Day 28: Outlining the Middle 50-75% of Your Novel

Hey there, Igniter! Monica Leonelle from theworldneedsyourbook.com, and today is day 28 of the challenge. We are doing outlining for the 50 to 75% section of your novel. This is day 28 of the challenge. We're doing outlining for the 50 to 75% section of the challenge. Um, you're— we're still doing the Ultimate Novel Plotter. This time we're focusing on the attack. The warrior energy. It's also the second half of Act 2 if you're looking at a 3-part structure, or if you're doing a 4-part structure, it is Part 3 of the 4-part structure. So once again, we have pretty similar— a pretty similar set of beats to Day 27, where we talked about outlining the 25 to 50% of the novel. So I'll just go through that. So once again, the thing that distinguishes this section from the previous section is the previous section was a passive section. The protagonist is passive in that section. In this section, the protagonist is active. And so if you are having things happen to the protagonist in this section, then you, you're gonna have a problem with your novel. And then the same with the last section. If you have the protagonist like making moves in that section, then you have a problem. So those two things are very important to keep separate, basically, which is not to say that the protagonist cannot, you know, take action in the last section, but they really— they, they still have to have things happen to them rather than, you know, aggressively going after what they want, I guess. Now in this section, we are aggressive. So the protagonist is gonna be aggressive and is in it to win it at this point. So the first thing is we just had this major reversal moment, and so similar to the decision, there's the decision from the setup that kind of transitions the character into the new section. This is— that reversal moment is also going to do that. It's going to really pull the rug out from under your character and get them fired up as well. So typically the protagonist is angry after the reversal and they are motivated to take action. And so you want to show this transition between the passive to the active and you can, you can even give them like a weapon or a new piece of information or whatever to symbolize that. So the very first thing you have to do is you have to show this, this reaction and this, this miniature transformation of the protagonist. The second thing is that you're going to get into basically the next big action steps. So who does your character attack first? And it doesn't— this doesn't have to be a battle. It can be like, like in a romance, it would be like at the 50% mark, maybe they have a kiss and then there's kind of a fallout from that. So it would be like, well, what— like now, now those two characters are truly considering that they both have feelings for each other still. Um, so they're truly considering that relationship and they're looking at like, well, what is blocking us from having this relationship? So they may like be actively having a conversation, or they may, you know, be actively in kind of investigating the other person, or they may just even be actively exploring the relationship. So in, um, Twilight, for example, After Edward and Bella realized that Edward's not going to kill Bella, basically, they— like, a lot of the moments after that are like their first real date. Like, she goes to meet his family. She, you know, they're, they're doing kind of these things to explore how their relationship is going to work and if it can work. You know, I think he, he also like spends the night in her room and they spend a lot of time talking. You know, and so there's, there's a lot of, uh, there's just a lot of like, um, exploration there of their romantic relationship. And, um, that's pretty, pretty typical in a romance. So you're, you're typically going to see the characters exploring the possibilities there once, you know, once that 50% mark is broken and kind of like you know, realizing that they have feelings for each other. Once that is sorted, the next thing is to explore the relationship. In a thriller or like a sci-fi or fantasy, this is an actual battle. That reversal moment, they actually battled somebody, um, and so their, you know, their, um, guess like their charge-up period, the period after that is actually going to be, um you know, a bit more like physical, like they're, they're going to actually go like attack somebody or they're going to come up with a plan. So in The Hunger Games, she, you know, Katniss is mad at the tributes, that the career tributes who had attacked her and were trying to kill her, like they had been hunting her directly. So she decides that she's gotta attack back, and Katniss has also gained a supporter She has an ally now, so she's able, you know, they're able to come up with a real plan. So Katniss also has accumulated, and she got like her bow and arrow, so she's accumulated enough resources that she can actually carry, you know, pull off an attack on them. And so she does that basically. What else? Yeah, so you're gonna have, again, this is kind of like, So this beat, the second beat here, whether the big action steps the character takes, who does he or she attack first, this is, you know, this is kind of a murky middle type of