Plot Structure: It All Hinges on Change

Every story needs to have a turning point, some kind of fulcrum or pivot that radically transforms your narrative.  You could (if you were me and had a door fetish) think of it as some kind of hinge enabling the heroine, and your reader with her, to pass from one state to another.  Here's one I prepared earlier...



...from the west doors of Sens cathedral.

For many, the turning point comes as some sort of recognition, what Aristotle called anagnorisis: a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the writer for good or bad fortune. The key word here is change.  The whole purpose of telling a story is to show the effect that experience and events can have upon your characters.  As readers, we need to be inspired to see that change is not just possible, but something we are capable of initiating ourselves, and fiction shows us how to set about it.

The moral of all of this?  When you are constructing your story, think hard about all the nuances of transformation that are available to you. The pivotal moment which you engineer should not just affect your hero and heroine, as the way in which they are transformed will have an effect on those around them.  In your narrative, nobody should be completely static. You could also explore the opportunities for a change in location, mood and certainly in tempo.  Structure and plot are interdependent, so even if you don't know exactly what the moment of revelation will be when you set out, make sure all the elements that you need are in place well in advance.