How to Structure the Third Quarter

hey guys it's ellen brock novel editor i hope you're all doing really really well today we are going to talk about the third quarter if you missed my other videos in this story structure series i recommend that you watch them first so that you have a better idea of what we're talking about but today we're talking about the third quarter or if you prefer three act structure we're talking about the second half of the second act or the space between the midpoint and the second plot point so as always with these videos i will be

using films as the examples so if you're worried about spoilers in this video i'm going to be giving fairly significant spoilers to shrek the sixth sense the woman in black the kid toy story and liar liar so last time we touched on the midpoint um a little bit but i want to touch on the midpoint again because it's very important in getting the structure right for the third quarter so making sure that you're really nailing the midpoint is going to make it a lot easier to get this third quarter right the most important thing to

keep in mind about the midpoint is that the protagonist will have a better understanding of what's going on so they will have what sometimes refer to as one eye open they'll have a a better sense of direction and a goal that's a little bit more precise or their action towards that goal will become more precise so it may not necessarily be that their circumstances changed but their actions have become more directed and they have a better sense of what they need to do so they would have been more fish out of water in the second

quarter so now in this third quarter they're a little bit more aware a little bit more proactive etc like we talked about in the previous video it's possible that the interpretation of the information at the midpoint could be incorrect could be flawed could be just a full misunderstanding or they might just have only gotten one piece of information or half of the information but they don't really understand everything it's really important that the protagonists not have a complete and full understanding of the plot at the midpoint because at the end of this third quarter we

have another major turning point the second plot point and we want to be able to use that to again advance the plot and provide another moment of realization and the second plot point realization will be the sort of both eyes open realization will be a full understanding and interpretation of the plot uh the antagonist plan or perhaps just what the protagonist needs to do to succeed so it sort of depends a little bit on how plot driven versus character driven your story is whether it's more literal interpretation of say the antagonist plan or something more

internal more understanding of what they need to do or how they need to change so that's going to depend a lot on the individual story so the second plot point is going to in many cases sort of fill in a blank that was left by the midpoint so i just want to illustrate that a little bit here with some examples so in toy story um and the midpoint buzz he realizes he sees an ad and he sort of realizes you know i am a toy i'm not a space ranger i'm not this special person that

i thought i was and he gets really unhappy and really depressed at the second plot point um he gets sort of a pep talk from woody and he has this realization that even though he's not a space ranger he's still really important he's this toy that means a lot to this little boy so at the midpoint we have a realization but it's not a complete picture and then later at the end of this third quarter when we get the second plot point we sort of get the last piece or the missing element to give the

complete picture which is yeah he's not a space ranger but he is still really important to andy he still has value another good example is in the kid we talked about the kid in the last video i believe in that that's a good example of the protagonist misinterpreting the situation at the midpoint so in the kid russell is visited by this child version of himself who's only eight years old and at the midpoint he has this realization that you know this kid's probably here because i need to help him i need to help him become

more like me to be um stronger a better fighter more charismatic etc and he sort of views his child's self as this sort of loser dweeb kind of kid the second plot point he realizes the actual correct interpretation which is that the kid's actually there to help him to make him more like how he used to be as a kid rather than the other way around so at the midpoint there is a realization in that case but it's not correct um only the gist is correct one of them's there to help the other one but

but the um direction that goes is incorrect so he realizes the actual truth at the second plot point so i hope that sort of gives you an idea of how the midpoint and the second plot point relate to each other another sort of similar midpoint second plot point of arrangement is in the sixth sense so in the sixth sense malcolm is a therapist he's helping this troubled boy named cole at the midpoint cole tells him that he sees dead people you know he sees ghosts and malcolm doesn't believe him he thinks he has childhood schizophrenia

he thinks that you know he's not able to help this boy and he's not thinking anything supernatural is occurring at the second plot point he realizes yes actually this is supernatural this kid actually is seeing dead people so the midpoint often hasn't excuse me the midpoint often is a misinterpretation that's then clarified at the second plot point um sometimes it's just a piece of information like half the information and then the other half is is delivered at the second plot point so it's also important to keep in mind that the character's misinterpretation does not have

