what's up my friend Abby here and welcome back to writers life Wednesdays today we're talking about outlining the middle Act of a story which for a lot of writers is the hardest part of a story because we're past the beginning and We Know How It Ends but how do we get there while keeping the readers engaged and also how do we throw in an irresistible plot twist while we're at it that's what today's video is all about as you might know this month we're talking all about outlining a riveting novel and if you haven't seen
the first two videos in this series already check those out right here or in the description box below I'll leave the links there and I really recommend watching those videos first if you haven't seen them because they totally lay the foundation for this whole outlining method and talk about the the beginning obviously outlining the beginning is kind of important you can't bring readers into the middle of your story if you didn't bring them through the beginning right so go watch those videos make notes then come back here and we're going to dive into act two
crafting the middle ground of your story in such a way that readers will not be able to put it down because we all want people to lose sleep over our book right oh yeah all right so act two picks up right where act one left off right after the protagonist made a decision because of the inciting incident that now sets the whole story in motion chances are they didn't make a right decision they made a fear-based decision because they're still being ruled by their fear and their misbelief about about the world okay so going into
act two in the threea story structure here's a glance at how it flows reaction plot twist action not too scary right I feel like when we think about the middle Act of the story it's like there's so many hundreds of miles between us and the end of the book but really when you break it down like this it's not intimidating at all and it's going to be even less intimidating in a minute because I'm going to break down exactly how to craft this reaction plot twist action in such a way that is unique to your
story but engaging to Anyone who reads it okay so first story beat in Act 2 the pre- midpoint reactionary hero kind of a mouthful I know basically it means this protagonist is in pursuit of their goal but something is going to stand in their way thanks to the decision your protagonist made at the end of act one they're now a man or woman with a plan they now have a goal that they are actively pursuing essentially they're going after the thing that they think will make them happy while steering clear of the thing that they're
afraid of let's call this the pre aha moment fear-based goal or just the stupid goal but the stupid goal doesn't seem like a stupid goal to your protagonist on the contrary your protagonist thinks it's a very good idea whether she's running to something or running away from something the motivation is the same get to the Finish Line where happiness awaits and avoid as much pain as possible along the way this means your protagonist is not responding she's simply reacting same goes for any any obstacles that appear in her path large or small she's going to
react to them with what's familiar that's what we do when something throws us outside our comfort zone we test these new ideas and events against our hard one truths that we've come to believe and decide what to do next based on our current beliefs whether or not they're right so ask yourself how is my protagonist going to execute her plan achieve goal avoid pain what is her step-by-step plan for making this happen even if she doesn't know all the steps s outlining that plan step by step is going to help you pull the reader through
the story it creates that road map that ticking clock it's like the difference of driving at night with high beams on versus driving at night with no headlights on at all which by the way I 10 out of 10 do not recommend but you know what I mean like giving your reader a sense of see where this is going actually makes them more interested to keep reading otherwise it's like wandering around in the dark there's no goal no plan no road map how can you be interested in what's ahead if you have no freaking clue
what's ahead exactly so give your protagonist a plan even if it's a stupid one especially if it's a stupid one now as you reach the midpoint of your story it's time for the plot twist or as I prefer to call it the gamechanging midpoint Don't Panic this doesn't have to be some crazy twist of fate that nobody saw coming okay if it is cool that's great that's awesome but if you're writing something like contemporary Fiction it's kind of hard hard to get like super dramatic with your plot twist or midpoint I mean how do you
write some big crazy plot twist when there's like nothing remotely twisty going on in your story I write a lot of contemporary so I'm very familiar with making plot twists happen in a story that's really not conducive to some dramatic plot twist here's the Golden Rule the only thing a game-changing midpoint has to do is shift the protagonist's goal and surprise the reader and it doesn't even have to be some big surprise basically you want to throw a monkey wrench into your protagonist's life again remember that step-by-step plan they were trying to create well this
is the part where their plan totally blows up in their face because a whole new challenge arises something they didn't even see coming and it changes everything now there's some debate as to whether or not a plot twist has to surprise the reader if it does surprise the reader cool great but if the reader can see it coming no big deal sometimes it's better to let a reader anticipate a turn of events it creates that sense of rising dread that we always talk about instead of throwing them for a loop with some crazy plot twist
that they never would have guessed but that part is totally up to you the thing your game-changing midpoint must do is surprise the protagonist and live up to its name by changing the game so ask yourself what unexpected thing is going to happen to upend my protagonist's plan and entire life why does it matter to my protagonist given their desire and fear how is it going to change the game for my protagonist crafting a plot twist sounds like such hard work right but honestly it's not that big of a deal it's more of an emotional
