Live workshopThe Soggy Middle: An Agent’s Guide to Fixing Your Manuscript’s Weakest Act
Join literary agent Jessica Berg for a practical, diagnostic workshop on the 40,000 words in the middle of your manuscript that nobody warns you about.
WHEN: Thursday, July 16, 2026, 1 - 3pm ET
WHERE: Zoom (Can’t make it live? No problem! You’ll get the recording!)
COST: $79 ($59 early bird pricing)
The middle isn’t a bridge. It’s the actual story.
You know the feeling. Your opening chapters are sharp. You know exactly how the book ends. But somewhere around the 40% mark, your story starts to drift — scenes happen, characters talk, subplots wander — and none of it seems to accumulate.
Here’s the problem: most writers treat the middle as connective tissue between a beginning they know and an ending they’re working toward. That framing produces middles where things happen without adding up.
In this workshop, literary agent Jessica Berg of Rosecliff Literary — who sees this exact problem in full manuscripts she passes on every week — will teach you to diagnose exactly why your middle is sagging and how to fix it without adding new scenes. You’ll follow one running example (Maren) through every concept, so you can see each technique applied to an actual story, not just described in the abstract.
In this hands-on 2-hour workshop, you’ll learn:
The four failure patterns of the soggy middle — episodic, static, comfortable, and disconnected — and how to tell which one is yours
The three things every middle owes the reader — complicating the central question, escalating the cost personally, and changing the protagonist on the page
What the midpoint actually is — not a “mirror moment,” but a structural event with two jobs: revelation and redirection
The shift from the plot question to the cost question — from “can they get what they want?” to “what does it cost to want this — and is it even the right thing?”
The six-question midpoint diagnostic — to identify whether your midpoint is buried, false, or missing entirely (and what to do about each)
The architecture on either side of the midpoint — why the first half’s engine is erosion, not escalation, plus four craft techniques for writing the midpoint scene itself
Plus, every attendee receives The Soggy Middle Full Arc Questions Sheet — 15 diagnostic questions across all four parts of your story’s arc, with the full Maren example walked through so you can see exactly how to apply them.
Meet your teacher
Jessica Berg is a literary agent and author passionate about nurturing unique voices in publishing.
As an agent with Rosecliff Literary, she focuses on character-driven stories and high-stakes narratives, helping authors navigate the industry. Her own fiction explores identity, generational trauma, and relationships.
A multi-nominated writer with an MFA from Spalding University, Berg is a member of the AALA and EFA. She also provides developmental feedback for Writer’s Digest, Uncharted Magazine, and Fractured Lit. She is represented by Amy Collins of Talcott Notch. Find out more about herhere.
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