to be morally wrong or or cruel or built on something very negative so i don't want people to feel that they need to give their characters these really gross or unappealing flaws for example buzz lightyear isn't doing something wrong by believing he's a space ranger he just is wrong so similar with malcolm he wants to help cole in the sixth sense he wants to help the little boy he isn't malicious or trying to do something wrong so i just want people to be aware that you don't have to give the character really unappealing flaws or

personality traits to achieve this structure so now that we've gone over the midpoint in a little bit more depth than how it relates to the third quarter let's move on to what happens after the midpoint so immediately following the midpoint what usually happens not a hundred percent of the time but most in most cases there will be a little bit of an emotional breakdown or an emotional downturn the character will become sort of unhappy uh maybe a little bit depressed this is mainly because they've just had a big realization at the midpoint and this is

going to be an emotional reaction to that this moment can in some cases be extremely brief just a moment a brief moment in time uh in others it may be many scenes long this may be a prolonged emotional down downturn so it sort of depends on the story that you're telling the the uh the thing to keep in mind with this is that this is not the dark knight of the soul or the lowest point or anything um there's several terms for it uh we will get into that later in the video because it does

occur in the third quarter but this is not that moment this is just a little bit of a downturn it's not hopeless um the character's not giving up they're not thinking there's no way out at this point they're just kind of you know reacting a little bit heavy perhaps to this realization they had at the midpoint and it's just a natural sort of emotional reaction for example in the film liar liar fletcher is the protagonist and that his son wishes on his birthday cake that his father won't be able to tell a lie at the

midpoint he realizes that this is the reason that he hasn't been able to lie all day he also realizes that he's been a bad father and that he's probably going to lose his son because his ex-wife is going to move her herself and their son to boston immediately following that midpoint we sort of see him unhappy at work he he seems kind of depressed he talks to a secretary about how he doesn't think he's going to be able to win this court case uh because he can't lie so he doesn't think he's going to be

able to succeed and it's not that he's given up he's not not trying but there's definitely a little bit of a of a heavy feeling or a sad feeling um for the character at that point a good example of a brief emotional downturn is in the sixth sense um after cole tells malcolm that he sees dead people malcolm goes outside and he sort of records um into a little tape recorder his notes on the session or his notes on this interaction with the boy and he says you know i think he has childhood schizophrenia and

i think i'm not helping him and he looks really unhappy but that's it it's a brief moment and then the story sort of picks up from there so it doesn't need to be a prolonged downturn depending on the story sometimes this structure takes a little bit of a different form especially this is common in kids media or family media the midpoint might be more of an accomplishment for the protagonist but the emotional downturn will be given to a side character or a secondary character so shrek is a good example of this at the midpoint he

saves fiona from the castle which is what lord farquaad said he had to do if he wanted to get his swamp back he had to say fiona he does so that's not a negative thing for him he's not having a real big emotional problem there but the emotional downturn is given to fiona who expected to be saved by a prince and she ends up being saved by an ogre so she's sort of unhappy in this case the secondary character's emotional reaction becomes an obstacle or creates a little bit more difficulty for the protagonist so shrek

sort of has to carry fiona off with him and it has sort of a negative emotional effect on him as well that she's so disappointed to see that he is an ogre another good example of this is again toy story buzz is the one who has this big emotional downturn realizing that he's not um a real space ranger that he's actually just a toy and this makes him uncooperative with woody so woody and buzz need to escape sid's house this kid who likes to destroy toys and they need to get home before their own boy

moves away and um he needs buzz to cooperate with that but buzz is depressed he's unhappy and he's just completely uncooperative so that becomes an obstacle for woody but woody himself isn't really the one having the emotional downturn in that moment so that's a different sort of structure that can take um again keep in mind this is not the lowest point so we're not going to see hopelessness from the protagonist you might see hopelessness from a side character but not the protagonist the protagonist is still moving forward they're still engaged in the conflict so the

