So this mini-series of structure posts has looked at the inciting incident, the first sign of trouble in the story, the introduction of the disquiet that is going to eventually drive the main character away from the safe, familiar world. This event needs to occur before or at least at the same time as the first plot point, when the true nature of the story’s main conflict reveals itself to the main character in a direct and unmistakable event. This event will change everything for the character, making it clear to him that his only option is to resist or face utter defeat, the loss of all he holds dear. It is a point of no return. The character must now commit to action.
At the 3/8 and 5/8 section of the novel are what screenwriters call pitch or pinch points. Well-known screenwriter Syd Field, in his seminal work Screenplay, described these points as reminders of the central conflict, sharing a common motif.
What does that mean? Well, if our novel is about 90,000 words, it means that the antagonist or antagonistic force needs to exert another hard push on the story at about page 135, or about halfway between the first plot point and the mid-point twist.
Larry Brooks has a fabulous post on pitch points, which is where I first encountered the idea. He points out that this event really needs to be something the readers can see, something that hits them in the chest, so to speak. They need to see just how antagonistic the antagonist is, engaged in some act that obviously and directly threatens what the main character has at stake.
Syd Field, in studying screenplays, noted that the middle act was generally the longest and the most boring. As novelists we should be familiar with the idea of the ‘saggy middle’. Same thing. Field suggested the pitch/pinch points as a way to keep the middle act moving. He also specified that the pitch point needed to revolve around the central conflict rather than subplots, which can get a little out of control and overly prominent as we struggle to extend the story through the complexities of that long second act. The pitch points bring the focus back in on that big threat with the highest stakes.
Keep in mind that there will be another of these points at the 5/8 mark, and that these two points will need to share a common motif to link them, providing a sense of symmetry and resonance, a significance through association and strong emotion.
I will close by mentioning that the Bransforum’s own Cookie (aka Caitlin) has a wicked guest post up at Wicked & Tricksy today, that David Gaughran is looking at putting together a book of his popular blog posts on indie publishing for international writers, that favorite blogger Elizabeth Twist has placed a piece at One Buck Horror, and Steph Sinkhorn of maybe genius has a flash fiction piece entitled “Language Barriers” up at agent Sarah LaPolla’s blog Glass Cases.
Happy Friday, everyone. And happy birthday, Polymath, wherever you are.
Ah, Syd Field! (Mom Stewart-Laing was a film-maker back in the day, so a lot of my education on story structure was via *screenplay* structure.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the "pinch points" in my WiP are actually more dramatic than the first plot point. I think it's because the plot point involves the characters realising that the "big picture" has changed for good, whereas the pinch points involve direct consequences for the characters.
It's Polymath's birthday?!?!? We need a party! I will make cupcakes on his behalf.
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful post. So here's the thing - I'm working on fixing up the outline for my superhero book (Hahahaha as if I have an outline to fix)and I'm building the outline based on your posts. So every time you post a new piece I'm adding it to the outline. You have no idea how helpful this has been. My outlines tend to be all unhelpful and messy. This has made them work better. So thank you thank you thank you.
Morning, SB. *That* is something I think I'd like to try out - plot point = realization, pitch point = consequences.
ReplyDeleteHi, Sommer! I'm all smiles that the posts have actually been of use to you. Makes me really happy to know I've helped, especially after all the help you've given me.
I visualize pitch points as stair-tread risers on a ziggurat. Pitch is a contractor's term for the slope of an inclined plane, like a roof, a drain pipe, or the rise over run ratio of a porch, driveway, walkway, stairs' risers' rise over treads' run too.
ReplyDeleteQuarter inch per foot is a good ratio for draining water, not so good for a plot. It's not visually or emotionally perceptible. Roof pitches vary, 3:12 is common in most Southren locales, 6:12 where there's a lot of snowfall. About a one to one rise over run ratio is good for a plot, but stair stepped up and down the ziggurat.
Another visualization, plot is a locomotive, storyline is a train. A dynamic plot starts moving out of a switch yard from word one pulling a few cars. It stops to pick up freight cars of complication along the journey; meanwhile, barreling headlong along the track between stops.
Freight stops, while not pitch points, are collection points of periodic tension relief allowing readers time to process and catch up with the dramatic action of pitch points and a writer to develop finer points of context and meaning and characterization and settings and ideas and events and so forth.
Though I measure narrative time word counts into thirteenths sections instead of eighths. The first pitch point for me rises in an opening, where a slope begins to rise, a locomotive begins to move at a beginning. The first pitch point as screenwriters define it, though, I place at the opening of a first rising action scene, about at the 5/13ths milestone, close enough to 3/8ths for literary work.
Happy birtday, polymath, may you suffer many more. Stand up and tell us how old you are, you are, you old salt. Young enough to feel age shouldn't matter? Old enough to know why age does matter? Mint chocolate bonbons and chocolate covered cherry cordials for the party party.
I too find these to be extremely helpful. While I am sure I have all the necessary parts, I am not so sure they are in the right places. Like Sommer, I am a terrible outliner.
ReplyDeleteJohn Jack - I know age shouldn't matter, but man I hate getting a year older EVERY YEAR. I'd grip tightly to 27 forever if I had the chance.
ReplyDeleteCookie- my outlines are so bad. They'll end up five pages long and I'll be like WTF IS THIS. Totally unhelpful.
Oh yeah, these posts are bombs of awesome, Margo. :) I just finished Brooks' last book, but I don't think it's possible to hear all this too often.
