Do you know your turning points?

Earlier today I received an email asking a question about a section of the WIP Notebook I created.  Someone was using it and wanted a clarification and an example of what a Turning Point was.  So since it ended up being a fairly long email response, I thought I would share it here. (Score, easy blog topic for Monday! lol)

I realized as I was piecing together my own answer on Turning Points that in some way building a story reminds me of the Maypole dances I did in elementary school come May Day.   Did you ever do the maypole dance?

Essentially, each child takes a streamer that is connected to the top of the pole.  You weave in and out of each other, weaving the streamers together in a braid-like pattern all the way to the bottom of the pole.  It’s probably not surprising that I loved the Maypole dance. I did it every year I was allowed.

And I realize that to me, Turning points in a book are much like the streamers of a maypole.  They are woven around each other, connected and yet separate, and combined, make one completed, beautiful project.

A turning point is generally the point in the story where the stakes are raised (this can be emotionally or externally) and something in the story shifts, such as HOW the heroine must meet her goal.

At the RWA Conference, I attended a workshop by Jenny Crusie on Turning Points — it was terrific, she illustrated the different turning points in a story:

The Struggle Begins: The Protagonist is living in her normal world when something happens, preferably on the first page, that turns her life around and starts her battle with the antagonist.
Then at about 30% of the story in . . .

The First Complication (or First Turning Point) turns the story in a new direction again, raising the stakes because of the new information, new pressure to fight back.
Then at about 55% of the story in . . .

The Point of No Return (or Second Turning Point) turns the story in a new direction again, and this time the impact is so great that the protagonist changes so much (has changed so much over the first half of the book due to her struggle) that she can’t go back to where she was before.
Then at about 80% of the story in . . .

The Crisis or Dark Moment (or Third Turning Point) turns the story in a new direction again, almost defeating the protagonist, making her revise everything she’s learned as she symbolically goes to hell and then rises again at the end of the story or . . .

The Climax or The Final Battle (or Fourth Turning Point) when the story turns once more, ending with the protagonist in a new but stable situation.

Let’s say that Jane Heroine has an outward goal at the beginning of her story: to buy back the home she was raised in from the family who currently owns it.  This is her outward goal and we will likely see her work towards that goal throughout the story — she’ll raise the money, she’ll find out who to contact, get ready to make an offer, etc.

Along comes Turning Point #1:  She discovers that her beloved home was sold to Big Bad Corporation — the head of which is her former boyfriend, the one who tore her heart to pieces when they were younger, the same one she’s keeping a very big secret from.  The major turning point is in her decision here — her goal hasn’t changed, but in order for her achieve it, her stakes are raised:

Emotionally: she has to face her exboyfriend,

Externally: she has to fight a corporation to get her house back.

Ultimately, she has to make a Choice here — continue toward her goal or give up.  She decides to go forward and face her ex. The story shifts — it also becomes about the issues between her and her ex, while still being about her initial goal.

Jane faces her ex, he tells her it’s too late, she can’t have the house, and she decides to fight. So she hires lawyers, does everything she can and nothing works.  Meanwhile, sparks are flying between her and Jake Hero, and she’s starting to feel old feelings again.  But he broke her heart…and there’s still that secret she’s keeping.

The reveal of her secret in the story isn’t a turning point, because it’s been part of her story all along, a part of her.  However, when Jane tells Jake that secret — when it happens, what she loses by doing it or gains by doing it– IS a turning point.  Let’s say that her secret guarantees that he’ll hate her for it… which not only loses her his potential love, but also would lose her what her original goal was — her home.  That would be a HUGE turning point, because she would stand to lose everything if she told him the secret. (This would probably be the “black moment”, too.)

Turning points can be emotional or external — but I think they are most effective if they are both.  For instance, Jane’s desire to buy back her childhood home would have a motivation behind it — and let’s say her motivation was to feel that safe feeling she hasn’t felt since she was a child.  She’s fixated on that home as the way to get that back… getting the home won’t actually fix that need for her, so if she DOES lose that home, it’s okay.  But losing the home would also be a Turning Point, because it would change her. It would force her to realize that her goal wasn’t about the house itself, it was that she hasn’t felt safe since she was a child — that she needs to find a place to feel safe.  Understanding this sends her (and the story) in a new direction…let’s say she’s lost the house, realizes it was never about the house, but now she has to make things right with Jake and figure out how to handle her secret together.

Crusie said something in her workshop that stuck with me — a turning point is an event, set of circumstances or declaration that changes the protagonist for good.  As in, even if everything went back to the way it was at the beginning of the story, this character would be forever changed in some way because of these events.

And that’s true for me. When I write stories, I know the path my character will take, what she/he learns, what changes they make in their world because of it.  The events of the book should change them in some fundamental way.

Take soap operas for example (I’ll use General Hospital since it’s one I watch sometimes) – a bad one.  I was having a conversation with my hubby about this very thing — a character named Jason Morgan on the show.  He’s the “hot bad guy” — a mob enforcer with a “heart of gold.”  A few years ago, the writers set this character on a path — he had a child, fell in love with the child’s mother, gave up the child for his own protection, eventually gave up the woman… and ultimately now, he’s exactly in the same place he was in before all of that happened.   Where is the satisfaction in THAT?  It’s a complete letdown.  His actions are unsatisfying, and the fact that he didn’t learn from all these major, major turning points in his life is even more so.  (But yes, he’s still very pretty to look at.)

So if you’re going to the trouble of creating turning points for your characters to face, they have to mean something in the end.  They have to change them.   Otherwise, we end up thinking, “What was the point of that?”