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We’re at the midpoint! That means you’re at the midpoint in your story design process, too. So I learned the importance and value of the midpoint in a very untraditional way. I learned it during a class in medieval literature at Princeton. I was reading Chrétien de Troyes’s Chevalier de la Charrette (The Knight of the Cart). It’s the first story that’s written about Lancelot and Guinevere. Guinevere has been abducted by the evil Meleagant and taken away to his castle, and everybody vows to save her. Gawain vows to save her and he sets out. Lancelot is the first to vow to save her and he rides out from the castle, but on the way he meets a dwarf in a chariot, or in a cart, and the dwarf says I will show you where Guinevere is if you get in the cart. Now keep in mind that only criminals rode in a cart at the time, so Lancelot has to forsake his reputation in order to become the knight of the cart. Nobody will acknowledge him, nobody knows who he is anymore. They don’t see him as Arthur’s great knight. Gawain will refuse to get in that cart and he will basically fail in his quest to save Guinevere as a result. It’s not until the middle of the book that Lancelot is fighting in front of Guinevere, sparring for her, and a young maiden looks down and she calls out his name. She says, “Lancelot, the queen is watching you! Lancelot, fight your hardest!” This is the first time that we learn his name, and now Lancelot just summons all of his strength and he summons all of his power and he takes a stand, and he defeats his adversary, because in that moment, he is no longer just the knight of the cart. In that moment he reclaims his identity, and it’s not an identity that’s given to him because of reputation at the court. It’s an identity that he steps forward and claims for himself. 

That’s what the midpoint does. In the midpoint, your character moves from passive to active. What do I mean about that? Until now, the story has been kind of sweeping them along, right? They’ve been invited on a quest, they’ve been invited again. Will they stay? Will they go? They’ve crossed the threshold, but the adventure is sort of unfolding beyond their control. It’s happening externally. At the midpoint, something happens. The tide turns, the stakes change. They maybe no longer have the upper hand and they have to make a bold choice. They have to say, “This is who I am, and this is what I’m going to do, even if it involves risk.” Now that risk might set them into the downward spiral of the second half of Act II. That risk may even at the end of Act II result in the loss of a friend or a dear one or something that matters to them, but this is the moment for the protagonist to man or woman up. This is the moment that Wonder Woman says “No more. I’m not going to keep going through the trenches. I’m not going to follow all of you. I’m going to go across No Man’s Land. I’m going to reveal my armor, and like Lancelot fighting and sparring for Guinevere, I’m going to stake my claim. Right here, right now, because if not now, when? And if not me, who?” That’s what the moment of the midpoint does. It causes the protagonist to say, “This is my story, this is what I stand for. I’m willing to take risks and I’ll face the consequences of those risks even if I don’t quite understand them yet.”

You might ask also, “Well, how does that relate to life in person?” I find it really useful as a writer to think about how writing moments relate to our own human experiences, and for me, the midpoint is that moment where we start to sense that we have to take ownership of our process. Crossing the threshold is an exciting moment in our lives. We say, “Okay I’m going to do this,” but at the midpoint, the stakes start to be raised again. We realize that adversity is going to seep in and we say, “I stake my claim. This is what I want, this is what I’m going to do, and here’s how I’m going to do it. Not how other people think I should do it, but how I’m going to do it.” Will I have to face the consequences of that choice? Absolutely. In life and in stories we always face the consequences of those choices. Will it be a learning experience? Absolutely. The midpoint is not only a moment where the clock is set off and starts to tick, saying the resolution of the story is becoming pressing, there’s something at stake now, the stakes are being raised. It’s a moment where the character comes into their power. It’s a moment where they start to understand for the first time that power. It’s the kind of place where in life we say, “Not only am I here, I’m ready to do this and I’m ready to face the consequences of my actions. Even if I don’t understand them yet.”

© SJ Murray, 2018