Among all the overhauling of plot I’ve been doing lately, I knew that the third and final turning point of the WIP was weak. It was too similar to the second turning point and it relied to heavily on the twist that I now have moved up to the second act.
So I knew I had to change it, but I just didn’t know what I could change it to. All of these turning points are disasters that happen to Eve so that it seems as if she won’t get to open her cottages on time. But they have to work with the plot and seem real. They have to naturally occur from what had come before and they have to take the story in a new direction, a direction that ups the stakes and changes everything. Every turning point is important, but the third turning point is crucial. It sets up the black moment, when all seems hopeless and lost, it sets up the final spurt of character growth so that the arc can be completed, it sets up the conclusion.
So yeah, the third turning point, particularly if you have three acts like I do, so that it’s my final turning point, is critical to the success of my story. And I didn’t have one. Which was okay. I’m not even close to there yet and I trust my story enough to get me where I need to go eventually. So all week, I went forward one scene at a time and just trusted.
Then Friday night I thought I’d do some brainstorming. I came up with six or seven ideas for the third turning point, but I hated them all. One of the ideas had some potential, it was effective but boring, and also exactly the type of thing I hate to research. Plus it was too similar to the other turning points as far as who created the block and how she did it. I really wanted something more subtle, but I was out of ideas.
So I let it go, decided not to worry about it or do any research until absolutely necessary. And last night at about 11 o’clock I had to get out of bed where I’d been reading a book for review and come into my writing room and write down the third turning point that had come to me all of a whole, and was breathtaking in it’s simplicity, beauty, and so forth. It still calls for some research, but of a much more palatable kind.
And this morning I figured out how it fits neatly with the other pieces of the story so that it’s part of the chain reaction all starting with the antagonist. But it’s so subtle. I just love it.
Writing. A new adventure every day.