: My readers are losing interest halfway through. What is a list of possible remedies? I see a pattern among my readers, specifically where they tend to stop reading - it is about 2/3 through

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When a reader says "I'm reading (CHAPTER X), and I'm not interested", the first step to solving that is to ask:
Wait a moment, what in (CHAPTER X) should be interesting?

This is a crucial question -- and remember, it's not enough to answer, "Well, it's important for (CHAPTER X+3)." The reader isn't reading (X+3); they're bored right now.

The reason middles so often sag is because the story has invested all its energy setting up the book's ultimate stakes. And then, it's much harder for there to be any smaller stakes along the way; stakes for one scene, stakes for one chapter. It feels like nothing's happening because, well, you've made clear what things are important to the story, and none of what's going on at this point feels important.

So here's you're first step: Go through your middle chapters. For each one, describe why, on the first page of the chapter, the reader should be eager to read the rest of it, based only on what he's read so far.

The results of this exercise should be illuminating. Maybe you'll find that some chapters seem not to have stakes, or an initial hook. Maybe you'll find that the stakes seem the same every single chapter. Maybe you'll find that you've given hooks, but that they feel minor and veering away from the "important stuff". Each of these has different solutions, of course, but this is how you can diagnose what the problem is :)

And do remember that "keeping reader interest" isn't all about being fast-paced and having a twisty plot. A lot of times, it's about helping readers care what happens to the characters. It's about being personal, intimate, bringing your world to life. "Having good stakes" doesn't mean having a million dollars stolen, or a nuclear bomb drop on New York; it can mean having your dad's goofy Dilbert clock stolen, or realizing your best friend is creeped out by you being gay. But that's already dependent on your story :)

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Why do you ask us? We haven't read your story. Ask your readers.

The whole point of beta readers is that you can ask them why they stopped reading or what made them stop. If they just tell you that they stopped their feedback is incomplete and useless.

So contact your beta readers and ask them this specific question. If your beta readers lack the ability to self-reflect their reading experience (and "do not know why they lost interest") find other, better beta readers.

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For me as a reader (or a viewer), when my interest flags, it's because there are no longer any emotional stakes that I care about. Lots of action might be happening, but it's all the same to me how it turns out. Conversely, you can have a long, compelling stretch without any real action or plot development, as long as the emotional interest is there.

My guess is that this section of the book is doing a lot of plot work, but not much else. It might also be things that are interesting to you, but not to the reader. I actually had a very similar problem recently with my non-fiction manuscript. The beginning and end were compelling, but the middle flagged, even though many of the things I was most interested in talking about were only in the middle section. The problem was that they didn't fit into the overall arc of the book. Eventually I made the tough decision to cut the middle section entirely, and save it for a different book. I'd suggest the same for you. Just drop the entire slow section, and chalk it up to "world-building." If you do need to replace it with something, try doing something completely different --like spending several chapters on a single crucial hour of time that takes place right before the final climax (just as an example).

For a good look at how compressed good storytelling can be, try reading short short stories and also listening to story-songs (country music is especially good for this). For instance, check how much plot is contained in the following tiny packages, and how long a span of time can be elided between one paragraph and the next (or one verse and the next).

100% Perfect Girl - Murakami
Fast Car - Tracy
Chapman
Long Time Gone - Darrell Scott

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+1 for both answers relating to the rising action/ early failures/ raising stakes/ and cutting out sections that don't help the pace.

In addition, try looking into your character's motivations. Are they reacting properly to the situation? If not, is the reader given an idea why? Are they acting out of character to get the plot moving? Are they learning from their mistakes or repeating the same ones over?

Do we know enough of their internal dialogue to care about them? You mention having a character that leaves a life that appears good on the surface. Are the reasons for the character leaving clear enough? Do we see enough of the emotional struggle? The stakes?

That said, you may want to look into writing articles about "Sagging Middles".

Seems to be a common concern. (warning: Terrible Minds, language alert.)

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+1 Henry, those are possible problems.

It is hard to diagnose, but you've told us the problem: The reader has stopped caring how the story turns out. Even if the ending is great.

Which likely means you are forcing them to read through something they don't want to read and just don't care about.

I would guess if they stop reading 2/3 of the way through, the problem begins well before that, perhaps 1/2 way through. Because it takes time for a reader to build up enough boredom to quit reading.

In the normal Act structure, that halfway point should be the inflection point of the problem's resolution, when the hero has an idea or learns something that is the KEY, even if they do not realize it at the time, to winning the day (whatever that means).

So perhaps that happens too late, in your book, or is there but not dramatized well. Once the key is discovered, it should start a building cascade toward the third act, of puzzles resolved, more successes than failures, etc. As part of this, major new problems should not be introduced; any new problems should be a result of solving bigger problems: The only way we could save the little girl was to let her abductor escape: We saved the girl but now we have an criminal on the loose! Introducing bigger problems can make the reader feel the key has not been discovered.

So that could be a problem: A key exists, but nothing good is happening between 1/2 and 2/3, or the resolution snowball has not clearly begun, so the reader is not excited about the key being found and 'wins' or progress building up.

Finally, as a 'Kill My Darlings' experiment, I would question how much I would have to write to make a clean transition if I just cut everything in my book from the halfway mark (or wherever the 'key' is found) to the 2/3 mark. They can't get bored if the pages aren't there!

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Giving specific editing advice is difficult without first reading the work in question, but here are some additional thoughts for you to consider...

When the middle of a story stalls, it is often the result of mistakes made in the earlier chapters. Have you set the hook properly? Is the reader completely engaged in the characters' goals? Does the reader care about and relate to at least some of the characters?
Looking closer at the middle section, are you telegraphing your early failures? Almost all stories lead characters through a series of early attempts to achieve their goal, with each attempt leading to escalating levels of failure. Are your character's early attempts believable and do they have a reasonable chance of success. If the reader looses respect for a character because their early attempts are ill planned and doomed from the start, they may become bored while reading through the long pages until the character learns what the reader already knew.

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