Turning Point Three

Right around the 75% mark, readers and audiences are hard-wired to expect a major, game-changing setback.  For whatever reason, when we see a character making slow but sure progress during Act Three, something inside us just whispers "Oh, this isn't going to be that easy..."

And it shouldn't be.  Change and growth are painful in real life, they should be painful in stories too.  Your character might be on the straight and narrow, but at Turning Point Three, you have to give them every reason to tuck tail and run.

In A Few Good Men, Lt. Kaffee has spent Act Three gradually learning that he is a good trial lawyer, and he's been making real progress on the case.  There have been some challenges along the way, but he's certain his ace in the hole, Lt.Col. Markinson's testimony against Col. Jessup, will seal the deal.

But then Markinson commits suicide.  Kaffee's case is shattered, and all those old demons come back.  He pounds a fifth of whiskey, and laments to co-counsel Lt. Weinberg that his father was right about him after all.

Clearly, Turning Point Three hits Lt. Kaffee pretty hard.

And that's what all good Turning Point Three scenes will do.  Whatever else has occurred, this point must be the most grievous setback the character has yet encountered.  Save your most devastating ideas for this moment.

By the end of Turning Point Three, all your character should be assembled for Act Four, all your subplots should be wrapped up, and all character arcs major and minor should be on their downswing (not finished, but past their apex).  Act Four is all about the inevitable confrontation between protagonist and antagonist, and you want the way to be clear.

Turning Point Three does not raise the protagonist to the level of unconscious competence, because it needs to send them crying back to their flawed status quo.  Unconscious competence comes later.

In a lot of ways, Turning Point Three should be the most tense, riveting, and climactic moment of your story.  The only scene that has any right to surpass it is the coming Final Showdown.

Next, we'll look at Act Four.