Originally posted on Jane Friedman on October 18, 2024.
Story structure: it’s either the silver bullet for a compelling narrative or the bane of your writerly existence.
You’ll hear countless theories, paradigms, and structures of how to keep your plot healthily paced, and all of them have different names: Three Act Structure, Save The Cat, and Kishotenketsu to name a few. No matter the title, all plot structures prescribe milestones of change your characters need to hit to fit into your genre.
Middles are especially hard because even when you study structure, the beginning and endings are more regimented, more obvious. Unfortunately, that means the larger–and just as important–middle is left sagging. Not out of the lack of skill or care, but out of confusion.
So when it comes to the middle of your story, what do you need to succeed?
It’s easier to digest story structure if you accept this concept: every scene of your story should hinge around a major point of change that keeps your characters on course.
The trick is to do this without completely derailing your character’s mission. The hook sets the scene, the inciting incident sparks the problem, and the climax eventually brings everything to a head, allowing you and your readers to exhale in relief at last.
But when you zoom out and look at the full scope, what to do with the bulk of the story?
It helps to think of your plot as a Rube Goldberg machine: an intricate design of turning points that need to be hit correctly. If a single domino tile isn’t in alignment with the hammer that will push the bowling ball onto the track, the whole machine fails. Forward momentum is vital. No piece can be misplaced.
Another way to define plot is a series of small problems that connect to the main story question. Set up a clear line of milestones that the reader can follow, even if the character cannot predict them.
As long as your characters are aiming towards a goal, your story has structure.
First thing to do is create a plot point roughly halfway through your manuscript that you can aim your plot towards. Perhaps the reason your middle starts to sag is that there is no central switch you’re steering your characters towards.
Many different structures prescribe different requirements, but rather than point you on a wild goose chase to hunt down the perfect one, let’s discuss the overall goal.
Often referred to as the midpoint, I call this point the Stake Shift, because while the fundamental story question doesn’t change, the intensity and our understanding (not necessarily the characters’) of the story changes.
Take the original trilogy of Star Wars from the 70s and 80s. All three movies focus on rebels undermining the Galactic Empire, but the ending of the second film is littered with climactic shake-ups. Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite, Luke Skywalker loses a hand, and Darth Vader utters those five fateful words: “No, I am your father.” A fallen friend, a literal separation from his iconic weapon, and a revelation that shakes Luke’s sense of self to its core.
Aw yeah, now that’s a stake shift.
Planning this shift as soon as possible allows you to become less blindsided by mushy middle problems. Even if you’re not the type to work with an outline, know how important it is to plan a high point of meaningful change.
Not only will this work show readers you have good instincts for storytelling, but it can also help you diagnose story problems later on.
Remove key players. Set up a seemingly insurmountable roadblock. Reveal the terrible consequences of a choice the main character made. There are many ways to go about this shift, so start by brainstorming the most interesting/mind-boggling twist you can inflict on your unsuspecting characters.
Still feel like you’re walking around in a fog? Here are two tips to help you find the best one.
Introducing new information is a great way to keep your story on track while changing up your trajectory. Shatter your character’s expectations of how their future will go. Don’t knock them out of the sky yet, but kick up the turbulence.
What makes the Star Wars example so powerful is that it doesn’t change the overall story goal. They still must stop the Empire, but it’s become morally more complicated. Will Luke follow his father to the Dark Side? Are we at risk of losing our hero’s soul? Or will anyone find redemption in the end? This creates a new troubling dynamic that shakes the faith of the cast while gripping your reader’s attention.
The new information can also be positive, such as a new clue in a murder mystery to reenergize the investigation. If you have multiple points of view, you can cut away to the antagonist making their move to undermine the hero’s efforts.
Lots of ironic tension comes from the reader knowing something the characters don’t. Too much can frustrate the reader, but just enough can pull them deeper into your world.
So what shocking truth can you introduce to perplex your protagonist? Enrapture your reader? In fact, what kind of truth can you reveal to the protagonist… about themselves?
Another way to approach the middle is to find a way to shake up the main character’s worldview.
Creating an inescapable moment of reflection will ramp up your story’s momentum. Does your protagonist like what they see? Are they increasingly hopeless or hopeful about their future? And most importantly, what will they do about it?
A fully fleshed-out character typically has some hang-up that’s holding them back, whether they’re aware of it or not.
After all, what gripping story doesn’t have a healthy dollop of ego death?
And if the midpoint doesn’t shake that up, we at least need to see the scales start to fall off the main character’s eyes.
They may not be fully prepared to wrestle with the truth… but their time is coming.
If your characters weren’t taking their problems seriously before, they desperately need to now. Everything after the midpoint should lead directly to your finale.
Time is running out. No detour should stray too far away from the plot’s throughline. A new perspective or vexing revelation just shows how urgent the protagonist’s efforts are.
Now, instead of wandering, you and your characters are revitalized, rattled, ready to fight.
While modern Western story structure often has the same format, the way this unfolds in each story can be different.
Keep in mind the many milestones of change needed to hold up your story like tent poles. Allow your middle to hold up the heart of your story. Heighten the emotions, either with hope or fear. Deliver on your premise from start to finish, no lulls in between.
A quick warning: Don’t change the scope of your story so much that it’s unrecognizable (like switching the genre too far from the original). It’s possible that a carefully planned twist can backfire on you, so make sure you foreshadow it enough that your readers can follow along, or at least not feel too jostled.
The sooner you pinpoint all the major moments of change in your story, the tighter your plot will become. The clearer your structure, the more powerful your writing.
Author Accelerator certified book coach and founder of the Inkbound Writers Circle. She writes Epic Fantasy, Romantasy, and helpful articles on writing craft. She lives in Silicon Valley with her family and her handsome cat, Sherlock.
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