Op-Ed A different way to approach a sagging middle

[Nikky Lee]

Saw this post on Twitter, thought some of you might find it useful.

Edit: for some reason I can only post 6 media links before they stop showing up, but essentially this writer's approach is to use a 4 act structure of 25%-25%-25%-25% where each act is building to it's own mini climax.






https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337641491136512
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337642875179013
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337644464898048
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337645924524032
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337647207895050
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337648558469120
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337650450173954
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337651733610496
https://twitter.com/AyanaGray/status/1327337653008625665

 

[CageSage]

I've always liked to work on the principle that the 25% between 1PP and Midpoint is an act that is non-assertive reaction (not passive!) to the 1PP and needs to show the initial learning curve and 'easy' responses, which all lead toward a crisis (the midpoint), then the 25% between the mid and the 2pp is the assertive actions taken based on the event at the midpoint. But whether it's called 4 acts or 3 with a midpoint, the principles all feel similar (with variations for genre and other categoric elements).
There are books about using the four parts: Ingermanson, Brooks (Larry - a bit verbose, though), a few others (probably many, many others).