What is your plot editing method? There are a lot of them out there, and surprise! We’re here to give you another.
This system of checkpoints is based upon natural storytelling beats. Making sure you have the biggest scenes in the right places will give you a lot of leeway in reader experience, and you can shift other scenes around easily once this structure is in place.
Ideally, you want to take your total word count of your novel to figure out these percentages and see if the applicable scenes fall on that percentage point. You can be off by a scene or two, but the most important scenes work best when they fall dead on your checkpoint.
The Inciting Incident
within the first 10% of your story
It’s very likely that you understood your inciting incident before you ever began writing. It’s often the “I wonder what would happen if” authors consider that inspires their writing from the very beginning. What’s key about this checkpoint is its ability to show a transition from your character’s normal life to the new series of circumstances that drive their story. We all have things that happened in our life that split everything we think about into a before and after this major moment. Your inciting incident should be one of them for your character.
Some authors like to start a novel with the inciting incident, as its captivating action is a quick way to get readers on board. But afterward, they must either travel back in time or have characters reminisce to show readers what a normal day before the inciting incident changed everything. You need to give readers a sense of each to give a basis for who your main character is at the start of their journey so we can appreciate how they change over the course of it.
The First Act Break
~ 25% of the way through your story
Until this point, readers should be spending their time fully understanding the life of your character before the inciting incident and how this particular moment changed their situation irrevocably. But now, at this act break, you can begin creating complications and transitioning to rising action.
Of all of the story structure checkpoints, this is probably the one that can most easily be fudged a little bit. If there are pacing checkpoints in your novel to obsess about, it probably isn’t this one. Still, though, it’s good to have a clear idea of which scene makes this transition and keep it within the 20-30% range. Anything outside of it will feel unnatural to readers.
The Midpoint
~ 50% of the way through your story
Of all of your checkpoints, this is one of the most important to get right. Why? Because half way through your novel is when your lead characters should transition from reacting to situations as they come upon them to taking action themselves.
By the midpoint, your readers are getting itchy for a major change again since they haven’t seen one since the inciting incident. If you do it too early, the plot line will feel rushed and readers won’t think your characters feel fully fleshed out. If it takes place too late, readers will lose interest and put the book down. Too much of the same. You’ve got to have that transition less than a scene away from that 50% of your word count to keep readers turning pages.
The Second Act Break
~ 75% of the way through your story
This checkpoint is primarily one that reflects a change in pacing. Yes, you’ve been building tension throughout your rising action, and it has your readers moving through pages quickly. But in order to really get that payoff, the next ~ 15% of your book should be moving at a remarkable pace. A lot of editors call this the mad dash.
One event here at the break should set your plot in motion and not allow for moments of pause until that climax has been reached. If you’re writing a thriller, that may look like a literal clock being put on your character’s life. For a romance, it could be one multi-stage event like a wedding that leads up to the first kiss.
The Climax
~ 90% of the way through your story
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for as an author. It’s the final answer to the “what if” you posed with your inciting incident. And, honestly, I’m not going to harp on it. You know the drill. You know the importance of this scene for getting good reviews. You are reading lots of information on how to write a better climax. And it deserves a lot more space to breathe than this paragraph. Just keep thinking on it as you write your other scenes. You’ll get it.
The Denouement
the final 10% of your story
It’s likely that you’ll have a few loose ends to tie up after your climax, but most of your final section of story should be dedicated to doing the opposite of what your first did: transitioning to the new normal. This section of the book should slow significantly. In fact, it’s likely to be the slowest point in your whole book. It’s a great time to give us a similar moment to your very first scene. But your characters have changed. So what about their lives has as a reflection, and what has stayed the same? This is where you solidify your character arcs and give readers something great to expect from your next story.
These checkpoints are a great way to begin self-editing your novel. Though working with an editor will come with many other techniques not mentioned in this blog, having a checklist of turning points in a novel is a great way to make sure you’re meeting reader expectations with less wasted time and energy.
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