Jeremy Silman addresses this beautifully in The Amateur's Mind. I'd follow that up with How To Reassess Your Chess.
At all times you need to evaluate your imbalances, where your pawn majority is, how developed you are, positional considerations, material, Bishops vs Knights, etc. and try to maximize what your strengths are and exploit your opponents weaknesses.
Jeremy Silman addresses this beautifully in The Amateur's Mind. I'd follow that up with How To Reassess Your Chess.
At all times you need to evaluate your imbalances, where your pawn majority is, how developed you are, positional considerations, material, Bishops vs Knights, etc. and try to maximize what your strengths are and exploit your opponents weaknesses.
Totally agreed. Silman books are a MUST study in my opinion. It helps to have played through games of particular openings too to have a feel for the middlegames which occur.
after that I am totally clueless. I usually just try to make some mediocre moves
You dont have a plan because you cant assess the position. Learn to assess positions by finding a diagram in a book discussing a game, see what you think, then see what the book says. This will make you aware of all sorts of possibilities that you just werent aware of before = ammunition. Then you can form a plan. even a not so good plan is better than no plan at all. As you get better, basic plans will become second nature, and you will become more aware of deeper assessments and therefore deeper plans. Positional assessment is what you lack now. Youre just on the next stage of learning, nothing wrong with that. Good luck.
I think I am pretty good at playing both the opening and the middlegame, but I have trouble transitioning from the opening to the middlegame. I have developed all my minor pieces and castled, but after that I am totally clueless. I usually just try to make some mediocre moves to just slowly weave my way into the middlegame, but I feel like if I could make good moves I could play a lot better. Could someone please help me?