How to Write a Midpoint

25 Guiding Questions for Writing an Act II Plot Twist

Learning Objective: By the end of this post, you will know how to use 25 guiding questions to outline a midpoint plot twist.

Spoiler Alert:

This post contains spoilers for The Vampire Diaries (Season 1), Bring It On (2000), Parasite (2019), August: Osage County (2013), and The Martian (2011).

In my experience, the craft element that makes a western story memorable is the midpoint. The definition of the midpoint is in its name. Approximately halfway through the story, there’s a surprise that undermines all of the protagonist’s efforts up until this point in the story. One of my favorite examples of a midpoint comes from the first season of The Vampire Diaries.

Damon—the season one antagonist—is a 175-year-old vampire who desperately wants to free his vampire girlfriend, Katherine, from a magical tomb. But the tomb is filled with 27 bloodthirsty vampires who will wreak havoc on the town if released. As a result, Elena and Stefan—the main protagonists—want to stop Damon from opening the tomb at all costs.

Throughout the first half of season one, Damon commits several violent acts to coerce Elena and Stefan into helping him break the spell on the tomb. When they finally open the tomb, Damon enters to find only 26 vampires inside. Katherine is not in the tomb. She never was; never has been. As a consequence of opening the tomb, the 26 vampires escape and Damon, Stefan, and Elena must now stop them from killing people in the town.

The moment that Damon realizes Katherine is not in the tomb is a perfect example of a midpoint because it (1) undermines his character goal and (2) creates a new concrete goal for him to pursue.

Effective midpoints are comprised of two key story beats:

1. Enter the Lair Beat

2. Plot Twist Beat

There are 25 guiding questions we can use to effectively create these two beats in our own stories. 

Before we jump in, you know what to do: take anything that’s useful and leave everything that’s not.

Midpoint Guiding Questions

The Enter the Lair Beat