From the course: Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps

Midpoint: Exercise

From the course: Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps

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Midpoint: Exercise

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- Welcome back, writers. How is your beat sheet looking so far? Is your novel roadmap shaping up and filling out? Remember you can always go back to any beat at any time and fill in more detail as it comes to you. This is a brainstorming process. It might take time to think through and get your story where you want it. And if you're completely stuck on a beat, or you only have a few notes for one beat, don't worry about it. You can either move on or spend some more time thinking about it. Sometimes moving on and playing around with some of the later beats can really help you clarify what you want to do at the beginning. Bottom line, don't stress. Nothing is set in stone. Be patient. Inspiration is coming, even if it's not coming right at this instant. In this Writer's Room session, we're going to try to nail down our midpoint. This is a key beat in the beat sheet and a crossroads of many things. So if you're having trouble with some of the other beats, brainstorming what you want to do with this beat might help you figure out what those other beats look like. Remember this is a single-scene beat that comes at the midpoint, 50% of the way through the story. Here are the boxes we want to make sure we're checking as we brainstorm this beat. The beat should be either a false victory, the hero has seemingly won, or a false defeat, the hero has seemingly lost. Either way, they should either get something they want here or lose something they want. Something should happen to the hero at this beat to raise the stakes of the story and turn the story in a new direction, like a ticking clock, a ramp-up of a love story, a big twist, or something else. There should also be a subtle shift here from the wants to the needs. Let me share with you what I came up with for my story and see if that helps inspire you in any way. So, for my midpoint, because Brooklyn's fun and games was a downward path, my midpoint's going to be a false defeat. She feels as though her blog readers have completely failed her. They're making all the wrong decisions for her. As we said before, they're probably not bad decisions, but because they're not what she would have decided she thinks that they're bad decisions. She didn't get to go to the club opening with the cute boy, the hot bad boy, so she's not very happy about that. That seems like a defeat to her, as well. And she seemingly lost her goal. Remember her goal was to get back into the popular crowd and rekindle her friendship with Shane. And she seemingly lost this goal when she finds out that her former best friend, Shane, is going to the club opening, and she has a huge crush on the cute bad boy as well. So not only has Brooklyn failed to achieve her goal of getting back together with this friend and regaining her social status, she's also about to lose the boy that she has a crush on to the Queen Bee. And then, in order to raise the stakes, I am going to ramp up the love story with Brian, my love interest and one of my B story characters. I'm going to have them have a semi-romantic moment in the car on the way to their very first debate team competition. So they're on their way to the debate team competition, and I'm thinking there's just going to be a little moment that I'll write between them where Brooklyn starts thinking about Brian in a different way or seeing him in a different light. And this is going to be my subtle shift for Brooklyn to start thinking less about what she wants, which was getting back together with Shane and also this bad boy, and start to think more about what she needs. And what she needs is represented by Brian, the B story. So this is where I will start to make that shift, right here at the midpoint. So you need to start thinking about your midpoint. What is the turning point here? What is going to shift that story from the wants to the needs? What big thing are you going to introduce that's going to raise the stakes of the story? And also, of course, you have to decide if you're going to have a false victory or a false defeat.

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