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@That_Writer_Girl_99 ha! See? You don’t even need me! 😀 You’re doing great by yourself. *grins* Really and truly you are.
I need to sign out now, so we’ll tackle the midpoint tomorrow, okay?
(By the way. I think I’m officially in love with Blake. He sounds like an amazing character).Haha. I am too.
Thank you soooooo much for everything you’re doing, Kate. @kate-flournoy
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@That_Writer_Girl_99 my pleasure. And really, it’s good for me as well. It helps me solidify and become more skillful with the things I’ve learned if I try to teach them. 😉
Okay… signing out now… have a lovely evening. 😉
Okay Elizabeth, here I am again. 😀
The next plot point is the Midpoint. This is where Kara transitions from reacting to the events of the story to actively pushing the story herself. Which means she needs to settle on what basic EiL she’s going to side with and start fighting for. She’s not going to think it out in so many words (‘I believe that it’s better to face the truth than be ignorantly secure’) but her actions illustrate what’s changing in her heart. Assuming Blake is the only one who holds the complete thematic truth, she’s going to side with him. Maybe she doesn’t do it openly— maybe she even makes a point of NOT siding with him— but she decides his way is best and begins to act on it whether she acknowledges it as his or not, actually doing something about her circumstances instead of just trying to survive.
So the whole point of this plot point is to emphasize that she’s made her decision and she’s strong enough in it to push it, not just passively believe it.
What does this look like from a plot standpoint? Welllll… any number of things. But the main thing to realize is, now that she’s declared herself for one of the EiLs that was fighting for her attention, all the others are going to be against her. Everything piles up on her from here on out.
Does that make sense? Any questions? Ideas?
Hi, sorry, I was wayyy to busy this weekend. Like, infuriatingly busy. And I’m only going to get busier…
The midpoint makes sense–I guess my only question is…how long between the different points? How many chapterS? @kate-flournoy
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@That_Writer_Girl_99 not a problem. 🙂
And… I really couldn’t tell you. It depends entirely on how long you want your story to be and how long it takes for you to properly cover all the different twists and various aspects of the plot. Intuition is my surest guide here, speaking personally— so long as the midpoint generally falls in the middle, all the others should be well in line.
Do you feel like you have a working understanding of this now? You wanna take some time to brainstorm or let it all simmer down and make sense? I’m here if you have questions, but I really think you’ve got what you need to know and I’m sure you can do this. You’ve done great by yourself already.
Okay @kate-flournoy Can we take a closer look at what needs to happen to Kara’s arc between the Inciting Incident and the First Plot Point, and between the First Plot Point and the Midpoint?
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@kate-flournoy Scratch what I said above. I think I want to talk about character arcs–especially pertaining to Kara and Blake–instead.
I haven’t decided which arc will work best for Kara, but I think Blake needs a flat arc. I mean, he starts out the story with a pretty firm stance on what he believes, and he starts on the right side of my…what did you call it? Thematic something or other? Anyway, Blake, at this point, is intent on changing the world around him. Kara just sort of…falls in the middle of his plan to start a revolution in the prison.
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@That_Writer_Girl_99 here I am! Thanks for your patience. 😉
Very good thing to start talking about, yes. Blake’s should probably be flat; correct. As for Kara, I’m thinking it’s going to be a bit of a mix between a disillusionment arc and a positive change arc.
What’s a disillusionment arc? Well… it’s a positive change arc. But instead of going from an ugly lie to a beautiful truth, it’s going from a beautiful lie to an ugly truth. The progression is still from lie to truth, but it takes a lot more courage to accept because the truth is ugly.
As for Kara… just in general, I’d say figure out what it is she wants. You know what she needs— courage to face the truth. But what does she want? Security, yes, but if you show that by her just hanging back and refusing to accept the danger, you run the risk of making her seem spineless.
So she should fight for that security. She’s a pretty low-key personality, but we root for characters that have convictions and act upon them (whether or not those convictions are all the way correct). So… she should be taking an aggressive role to defend her security, not just trying to be secure as she can in the confusion. That might even mean her having her own agenda— to get Blake out of the prison so he stops threatening the security they had before he came with his awful stories, to name one example. That would be a good way for her to have an active role in the story instead of just reacting to everything Blake does.Ideas?
Hello, my dear! I’ve missed you. I feel like I’ve been wayyyy to busy lately. @kate-flournoy
That might even mean her having her own agenda— to get Blake out of the prison so he stops threatening the security they had before he came with his awful stories, to name one example. That would be a good way for her to have an active role in the story instead of just reacting to everything Blake does.
I absolutely love this idea. I’ve been thinking a lot about it, actually, and it’s going to force me to dig into Kara’s deeper values a bit more. Sure, she might be shy and timid on the outside, but I think, given what you said, she needs to fight for her security. She wants to believe this lie, even when Blake confronts her with the truth. That being said, what if she tries to protect herself–and everyone else–from the truth? What if she can almost immediately come to grips with the weight of Blake’s truth? And she has to decide if she wants to protect everyone else? Or accept the truth by herself and leave everyone else to believe the lie?
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
Can I just pop in here for one teensy moment to say—isn’t Kate awesome? Kate is awesome. I’m done now. *disappears in a cloud of glitter*
@that_writer_girl_99 @Kate-flournoyINTJ ➸Your friendly neighborhood mastermind. ➸https://thesarcasticelf.wordpress.com/
OH MY GOODNESS @ETHRYNDAL, YOU DON’T JUST PRAISE PEOPLE TO THEIR FACES! XD
*can’t stop grinning* You have so totally got this, Elizabeth. It would be completely fine for her to come to grips with Blake’s truth and then spend the rest of the story deciding what she’s going to do about it. But I would be wary of that happening right away. That’s probably what you want to use for the midpoint.
Yeah. I definitely wasn’t planning on dropping that little detail right off the bat. @kate-flournoy
@ethryndal YES! Kate is my hero.Kate…I can’t tell if that was supposed to be a compliment or if you’re trying to tell me something… *winks* In all seriousness…really? Because I feel like when I try to do this by myself, my thoughts get all jumbled…
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@That_Writer_Girl_99 yep. Not being duplicitous in the least. That was totally a compliment and should totally be taken at face value. You’re doing great. Your thoughts probably feel jumbled in your head because expressing them on paper (and to someone else) is so much more organized it helps you think straighter. 😉
Well, at least one of us thinks I know what I’m doing. @kate-flournoy
Okay. So…I guess…I need to come up with how I want Kara’s character to progress, and then outline it from there?
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
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