next step typically that we see in the majority of stories is emotions will sort of be brought into light or verbalize so throughout the story we've probably had a pretty good awareness of what this character's flaw was the protagonist's flaw we we knew um you know they had whatever issue that they had but it wasn't verbalized no one outright said this is why this character sucks this is why this character needs to grow and at this point it is when we typically see a side character sometimes it will be the protagonist they will choose to

divulge information willingly but often this uh conversation this verbalization of the emotions the underlying feelings flaws etc will come from a side character sometimes they're asking questions sometimes they're outright chastising the protagonist for bad behavior they might be needling them about something that they've been hiding about their past and then typically at this point if there is anything that you've been um hiding as the writer any information that hasn't been divulged we will typically see it be divulged here so any pieces of backstory or or maybe a secret flaw if the flaws hasn't really been

explained outright that will typically come to light in this section so a good example of this is in shrek donkey they they've been traveling and then they stopped to rest and donkey asked track about the wall around his swamp and says you know what are you trying to keep out why do you have this wall and shrek says he's trying to keep out everyone and that the world has a problem with him and we know that he has thought this it's pretty obvious that shrek has thought that the world has a problem with him but

this is a verbalization of that it's sort of a heart to heart where that is brought into the light and focused on another good example of this is in the kids so in the kid russell the adult russell and his co-worker amy are watching russell's eight-year-old kid self and russell sort of says you know doesn't seeing him make you despise me you know he's a dweeb he's a loser and he talks very negatively about his child self and amy his co-worker says you know no she thinks he's cute and she asks do you despise yourself

and um the adult russell says that you know he basically yeah he does despise himself and that seeing himself as a kid reminds him of all these negative childhood memories and makes him unhappy and it's a verbalization of something that we we have seen but now it's really being focused on and brought to light and then again uh with toy story we actually see this come more from buzz where woody confronts buzz and buzz says um you know he woody finds buzz at the tea party with the decapitated dolls uh in sid's sister's room and

um woody you know says come on you know let's go and bus says you know he's a sham he's a fraud like he's not a real space ranger and he's very unhappy and depressed and they have sort of a verbalization of the underlying emotional problem so that's typically what you will see at this point next you'll usually have a failed attempt to solve a problem so this failure at this point it typically is sort of a almost a punishment for previous action so it's not that the character in this moment is necessarily doing something irrational

or dumb or something that doesn't make sense it's that the reason they fail is because of something that they set up earlier or a mistake that they made earlier a flaw or a misinterpretation something that's connected to sort of the emotional core of the story so for example in toy story woody tries to get the toys um in andy's room to help him across the window so they're next door at sid's house this kid who likes to destroy toys uh woody goes up to the window he tries to get his friends across the street to

help him cross over through the window they won't help him because of how he treated buzz earlier in the film because they feel that he should save buzz and if he doesn't have buzz with him now and buzz as we mentioned is uncooperative he's depressed so he's not um willing to sort of go to the window and be like hey guys i'm fine you know help us get across he's depressed um so buzz won't help him the toys don't believe woody and that is sort of something that woody caused but not in this moment so

it's sort of something that he set up as a problem for himself earlier on so that's sort of the nature of the failure at this point it's typically something that was set up earlier um in this story so another example would be in shrek he sort of rehearses telling fiona how he feels he has flowers he's going to go to her and tell her you know that he cares about her and has romantic feelings towards her and he ends up overhearing her talking negatively about him and this is really uh something that sort of set

up both from fiona and um shrek's flaws so fiona does uh if you're not familiar with the story fiona turns into an ogre at night and she doesn't want anyone to know this they she wants everyone to think she's just a beautiful princess all the time so she sort of hides at night so he overhears donkey and fiona talking about this and thinks that what fiona is talking about is shrek himself and this is sort of built on both the flaw of uh shrek believing the world is against him and fiona believing that you know

she can't tell the truth about the fact that she turns into an ogre so he overhears her say you know princess and ugly don't go together he thinks she's talking about him and so his plan fails there he doesn't end up telling her how he feels he sort of drops the flowers and walks away so this uh failure here typically is not a meticulously planned attack on the antagonist this is more of a spur of the moment thing in most cases so in most stories this is sort of an impulsive attempt to solve the problem