thing again. So you could do a lot of things here. So again, go back to your false beliefs because that is going to be a roadmap to kind of help, you know, help steer you in this section to not go off the rails at this part of the book. So yeah, it's a good, you know, if you're doing a more like, so even though Katniss is doing a, she's attacking and carrying out this attack plan, she also gets hurt during that. And then she also loses an ally during that. So, and that kind of re-triggers her fatal flaw specifically. So again, this is a major spoiler for that book or for that movie if you haven't seen it. But basically what happens is she has an ally this character named Rue. Rue is a 12-year-old girl who is very similar, um, in both age and in nature, like just this very innocent girl who is, um, very similar to Katniss's sister, uh, Primrose, who, um, she— who is the one that Katniss is even at the Games for. Like, she sacrificed herself to protect her sister. And she's— so, you know, Katniss takes this liking to Rue, and she really, she really like wants to protect Rue, and she's not able to. And Rue ends up dying during this attack, and Katniss feels responsible for it. And it just completely re-triggers that hopelessness that Katniss feels for, um, for the children, for the innocent ones, the children. And like I've said this in other days, Katniss doesn't want to have her own children because she just doesn't believe this is a world worth fighting for in many ways. And so just really this whole event is very specific. And that's what I mean by not going off the rails. So there could have been a lot of things in this section But Suzanne Collins comes from screenwriting, and so she has a background in television and movies, and she wrote the book like a movie, basically. She really understood this concept of fatal flaws. So this is a very emotional moment when Rue dies because it traces directly back to that fatal flaw that Katniss has. And if it hadn't done that, it wouldn't be emotional. You know, that's the bottom line. You know, the other thing is Katniss kills somebody during that sequence and kills them pretty much in cold blood. Like, and yes, they attacked— she kills the person who killed Rue. So she kills him like very immediately. She has no remorse for it. And that also strikes at her core values. That kind of reminds— the readers of like, you know, she set out to do these games and it was a question for her whether she was going to kill anyone or not. But, you know, she killed— she ends up killing that guy, that child who's also— and to be clear, like everybody in these games are children under the age of 18. So she ends up killing him and it's It's like a very— you know, there are so many layers to this moment that are all— the reason it has such emotional resonance is not because Rue dies. It's because of what Rue meant to Katniss and to see that taken away. So I think a place where people really get off track when plotting their novel is they do not understand this fatal flaw and false belief stuff that's going on under the surface because that's what creates the emotion. So you could have had another character die in the section and it wouldn't have the meaning to Katniss because, you know, it just, it wouldn't. Like this has a very specific meaning because it goes back to Katniss's fatal flaws and false beliefs. So this is the type of thing that you wanna put here. And yeah, I think I've said enough about that. Okay, so once again, you will have an antagonistic force sighting. So this is between the 50% mark and the 75% mark. And so this is, this is at about 62.5% of your novel. And you can track this. And if you, you know, if you have a Kindle, go to the Hunger Games book at 62.5%. I promise you, you'll find this beat because That's how exact some of these major bestsellers are, truthfully. So like The Hunger Games is one of them. You know, as I said before, Twilight is one of them. The first book in the Harry Potter series is one of them. And you know, also the subsequent books, they follow the same pattern, but it's like these books that are major breakouts, they follow this to a T. So, you know, about at that 62.5% mark, you're gonna have another antagonistic force sighting. So this could be the actual villain of the story, um, where you just kind of like see them but there's no interaction or conflict. Or it can be somebody, you know, right below them, so like a henchman. Um, this is, uh, yeah, this is kind of— this is basically the actual villain, the right-hand man of the villain. If it is the actual villain, then typically the villain and hero, they can't actually fight yet. And that's a big thing. You can see this in— you see this in like shows like The Flash or Arrow, you know, the ones that are based off of comic book characters. You will see this beat like almost every single time where they, they're like right there and they see each other and the villain like runs away. So the villain does not enter a conflict with like The Flash, for example. And I promise you, like every— like watch any episode of it, you'll see it because it's just such a part of that, those beats. But so basically it's the same here. You don't want your character to fight the villain because you don't want them to— you don't