Showing posts with label Main Turning Point. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Main Turning Point. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Power of Turning Points


WRITING WEDNESDAYS
Recently I blogged about how to cure sagging middles (the writing kind!) by using main turning points.  From experience, I know that the words "turning points" can strike fear in the heart of many writers.  I've been there.  I overcame the fear.  And I'm going to share how anyone can, too.

The first thing to learning how to use a turning point is to understand what it is.  Simply put, a turning point is a place/point in a story (often an event) where the plot takes a new (sometimes unexpected) direction.  

Besides the main turning point that usually occurs in the middle of the story, there are others, and they are just as important in keeping the story moving along and interesting to the reader as the main turning point is.

Back in July, I blogged about Growing the Story.  That blog post included the 8 Plot Points of a story and the storyboard I use to keep me on track during pre-writing (plotting or just thinking ahead) and writing.  Let's take another look.


  1. Opening
  2. Inciting Incident
  3. Turning Points (1 or 2)
  4. Main Turning Point
  5. Black Moment
  6. Sacrifice
  7. Resolution
  8. HEA


In a romance, a turning point will be something that happens (external) that brings about a new emotional (internal) direction.  Sometimes it's something that will push the hero and heroine together, when one or neither wants it to happen.

FAMILY BY DESIGN
Christmas is looking bleak for Becca Tyler and her three young children. Money is tight for this single mom, and the house where they live has been sold to a new owner, meaning they must move. Throw in an encounter with the guy Becca heartlessly dumped in high school, and not only Christmas but life seems to be handing out lemons.
First Turning Point
 Nick, the new owner and the guy Becca dumped in high school, learns he's the cause of her predicament and offers her a job.

Why?  Nick's secretary quits, and although Nick might be able to ignore that Becca may not have a home to live in, her three children make the difference.  They'll be working together on a daily basis, not exactly what a man wants to do with the woman who spurned him in the past.


THE MAVERICK'S REWARD
It's been almost twenty years since Tucker O'Brien left the Rocking O Ranch at the age of fifteen, and the only reason he's returned, physically and emotionally scarred, is to get to know the son he never knew he had. But once Shawn graduates from high school, Tucker plans to leave...until he meets Paige Miles, Desperation's new doctor, who forces him to take an honest look at himself and makes him want to risk becoming the man he's always wanted to be.
First Turning Point
Tucker relents and tells Paige he'll do Physical Therapy, but only if she's his therapist.

Why?  Tucker recognizes that he doesn't have a choice about doing the PT, and there's no one close who can oversee it but Paige. They may be seeing each other often because of it, but he's sure she's as much against getting involved in any other way than she is.


Two of the best places to watch for turning points are TV shows and movies.  I can almost set my watch to Criminal Minds.  The main turning point--where information learned makes a big change in who the unsub (unknown subject) might be, and they're off in a new direction of finding him--comes at the half hour, just before the commercial.  There's another turning point near the 3/4 of an hour mark, when they know who the unsub is and they go after him.  They were in a rut during last season when quite often this TP is a rush to a house with their guns drawn and vests on, only to find that the house is empty.  A good reminder to vary your turning points!  Author Elizabeth Sinclair loves the movie The American President and uses it to help teach plotting.  One of these days, I'm going to watch it! ☺

Whether you use television, movies or books, try to watch for those moments when something happens that changes the direction of the story or even changes the way a character sees things in a different way (an AHA! moment).

Using turning points throughout your story will strengthen it, earn the attention of editors, and cause readers to never want to put down the book.
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. - E. L. Doctorow

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Tightening That Sagging Middle

WRITING WEDNESDAYS
I'm late, but I have an excuse.  I've spent today working on my own middle.  The middle of the book, that is.  Work on my physical middle has fallen to the wayside, thanks to the hot weather.  Once it cools off, the walking will resume.

Frankly, I'd much rather blog about the middle in the picture on the left.  Who wouldn't?  But lusting over a hunk isn't going to get a book written and, except for being a reminder of tightening those sagging flesh and blood middles, it's only going to make it warmer in here.  Another 105 today was hot enough, thank you.

I'm one of the lucky ones who hasn't had a rejection because of a sagging middle.  (And I'm knocking on wood.  It can strike at any time.)  Believe me, I've had plenty of rejections, but they've been for a variety of other things.  Still, it seems sagging middles are one of the top reasons for rejection.

If you're coming up on the halfway point in your story and your Hero and Heroine are getting along so well that it's almost scary, it may be that you've forgotten about the conflict between that H and H.  It's conflict, not rosy moments, that keeps them from reaching their happily ever after too soon.  This is where a little plotting can go a long way.

A good story that keeps a reader reading will build from that first introduction to the conflict to the end when that conflict--and often new and different ones--are solved.  This is true for all fiction, not only romance.  While it's nice to have interludes where the characters aren't at odds and everything is going fairly smoothly, if it goes too smoothly for too long, readers can easily lose interest.  And so can editors.

To counteract a lull, it helps to focus on what can happen that will increase the conflict between the H/H.  This conflict should be emotional, and therefore internal, but can be brought about by something external.  A kiss...or more...in a romance will increase the stakes of the characters and bring about more intense emotions and...  You guess it.  CONFLICT.  This could happen while discovering something new about the other character that means a re-thinking of the relationship.  Or maybe a romance that's been kept a secret suddenly suffers a leak that could destroy the couple.  Do this mid-way, and you've discovered the main turning point of your story and solved quite a lot of the sagging middle problem.  Keep it connected to the main conflict, and you'll discover that you won't be going off in directions that lead nowhere.

It doesn't take heavy, thorough or even complicated plotting to do this.  Simply knowing, either before you begin writing the story or discovering it as you're writing it, that this moment is going to happen will keep you on course and keep the story interesting.

The main turning point isn't the only thing to keep readers hooked, but it is one of the most important ones.  Don't cheat your readers.  Give them a strong shift in the story, then take them to a heart-wrenching black moment, before leaving them with happy sighs over the HEA.

Torturing your characters is fun and much better than torturing your readers. ;)
The greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict, conflict. ~ James Frey