or it's more in the moment it's not something they've been planning for for an extended period of time so a good example of this is in liar liar fletcher goes to the bathroom during the court case he can't lie so he's really not doing well in this court case and he comes up with this idea that maybe he can beat himself up pretend like he was attacked in the bathroom and then they'll postpone the court case as a result of that so he does beat himself up in the bathroom and then he comes into the

court case and the judge asks him you know well you know he based the judge basically says we should reconvene another time you know you just got beat up unless you think you can continue and because fletcher can't tell a lie which is something that was established earlier on in in a response to his own failing so his son wished on his birthday cake that he wouldn't be able to lie because of his own flaws he now can't lie so he then tells the judge yeah i can continue and so his plan is foiled because

of that another example is the woman in black and woman in black arthur tries to save a child from a burning building he tries to save this child from the ghost but he fails and the child dies and he's obviously very uh unhappy and heartbroken about this um this movie is a little bit tricky because actually um and again i'm going to completely spoil this movie but the the ghost can't be stopped and so his flaw here basically is thinking that he can stop the ghost even though he's been presented with evidence um that the

ghost can't be stopped so that's sort of where the previously established failure comes from um in this film so after this failure typically what happens is things get even worse and this usually takes the form of time running out a ticking clock a plan that's revealed or a secret that comes to light most things will fall somewhere in that category in terms of what makes things get worse at this point this should create a really big insurmountable obstacle a major calamity this is a big big blow to the character and this should be very obvious

to the viewer or the reader this is not a subtle plot point this is a very big calamity this is sort of everything has gone out the window kind of problem a big big problem so a good example of this is toy story so in toy story sid straps a rocket onto buzz it's sort of like a firework that's going to explode and he literally sets a timer and puts it down and that's where you get the ticking clock or the time is running out element so in the morning when this alarm goes off um

sid is going to set off this rocket and buzz is going to explode and also uh as a sort of double whammy um their boy andy is moving the next day so if they don't get home tonight they're going to miss the moving bus anyway so you sort of get a double element of time is running out another example is in the woman in black a psychic woman tells arthur that the ghost is going to be after his own son and his son is coming into town the next day on the train so he knows

then that when his son comes into town this ghost is going to try to kill his son this may be less overt in situations where there isn't a clear antagonist or where there's not a bad guy or a villain so for example in the sixth sense um malcolm is actually the one who causes this plot point to occur so malcolm the um adult the therapist who's trying to help cull the child he believes that his wife is falling in love with another man and so he decides you know this this is bad you know i'm

losing my wife you know i'm our marriage is falling apart i need to do something right now and he is the one who tells cole you know i can't be your doctor anymore i can't help you anymore so he's sort of self-creating this sort of calamity moment another example of this is in shrek so in shrek fiona is really hurt by shrek's behavior and sort of the way that he's talking to her but of course fiona's also really worried about the fact that she turns into an ogre at night and she doesn't want anyone to

know that so she actually sets the ticking clock um because she wants to get married to lord farquaad before the sun goes down so that lord farquaad does not see that she turns into an ogre at night so she's the one who sort of sets that ticking clock deadline of um getting married before the sun goes down so even though there is an overt antagonist uh with lord farquaad um fiona is actually the one who sets that ticking clock herself in some cases this will take the form of a secret that's been revealed so something

the character lied about earlier on the protagonist told a lie or hid something and that will be revealed here and it will sort of cause a breakdown of relationships or cause a sort of calamity usually of a sort of interpersonal nature the kid is a good example of that and the kid russell told his coworker amy that he destroyed a tape they're sort of image consultants and they help people sort of look good in the media and there's this really nasty client and russell filmed this video of him that tried to sort of present him

in a better light but it wasn't very truthful uh he told amy that he destroyed it but he actually lied and he didn't destroy it um and amy sees that tape play on the news and that sort of creates this calamity she sees you know he didn't really destroy this tape and she realizes that he lied so that's what sort of causes this moment in that film so whatever form this takes it should appear at this point that the protagonist has no way to succeed there is no obvious way to reconcile the problem there's no

