How do other people connect point A to B?
I have the begining of a story, what I want to happen, what I hope the players learn (true or false) and an end. But I don't know what to do past the introduction to get them to the middle.
Intro Basics: PCs have been having weird dreams making them want to go to a place. They don't know until they get there where they are going. They are kind of in a haze at this point in time, until they get there. The dream is more of empathetic feelings of torment, betrayal, and torture. They are left remembering one detail for sure, the word Azreille.
Behind the scenes: There is a psychic/empath/whatever you want to call it that has been kidnapped and is being tortured. She can psychically connect to other people under certian circumstances, and is trying to ask for help, leading them to her. There was a prince that was searching for her before, but the man who kidnapped her has convinced her the prince is in on what they are doing to her. The bad guy's plan is to break the phsychic and use her to wage war on the prince because he feels the kingdom is rightfully his. He knows the prince will not harm the phychic.
I want the PCs originally to believe as the psychic does, which is the prince is a bad guy. I want them wandering around picking up clues from her life to find her. Then I want them to accuse the prince where the truth comes out and then they start looking for the real bad guy.
I don't know what types of things should happen in the middle though, or holes that are in it.
I would love some advice or ideas or inspiration. Or ideas of how other DMs get from the begining to the middle to the end?
Sounds like you have a good start. Like a movie, at first the characters are a bit clueless, they run around and make some discoveries, suffer some setbacks, reach the end goal and resolve the great conflict.
Set your adventures up to feed the clues, the name leads them to a village where they have to rescue someone with the knowledge of the name but not the meaning, but has another important clue. Let the character's backstories add into the overall story, where one adventure leads the character home to face something from his past that leads to another clue.
If you have a favorite set of books, you can borrow story elements too for inspiration. Poor Bilbo was sitting at home one day when suddenly all these dwarves show up and his life is never the same. Does something similar happen to one of the characters? Do they have to find out what happened to an uncle who was in the prince's service but mysteriously disappeared in order to find the next clue and unravel the true identity of the BBEG?
There's tons of inspiration in books and movies that I use, adventure, horror, romance, comedy, it's all good and keeps things fresh. What, the key to the dungeon was stolen by goblins and you have to figure out a way to get it back that doesn't involve violence, but you must reason with and gain the trust of the little monsters? Oh the humanity!
In that middle part specifically, after accusing the price and finding their mistake, how do the redeem themselves in the prince's eyes, gain his trust, and put things to right? Those adventures will set you up for the end game, finding the BBEG, rescuing the psychic, putting the price back on the throne and becoming the heroes they were meant to be.