A Secret to Turning Points
Plot Isn’t About Plot
Writers spend a lot of time plotting.
It may be when we first start writing — or even before we start :eyes plotters with an envious gaze: Or it might be 50% (or 100%) of the way through, when we stop writing ‘hot,’ look back over the story, and realize with a sinking heart, “OMG, I need a plot…”
But at some point, we plot.
It’s not enough to come up with a nasty, cruel plot that gives the protagonist a vital goal then makes it impossible to accomplish.
For great stories, you need more than that.
Or rather, you need a way to connect the thread of suffering you wrap around your protagonist to them personally. It has to be meaningful beyond the plot.
Saving the world from zombies is terrific. Thank-you Suffering Protagonist, for doing that. We’re all very grateful.
But for powerful fiction, you can’t just change the world; you have to change your character.
Turning Points Aren’t About Plot
Within every plot are turning points.
Big & small, these are the moments where the trajectory of the story changes. Something happens and BAM, the character is in even more hot water than they were before. Things look darker. Less hopeful. The wall they have to get over is higher. The stakes are deeper. The consequences of failure are far, far worse.
We spend a lot of time talking about the plot events that create these moments.
But transformative stories aren’t about plot.
For powerful fiction, you can’t just change the world; you have to change your character.
What Story Is Really About
Great plots are awesome. I love intense, grab-you-by-the-throat, omg-no-way plot set-ups.
But Story is about character. Specifically, character transformation.
And you can’t hit that transformation in one fell swoop at the end, as if some magical set of dark clouds opened above the protagonist’s head and all is well.
You have to make them suffer.
That’s why we have plots.
What Great Plots & Great Turning Points Do
Great plots — and great turning points — are all about:
- The event facing your character in this scene (aka: plot) must be more difficult than what came before;
- Which tests them;
- And forces them to change somehow.
i.e. What they have to do now, in the scene you’re writing today, must be HARDER than what came before AND require something new from them. A new thought. A new emotion. A new action.
That’s the test. That’s the change.
If plotting is a struggle for you, this may just save you.
Think about it this way: Plot is there to force your character to change. The only way they’re going to change is if they’re faced with things that challenge who they were at the start of the story.
Sometimes they pass the test, sometimes they fail, but they always change. Just a little.
Plot is there to force your character to change.
How To Character-Plot
Instead of asking, “What can/should/must happen next?” ask:
“What event will/can push my protagonist deeper into this new world? What will force my character to change right now?”
Okay, that works…sort of. But what’s it mean? How do you push them into a ‘new world’? And what kind of change are we talking about?
Let’s break it down.
The ‘New World’ is the main storyline. It’s the part of your story when the big ‘problem’ has been noticed & must be responded to.
It’s the moment you discover the big jerk who bought out the ranch next door is about to foreclose on your family ranch too.
It’s when the mysterious orb you stole for your boss gets stolen off you, and then you’re arrested & land in jail with a ragtag group of adversaries.
It’s the moment Papa Elf tells you you’re not actually an elf, and your parents are humans who live in NYC.
It’s every Mission: Impossible show or movie, with the line “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…”
That moment is in every story. Not usually so on-the-nose, but it’s present in every story.
Our protagonist is offered a mission.
The first test is if they’ll choose to accept it.
(Hint: They must.) They don’t have to like it. They rarely realize it will change their entire life. That’s not important right now.
What matters is they have to say ‘yes.’ Accept the mission. Take some concrete action.
The moment they do, they’ve passed the first test.
And they enter the new world.
From this moment on, every single plot thingie must test your character, over & over & over again.
Plot Is The Vehicle For Transformation
You can be writing a lighthearted & fun romp or dark & dystopic thriller, but the plot is there for one reason: to force them to change.
How To Craft Turning Points That Are Tests
The plot events (& in a romance, this means the other romantic lead) must:
- Test an old belief/way of thinking;
- Cause them to experience a new emotion;
- Offer them the opportunity/force them to DO something they wouldn’t or couldn’t have before.
You’re going to have big turning points & little ones.
Where do the little ones happen? EVERY SINGLE SCENE.
Every scene needs to change them just a little, in one or more of the ways listed above.
The important thing isn’t (just) that the plot is changing. It’s that the character is.
Every scene, your protagonist(s) is a little different from where they started the story.
They don’t have to like it. (They probably shouldn’t). They can tell themselves it’s temporary. They can dismiss the significance. They can miss the significance. For now.
But the reader won’t.
Turn Your Plotting into Charactering
Shift your focus from, “What can/must happen next in the plot?” to “How will/can this plot event force my character to change?” and you’ll have a powerful story about zombies or sharks or elves…and the human heart.
I’d love to hear how it went, if this helped, or if you’re still stuck. Post in the comments below, or sign up for my writing tips newsletter and you can hit ‘reply’ to any newsletter.
As always, have fun in there!
Yours in Story,
~Kris