obvious fix the reader needs to be or the viewer needs to be really right there with that protagonist feeling like there is no obvious way out of this situation and that is what will spark the all is lost the dark knight of the soul the lowest point whatever term you want to use the most hopeless point of the story so at this point the protagonist will typically feel very unhappy typically pretty depressed hopeless they may not really even be trying anymore at all to solve the problem because they have no idea what to do they

have no chance um as far as they're aware of solving the problem at this point so um a good example of this is in shrek shrek has a fairly prolonged um dark night especially for a children's film it's it's a bit longer than i think you would expect and he sort of has a falling out um with donkey so fiona leaves she goes off with lord farquaad and then donkey's like sort of trying to be friends with shrek again and shrek rejects him because he's mad because of the conversation he overheard between donkey and fiona

and he thinks that doggy sort of sold him out to fiona was sort of talking bad about him behind his back we then get a very sad montage of um fiona um getting married donkey being on his own and shrek being on his own in his swamp and everybody is really unhappy and sad and there's no obvious solution to the problem at this point another good example of this is in the sixth sense so malcolm is very unhappy about not working with cole anymore for him this is also representative of another failure so he failed

with a previous client with similar problems so during that down point this dark night he's sort of sitting looking over the old case files of his other client that he feels that he failed and um just being very unhappy because this was something that he wanted to resolve from his past he thought by fixing cole's problem now it would be like he had saved this other client of his from the past that he feels that he failed so this is a very unhappy time for him to be reflecting on that it's very unhappy and there's

not a clear solution in the woman in black arthur gets to the train station to try to get home before before his son boards the train so that he can stop his son from getting on the train and coming into the town where the ghost lives but the train station is already closed he can't get to his son his son is going to come into town and the ghost is going to end up going after his son so this is a very low um unfortunate circumstance big calamity big emotional blow to the character and this

will lead to the very last element of the third quarter which is the major realization at the second plot point so like we talked about earlier in the video the second plot point typically is going to be filling in some kind of blank from the midpoint or providing a correct interpretation of something that was misinterpreted at the midpoint you can typically think of this as sort of the last piece of information that's necessary for the character to move into the climactic sequence or the fourth quarter so this is the last sort of big new piece

of information they need to formulate their attack plan or to know what to do in order to stop the antagonistic force or solve their problem so usually um not always but but in many many cases there will be a sort of pep talk that occurs usually a side character could be a sort of um parental figure a teacher type figure could just be a smart best friend um it's usually a more side character so it's usually not the closest secondary character it's usually a little bit more of a distant character but it could be a

close character could be really could be anyone but it's fairly common that there will be a pep talk in the kid we talked about earlier in this second plot point he realizes through having a conversation with a very side character really an incidental character um he takes this woman out to have coffee and she tells him you know this kid is here to help you you're not here to help the kid so again we fill in that sort of blank or we correct that misinterpretation at the midpoint and she's the one who sort of gives

him this pep talk in this explanation that sort of sparks his realization about what needs to happen um in toy story woody is actually the one so again here we do have a closed character uh giving the pep talk he's actually the um protagonist of the film but like we mentioned with um kid stories there may sometimes be sort of shared plot points between a couple characters so buzz and woody are almost co-protagonists in the film and woody actually is the one who gives the pep talk uh it's a little bit unhappy and depressing but

um buzz feels you know uh that he's a failure and then he has nothing to offer and he's not a real space ranger and woody talks to him about how important he is to andy and how you know he says there's a kid next to her who really needs you and this is actually a dual uh point of realization because uh this actually it sparks buzz into action it gets buzzed to sort of say okay let's do it you know i do have importance i am valuable let's go let's let's try to solve this problem

um it is also a realization for woodys because he realizes that he hasn't been putting andy's needs first in his jealousy with buzz so here we have more of an emotional realization um maybe kind of unusual for that type of story especially a kid's story or more action story often the second plot point realization um will be more plot driven but it's often not the case like when we talk about the um how structure plays out it's part of what i want to do to do this series it's not always how you might expect so

