Write the Damn Thing!
DAY 19
Howdy scribes!
We’re getting deep into your stories now. I know a lot of you might be having second thoughts. Is my story as good as I think? Am I wasting my time? Am I writing something valuable? I’m telling you now, you have to shut those voices up. Keep writing, this is not the time for analysis.
The creative process can be hard. Taking something out of the world of ideas into the real world is a difficult process. But you’ll never know if you have a good story if you quit halfway. If you keep going I guarantee you’ll feel better. Trust the process.
Now that that’s out of the way, today I want to talk to you about…
Key concept of screenwriting: Midpoint.
As the name implies, this happens usually at the middle of your story. It is a plot point so important that it changes the direction the story was going.
Most stories are about transformation. At this point in the story, your character should be starting to change. Maybe he takes a decision that he wouldn’t have taken at the beginning of the story. We get that big set piece in the middle of the film. Nothing is the same after it.
A lot of screenwriting gurus say this is the moment when the character stops being REACTIVE and becomes ACTIVE. After the inciting incident, your character has been reacting to the changes in his life, after the MIDPOINT your character is the driving force of the story. This is not always the case but is a good way of looking at your story and character.
For our purposes, we will use the midpoint as the act break between the 2nd and 3rd act. Let’s give the audience something amazing so they won’t change the channel when the commercial starts.
Day 19 task:
Keep writing that 2nd act. Tomorrow will be the last day of Act 2, so you should be starting your midpoint either today or tomorrow.
I know this is a tough one, no worries. Tomorrow we will look at examples. That’s going to make it easier for you to understand the ‘midpoint’ idea better.
This is going to be all for the day, folks! Keep at it.
Happy writing!
You can find yesterday’s post here.