want them to have the finale before the finale, basically. So that's, that's why, you know, it's typically either like a no-conflict sighting or it's a, you know, it's like a right-hand man, but still there's like a no-conflict— like, it's not no conflict, but it's like a draw, basically. So whatever the, whatever the battle is here, it's going to be a draw. All right, so that's going to be important. And this is, this is another one of those tentpole moments or anchors for this section. So then, whatever actions does the protagonist take, what else needs to happen going into the final battle? And so there's more false beliefs, the challenges are getting bigger. So what this is in The Hunger Games is basically, um, It's basically that Katniss— this antagonistic foresighting, um, I haven't looked this up in a while. I think it's that Katniss, um, Katniss is alone again. She's unallied, you know, Rue is dead. She's kind of like wandering through the woods again, feeling a bit lost. And the game makers— so first she finds out that Peeta is not dead. She still hasn't heard his name announced as dead, and Peeta is like her, you know, her partner in some of this. And then she finds out that, um, there's a rule change in the game. Two tributes from the same district can partner up to win the Games. And so there's this rule change, and that is kind of, you know, I think that's like I think that's the antagonistic force sighting in this section because right when that happens, you know, Katniss yells out "Peeta!" and then from there she is going to go on to find Peeta and to nurse him back to health. And so that kind of takes her into this fourth section of what other actions does the protagonist take before going to the final battle. So in The Hunger Games, you know, after she defeats the, um, she kind of like blows up the, the career tributes' food, um, and then they kind of squabble and start to, you know, fight each other or whatever. So she does that, she loses Rue, and then this antagonistic foreshadowing is like finding out that Peeta's still alive. And then, um, the other actions that the protagonist takes is that she goes and tries to nurse Peeta back to health at the risk of her own life. And so she has— there's a couple moments there, like she has to go back to the Cornucopia to get the medicine he needs, and she has to like have this fake relationship with him to receive help from, you know, from fans at the Capitol, basically. So it's quite a bit more defined, I would say, than even the other section. So it's kind of like, I feel like in The Hunger Games at least, that antagonistic force setting really divides this section nicely into like, you know, her time with Rue and then her time with Peeta. And so you can learn something from that in terms of, 'cause that's basically like one ally and then another ally. And they're two very different allies with very different purposes. So, um, then we have the cards on the table moment, uh, and this is a, um, you know, this is the last piece of information before the final battle. Um, and for The Hunger Games, this is when they figure out— so Peeta's back to health, um, so Katniss and Peeta are good to go in terms of of, you know, um, continuing with the game. They're good to go into the final battle. And then additionally, it, it gets down to just Katniss, Peeta against Cato. So that, that's what they believe the final battle is. Um, I also want to say that, you know, during this whole, during this whole thing, I think a lot of people would miss that antagonistic force setting because it is the Gamemakers, um, as opposed to being like Cato, for example, or like another, another, um, another one of the tributes. So, you know, they do— I guess they do have to see, um, they do have to go to the Cornucopia, so that could be part of it as well. But I think it— I do really think it is the game makers coming on. And I think, I think it really, um, you know, it really gives you that piece of information that like the end battle is actually with the game makers. So I think that's very important for The Hunger Games specifically, is that they've changed this rule, um, and Katniss believes it, but I think there's that part of her that doesn't, um, and doesn't doesn't believe that it's actually true because she's never, she's never seen it before, and the game makers can really just change the rules at any time. So I think there's that piece of it where, um, she figures out that she's kind of been manipulated by the end of the book. All right, um, cards on the table moment. I talked to— I, I talked about this with, um with the poison berries as well. And the poison berries are really the symbol of going into that final battle. All right, so there are worksheets for this. You can do, you know, scene numbers, scene description, scene notes. There are 11 pages of this. Thank you so much for watching and listening. If you have any questions, make sure you leave a comment in the comment section. And if you'd like to sign up for the challenge, It's not too late. Day 28, you can still sign up though. There's lots of good materials on the other side of that sign-up. Make sure you check out the links in the description if you want to do that. Hope that this has been helpful to you. Have a wonderful day!