Alpha stage.
Every story has three acts. The three pillars you need to know about and use in your story are Plot Point 1, Midpoint, and Plot Point 2. Now, Act I and Act III are about half the story, while Act II alone is the other half. That’s a rough estimation. Obviously, you can experiment.
Now, let’s go very quickly through the three pillars.
The first act ends with Plot Point 1, or Turning Point 1, or whatever other writers call it. The thing is that at Plot Point 1 you enter the second Act.
Plot Point 1 is what happens to the protagonist that leads them into the Dark Forest. That is a reality completely different than their ordinary world. If they were a happy student in a normal university, with a normal family and regular friends, after a certain turn of events they are now on the run or on the outside. No more family, friends, or riveting lectures in the university. They are now in a world so strange to them that it deserves to be called the Dark Forest.
Midpoint is what its name suggests—the middle of the story. Which coincidentally is the middle of the second Act.
It is also called the Point of No Return. That means that if for some reason the protagonist wanted out, they should have done it sooner. At Midpoint, it is too late for them. Something happens that puts them into the situation that the only way out is forward.
It seems obvious—I mean the writer knows that the sucker needs to get to the end of the story. After all the writer wants to finish writing the story. The reader holds a book in their hands so they too know that the poor guy will eventually reach the end. Is not like you have books where on the last page the protagonist says: “F* it! I’m done.” And they return home and live happily ever after leaving that particular story unfinished.
But you have to show it. You have to write in such a way that the protagonist has no escape but to move forward.
And they move forward towards Plot Point 2. Which is the passing point from the second Act into the third Act.
At this point, something happens that gives the protagonist a possible solution to win the war. A possible solution to solve the mystery. A possible solution to answer the central question of the story: “Will the protagonist get out of this predicament?”
And pivots them into Act III and towards the ending of their story.
So, what’s next?