WRITE YOUR NOVEL: Tips from a NYT Bestseller

Lesson 4: Reversals

Lesson Four: Reversals and Pinch Points

I want to spend a little time looking at how to use those high-impact scenes, your Turning Points, to wed your character to the action, as well as increase the Emotional Velcro between your character and your audience.

So here are more tools to put in your writer's toolbox:

Pinch Points: A secret from Hollywood

Pinch Points are emotional bridges that pull the Second Act together. They're less about the Action of the plot and more about the Emotion of the theme.

In the three-act structure the acts lay out thusly (for a 400 page book):

Act One:

P.1—Opening

P.40—Call to Action

P.100—TP #1/End Act 1

Act Two:

P.200—Midpoint

P.300—TP#2/End Act 2

Act Three:

P.360—Black Moment/Climax

p.400—Resolution/ending

Notice how huge Act Two is—half the book (or more as Act Three is often the shortest of all the acts). That's 200 pages to fill—without boring the reader!

But look at Act Two using Pinch Points:

P.100—TP#1/End Act 1

P.150—Pinch Point #1

P.200—Midpoint

P.250—Pinch Point #2

P.300—TP#2/End Act 2

Now you only have fifty pages (in a 400 page novel) between major, high impact scenes. Ah, fifty pages, that I can handle!

If a pinch point is a high impact scene, but not a major plot/life-altering turning point, what is it?

Think emotion, think theme.

Theme is what separates Drama from Action. Theme reflects primal, universal emotions. It's the ultimate Emotional Velcro to connect your audience with your story.

Imagine a long single span bridge. The thick buttresses that support it are your major turning points. But it takes more than that to support such a long span, right? Woven between the buttresses are smaller, subtle but strong, supports.

Some of these supports come from subplots that mirror or oppose the main plot's theme. These might be thinner but are sturdy buttresses in their own right (as they actually add up to Turning Points of their own secondary story).

Or the additional support could come from a multitude of wires—emotional subtext skillfully woven through the main plot (this is especially true of shorter books where there's no room for a big subplot).

Plot is character in conflict; taking action, changing over time.

We start Act One with the character acting "normally" BUT we end Act Two with the character changed—with more change promised in Act Three.

We show WHY the character must change through the main plot and story conflicts.

Pinch points let you take a short breather from the main action and show HOW the character changes by letting the reader in on their Inner conflicts and goals. More emphasis on what they NEED rather than what they WANT.

In romances and thrillers, these are often the "quiet" scenes—the ones where nothing seems to be happening but you can't forget them because so much actually DID happen, emotionally.