this is more of an emotional realization here and then that sort of sparks them into action with the climactic sequence there are then of course plot element realizations and plans and things that happen as well but that big moment is more emotionally focused so the pep talk of course is not required in the sixth sense malcolm is sort of uh listening like i mentioned he's listening to these old uh tapes from his previous client who he associates with cole the the main boy in the film um and he realizes on this tape that he actually

can hear a ghost so on the tape for his old client he hears a ghost and he has the realization you know if if this boy wasn't lying about hearing dead people then maybe this boy cole also isn't lying about being visited by dead people so that's the realization for malcolm malcolm actually does give a pep talk to cole and when he goes to colony tells cole you know maybe these ghosts just need your help maybe you should try to reach out and actually help them in many cases especially in genre fiction the second plot

point will really just be putting together pieces of information or clues that were previously acquired in a different way so a good example of that is the woman in black arthur sort of already has all the clues that he needs and all the information but he realizes based on things that he's already experienced that perhaps if he were to reunite the corpse of the child with the corpse of the mother who is the ghost woman in black who's killing kids maybe that would ease her suffering and she would stop killing people so that's sort of

a realization not really built on any new information in the moment but more just putting together information in a new way so this second plot point can take a variety of forms it may or may not be very plot focused it may or may not be very emotionally focused it's going to depend a lot on your individual story what this second plot point will always do is it will end the hopelessness it will end the dark night it will it will jettison that character out of that depression and into a sort of take charge let's

go you know let's move into the climactic sequence they might still be afraid they might be so worried um but they're not hopeless they're not giving up they're no longer in that that sort of depressive state so whether getting out of that depressive state requires a pep talk an emotional realization or more of just putting together plot pieces or putting together clues it's very dependent on your story the tone you're going for etc but it will always end that sort of hopeless depression and it will sort of set the protagonist off into the fourth quarter

into that climactic sequence which is what we will talk about in the next video so just as a quick refresher the sequence of events for the third quarter in most cases not all but in most cases there will be an emotional downturn after the midpoint it's usually brief it may be long it's never going to be super hopeless the character is not going to be giving up here in some cases it may be the side character who gets this emotional point then emotions will come to light or emotions will be verbalized backstory may be revealed

the nature of the flaw may be revealed anything that hasn't been overtly said will often be outright stated here sometimes by a side character sort of bullying yelling at needling questioning the protagonist but it may also just be um a heart to heart that the protagonist initiates in some cases next there will be a failed attempt to succeed this failure will be something that is related to what the character set up earlier so related to a mistake the character made in the past their actions though logical now will not work and it is basically their

own fault based on something it to some capacity it's their own fault based on something they did earlier on the next is that things will get even worse usually a plan is revealed a secret's revealed a clock is ticking or time is running out and this sort of gives that real crunch time moment um where the stakes become really really high this will lead to the dark night of the sole lowest point whatever you want to refer to that as and this will be a sort of depression because the the protagonists will realize there is

no way out of the situation where they don't know any way out from that there will be an optional pep talk possibly from a side character in most cases from a side character but as we saw it can be coming from a main character and then there will be a major realization which is the second plot point and this will be something that takes them out of that depression and sets them on that path into the fourth quarter uh to to go through the climactic sequence and actually confront the antagonist or the antagonistic force or

their problem so i really hope this gave you a better understanding of what happens in the third quarter um i know this can be a really tricky section the middle can feel very daunting and big and and i'm hoping that this series is helping break down structure into a little bit more understandable digestible and useful parts um if you have any questions as always put them in the comments i will probably probably be making some follow-up videos that go into a deeper analysis of films and books so that we can look a little bit more

at these plot points but i'm really hoping that this video series is helping you guys the next video will be on the fourth quarter um i want to say a very very very huge thank you to my patreon supporters who supported me while i was sick it really really meant a lot to me it really helped me out a ton and i really can't thank you enough for for your support during that time it really really meant a lot to me with that said i hope you are all doing really well that you are all

saying healthy and um that your writing is going well and that you're finding these videos helpful i will be back again i'm not exactly sure i'm still not a hundred percent healthy but i'm hoping it will not be too long um before i get back but in the meantime happy writing guys