shift than anything that's what we talk about all the time right how everything has to be internal so even if you're writing some Epic Fantasy story where your plot twist is that like the whole world explodes or something I don't know it won't really be a good plot twist T unless you show the reader how it matters to the characters like I said I write a lot of ya contemporary most of it's like romance genre and one of my go-to plot twists is when my two characters love interest start to realize that they're in love
with each other it seems like such a small thing but really it's a big deal for the characters it's unexpected it changes the game and it has a specific meaning to the characters based on their desires and fears so after the plot it's time for the third movement in the second act the post midpoint Action Hero in other words thanks to the gamechanging midpoint the protagonist now has to switch gears when it comes to their goal hence the gamechanging part this is part of the secret to pulling readers through the middle Act of your book
presenting new obstacles for your protagonist to overcome which pulls them closer and closer to their darkest lowest most horrible moment of their lives that's not going to happen till act three so don't get too excited first we have to figure out how your character is going to handle the plot twist it's sort of like another inciting incident shoving them further outside their comfort zone and presenting a new and unexpected challenge most stories just let their protagonist kind of fumble their way through this turn of events without any real Direction but I want you to do
what you did before the midpoint and that is create a step-by-step plan that your protagonist is going to try to execute you want to give the reader that sense of see where this is going it will keep them engaged and wanting to know what happens next see when our curiosity is peaked the area of the brain that regulates pleasure and reward lights up in other words curiosity gives us a dopamine hit not even knowing the answers to questions but the questions themselves that's what captures our attention and that's why stories that present an irresistible question
or challenge grab us we want to know what happens next because we can foresee what might happen so ask yourself what is my protagonist's new plan going to be based on the game-changing midpoint and what it means to them how does my protagonist think their new goal is going to bring them to where they want to be while still avoiding Their Fear remember the gamechanging midpoint usually makes the protagonist make even more bad decisions because she's still trying to get what she thinks will make her happy while steering clear of the thing that she's afraid
of this isn't the aha moment yet okay protagonist is still in survival mode but now she has a plan and she's actively pursuing it a new plan another plan a plan B because she thinks it will actually bring her to where she wants to be little does she know disaster's on the way and before we close out act two we have the second pinch Point remember how in the first pinch point we showed the reader how the antagonist or antagonistic force or opposition was looming in the distance well in the second pinch point we're basically
just showing how the antagonist or antagonistic force is even closer to disrupting the protagonist's life remember it doesn't have to be an actual villain or a person it can even be the protagonist's misbelief in fact better if it is better if it's something internal that's going to come back to attack them in act three whatever is the big opposition that your protagonist is going to have to face off with at the climax of your story that's what you're going to give the reader a little taste of in this story beat now I'm never super structured
with my pinch points if you want more than two go for it put them wherever you want really but you can't go wrong with this structure so ask yourself once again how can I show the antagonistic Force or opposition coming closer to disrupting the protagonist's life and boom that's the end of act two that's how you outline an engaging middle that will make your readers just want to keep reading and reading and reading and it will make you want to keep writing seriously if you have this much emotion and Challenge and conflict happening in the
middle of your story you will not get bored writing it I used to panic about the middle of my story because I thought like I have to write all this filler before I can get to the big fun climax at the end but oh my gosh has that changed for me no joke the middle is now my favorite part of a story to write because you're really in the thick of all this CL all this not the climax the conflict you're in the thick of all this conflict and emotion and it's just so good if
you know where you're going you have this outline it's so good so there you go I hope you made some notes and I hope you're pumped up to outline act two of your story next week is the final video in this series and you guessed it we're talking about act three more specifically how to outline an emotional roller coaster poster of a climax that's perfect for your story and just like everything else we're not just outlining what happens we're outlining why it matters to the characters focusing on the internal and emotional battle inside the characters
which makes a climactic confrontation possible for any type of story even cute fluffy romcoms so make sure you're subscribe to this channel so that you don't miss next week's video where this whole thing will come full circle and you will learn how to outline the perfect gripping climax for Your Story smash that like button if you like this video also comment below and tell me how do you like this series so far are you excited to outline the climax of your story did you just outlined the middle of your story and are you feeling better
about the middle of your story now is it like this is going to be good also I've been seeing some of you guys commenting and saying that you're using this outlining method to outline your novel for Camp Nano next month and that made me so happy like you have no idea how much that made my day you rock you're awesome thank you for being here until next week my friend rock [Music] [Applause] on where did we lose our you live you learn when you heart is set to burn F in away until the life would
return
