x. I gotta work back point w, point t, point j, point h, I might have to work backwards like how how did I get here? You might wonder how I got here. Then you're like roll it all the way back to your beginning and you've got your stepping stones to how you ended up, where you ended up. Give yourself a little bit of help with your path for pulling yourself out of the quicksand that is a sagging, boring middle. That's kind of where I'm at right now with the pearl, really just trying to keep the story going going, rolling up to my climax and then once I hit the climax, now what? That was a that was a good one that was a good episode.
DL White [00:31:43]:
I will be back next week with a reading and a writing update in part 4 of our series, The Crux and Climax of Your Story. This brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat. Follow me on all the socials. I'm author d l White in most places and shout me out a holler. Don't forget to share the podcast if you enjoyed this episode and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, give a girl a rating. I'd really, really appreciate it. Do not forget that you can support this podcast with your book purchases by spreading the good word or by throwing some coins in the hat at bookcast.pressbout.com.
DL White [00:32:14]:
Every little bit helps. Please enjoy your weekend. Have a superlative week, and we'll chat again soon. Bye
