Dogs are Smarter Than People/Write Better Now

Last week, we talked about pinch points both on the podcast and on the blog, and honestly? Nobody seemed super into it, but we’re finishing up this week. This post is going to be a bit more about the first part of act two of a three-act story, focusing on the time from the first pinch point to the midpoint.

Pause for a plea: Look, I know plot structure isn’t sexy the way character development or drama and obstacles and conflict are, but it’s super important. It makes a difference in your book wooing readers and in it wooing agents.

K.M. Weiland has a really lovely graphic that we’ve included in the podcast notes about where to put those pinch points.

Weiland is a bit of a goddess about structure and what she says about this first pinch point is this:

1. It comes about 37% of the way into the story.
2. It tells us that the bad guy has some power.
3. It can be a whole big scene or just the tiniest of moments
4. It sets up “the next 1/8th of the story, in which the character will slowly begin to grow into a new awareness of his story’s many truths–and specifically the truth about the nature of the conflict in which he is engaged.”

Right after this big and important pinch point, the hero of your story aka your protagonist moves into the section of the book that comes before the book’s halfway point or midpoint. Weiland calls this space from 37% to 50% a realization place and scenes for your character growth. The protagonist understand what’s going on a bit more. She starts to react with that knowledge informing her reactions and then her actions. Cool, right?

She writes, “In itself, the First Pinch Point does not reveal the true nature of the conflict to the protagonist. Rather, it foreshadows it by providing a peek at facts the protagonist has barely grasped as yet.”

She uses the movie ALIEN a lot to explain this. At the first pinch point, the crew realizes that the alien creature isn’t what they were thinking it was. Their choices start to be informed by that until the midpoint, which Weiland calls the MOMENT OF TRUTH.

At the midpoint in ALIEN that alien smashes its way out of one of the crew’s chest.

The truth of what they are dealing has exploded in the ship and on the screen (and on your novel’s page).

“It’s instructive when watching movies to observe the protagonist’s facial expressions prior to the Moment of Truth and then afterward. Before the Midpoint, he’ll often look baffled as he struggles to keep up with the conflict. Then the light dawns in his eyes at the Midpoint, and from that moment on, there’s a look of knowing determination on his face,” she writes.

Larry Brooks defines pinch points as “An example, or reminder, of the nature and implications of the antagonist force, that is not filtered by the hero’s experience.”

DOG TIP FOR LIFE

Sometimes in life, your defining moments don’t come at the midpoint. - Mr. Murphy

So, what he’s saying is don’t think that there are certain points and ages in your life where you have to get things done. Life is not a book and it doesn’t need to be a three-act structure.

PLACE TO SUBMIT

These are via Authors’ Publish.

Bannister Press: Other – the 2024 fantasy short story anthology

There are some things in the writing world that don’t make a ton of sense in the world of regular humans.

One of those things is pinch points.

This podcast episode is going to be the start of a quick series of podcasts and regular posts about pinch points. The regular posts will be at our Substack LIVING HAPPY under the WRITE BETTER NOW publication.

So, what are these little twerps called pinch points?

They a way of thinking about novel or story structure that helps us keep the reader engaged.

Pinch points are moments where the tension emerges again or is heightened. It’s a place where you seductively say to the reader, “Hey, baby. Let’s engage again.” Or maybe it’s that they are saying, “Dear Reader, let me remind you what exactly is at stake here for our poor, dear, pathetic hero.”

The pinch points are where the protagonist or hero of your story gets a little bit of pain. Ouch. So mean, us writers are so very mean.

As Writing Mastery describes, “They rekindle the tension that may have waned by reminding us of the primary conflict and what it means for the characters. Without stakes, readers will quickly lose interest—therefore, pinch points are events of the plot that, strategically placed, keep the narrative from losing steam.”

“In the traditional Three-Act Structure, the first act introduces the characters, setting, and conflict, while the third act culminates in the resolution. The second act, which constitutes the middle portion of the story, is often the longest and contains the rising action. Pinch points punctuate this act to create a sense of urgency and drive the story forward.”

Pinch Points Are Not Plot Points

So, here’s the super important thing. Pinch points are not plot points. Yes, there is a lot of P-words in there, but to pinch is not to plot, though a dastardly villain might plot how to pinch.

Plot points

• move the story forward
• are events
• connect the events of your story so it’s not episodic.

Pinch points

• Raise stakes or increase the conflict.
• Obstruct the hero from getting her goal, so often focus on the bad guy of the story or the antagonist and this is a big part of it, this is what makes it not a turning point
• Make the reader curious about what might happen, make them worried about what might happen, so keeps them reading
• Show us what our heroes are made of because of the extra pressure that these challenges create.

As Writers Helping Writers writes, “New writers often concentrate on the Hook, Midpoint, and the big twist at the end. But without well-placed Pinch Points, the story will lose its sense of rising action,

There are a lot of people who advocate spending just an hour a day doing something to become awesome. That hour a day is often learning. You study up about what you want to do, you self learn, you teach yourself to be better by learning all about the thing you're into.

So, if you're into writing, you read books about writing and actual books. You study the craft.

So, if you're into knitting, you study knitting. Entrepeneurship? Same thing, but first you probably have to learn how to spell it. My bad there.

There's a cool graph here that talks about how if you read a certain number of books, how you compare to other American adults. It's also a bit depressing because it basically says most Americans read two books a year.

Hallel K has a post on Medium about how you can use the 1-hour rule to catapult yourself into the 1% and I think that's a great post, but it's a little hyperbolizing. We like hyperbole though, right? It makes things easy.

Hallel uses a quote by Earl Nightingale.

“One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do — Earl Nightingale”

This might make you think, "Yes! Right. So true. Epiphany moment."

Or it might make you think, "Who the hell is Earl Nightingale?"

Well, he has a Wikipedia page? But basically he was a motivational speaker and a radio show host that died in 1989. He wrote Strangest Secret. And to him it's all about risk taking and he also said that the problem with people's lives and lack of success isn't cowardice, but conformity.

According to his definition, a success is when you go after a goal and achieve it. Deliberately. And only 1 out of 20 do that, he said.

The key, he said, is creating, not conforming, deliberate creation. Goals, he said, bring you places. A ship, he says, that has a crew and captain has a destination and it gets out of the harbor and ends up to its destination. But a ship without a destination? Without a captain and crew? If you just turn on the boat's engines, it might not even make it out of the harbor.

Deliberate learning. Goals. Focus. That's what matters, he says. Reading, learning? Those are important aspects. Maybe you won't get in the top 1% of whatever you're going toward, but you will get smarter, closer, and have deliberate action.

DOG TIP FOR LIFE

Pogie claims to be in the top 1% of Begging. She's an International subject expert in Food begging. Study in the morning and at night. This, however, is a photo of her apprentice, Mr. Murphy.

COOL EXERCISE

This is from MasterClass and it's all about goals.

"Create Realistic Goals

"If your goals are unrealistic, they’ll be unachievable and overwhelming. Don’t let your passion for finishing your novel cause you to push yourself too hard and set goals that simply aren’t possible. For example, it might not be reasonable to set a goal that you will write your novel in one month. Neither should you set a word-count goal to write 10,000 words a day—especially if you also have a full-time job. Setting reasonable goals in the first place will make it much easier for you down the road.

"Consider setting writing goals that you can accomplish step-by-step, one day at a time. The best thing you can do is create daily habits that will help you reach your goals—rather than burn yourself out early wi