ReplyDeleteBesides, you don't always focus on the same things. Different highlights, different explanations = better understanding. :)
Great series of posts. I don't know if I have a saggy middle, but I might have a subplot or two that have run-amok. May have to send the dog catcher after them. :P
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend. Survive if you can. :P
Sommer, you do better than I do! I'll start outlining, then halfway through, I'll go CONFOUND IT ALL! YOU ARE USELESS! throw it across the room, and start writing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLet's try that again.
ReplyDeleteQuick question:
If you have multiple MCs, you need a pinch point for all of them, right? Or at the very least, a few to cover all of them, right?
In this case, would you recommend spreading them around a little so that each character isn't clearly following the same structure (to the reader)?
I guess what I'm saying is, won't this underlying structure become very apparent if you don't?
Ok, that was more than one question, and wasn't that quick.
These posts are particularly helpful to me because I really HAVE to outline well this book. I have 3 separate villains acting upon the story at the same time with various levels of importance and I want each of them to hit the big plot points at the same time even though one of them is part of the main plot and the other two tie into the main plot in some way. If I don't outline it out I'm going to have problems and the main story thread is going to get lost in the jumble. Each post helps me develop how each of these three threads are going to hit.
ReplyDeleteIdeally I'd like to write three books in this series and all three will have these three same villain threads controlling the plot, but each book would have a different thread be the prominant one.
Kind of hard to explain, but I need an outline, and since my outlines are like book reports and not outlines, I need you Margo. Please keep showing us the way.
Sommer, those are really good points. I have a similar thing going on in my book (which is a trilogy), and 3 main povs in the 1st book. Then in teh 2nd, I introduce new characters and a new villian. Ahh!
ReplyDeleteMaybe since I've been procrastinating today like nobodies business, I will try and work out an outline.
Happy Friday! I love reading these. As I'm reading, I go "oooooh I know exactly where these are happening in my story." It's a good feeling, heh.
ReplyDeleteHeya, guys. Profuse apologies for being silent today. Was moving from one office to another and only had a few moments here and there to get online.
ReplyDeleteHi, John Jack. First of all, double bonus points for using the word 'ziggurat' in a sensical sentence. You get a bonus life! Second, I especially liked the part of your comment relating pitch points to construction. A lot to think about in that comparison.
Cookie, Claudie, LG, thanks for letting me know these are actually helpful. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm that guy standing on the corner passing out leaflets that people throw away at the next trash can. :)
Hi, David. Your questions deserved their own separate response. They are good questions, and ones I hadn't really considered because I rarely work with more than one main character at a time. I actually think you could go a couple of ways with this. You could either have a single pitch point that affects them all. (This is especially handy if your story has scenes from the antagonist's POV. You could try one scene from the villain's POV that hits all the MCs' soft spots.) Or you could try portraying each pitch point in a separate scene, ordered from least devastating to greatest. In this case, I think the escalation in stakes and threat would take center stage, distracting the reader from any 'obvious' structure.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else have any ideas about how to handle pitch points in stories with more than one main character?
Hi, Sommer. Don't worry, we'll get ya outlined. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm currrently outlining two nine-book arcs at the same time I'm outlining the first books in each series. Three books should be no sweat.
Heya, Steph! Looks like "Language Barriers" is getting a really good reaction. Kudos! And, yeah, it really does kind of make a girl feel good to learn at least some (if not all) if the classical structure is just coming through subconsciously.
I feel, David, you've come up against the pitfalls of using MC as a catchall term. Consider MC as an abbreviation for master of ceremonies, or mistress, spelled out in prose style as emcee. That thought exercise illustrates the centrality of a main character. There can be only one.
ReplyDeleteEven an ensemble cast has one main character who's most central.
A main character can be a narrator, an attitude holder, a reader surrogate, a protagonist, deuteragonist, triagonist, hero, antihero, antagonist, nemesis, villain, or foil character also or any combination permutation of the above or exclusively play one role.
The one role a main character plays is being most central to the action, having the most influential presence compelling a final transformation overall. Anikin Skywalker, for example, taken in the context of the entire Star Wars' saga.
Assigning a pecking order and explicit roles to your several ensemble cast members should help clear up their individual relationships to the action. And help define who's the main character, protagonist, etc.
That's an important distinction, John Jack. I tend to go with generic terms because most people seem to use one term for all those or use them interchangably. Perhaps a future post on the differences is in order.
ReplyDeleteA cast roll call and job description, eh, Margo?
ReplyDeleteI'll get a round to-it.
To-it: a token, usually a wooden or paper coin, signifying an anticipated task completion at some unspecified future time; synonyms: promissory note; honey-do list; marker, as in a gambling debt.
Somehow I still seem to be nailing these. Beginner's luck, I guess.
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't know yesterday was Polymath's birthday! Happy belated birthday to him, he's a great help!
Speaking of which, John Jack, if you have a blog I'd very much like to follow it, and I ssupect others here would like that as well. I've checked periodically and haven't found one listed (although today either blogger or my service provider is being a pain and not bringing up people's info when I click on their name).
ReplyDeleteHi, Will. As I said before, sometimes people have an instinctive understanding of this structure. It's ingrained. Which is another way of saying you are waaay lucky.
I don't have a blog yet, or any other digital domicile under that handle or any other. So far just an intinerant vagabond popping up here and there every now and then. Maybe in a year or two when I've nailed down the parametrics of my digital zeitgeist.
ReplyDeleteUmm. Whoops. Wrong user name there, John Jack, not John John. Absentminded goofus.
ReplyDelete