The Most Basic Roadmap Through Your Novel with Ninja Writers

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Ninja Writers, a 2020 NaNo sponsor, is a writing community that helps you build a bridge between your imagination and your novel. Today, Ninja Writers creator Shaunta Grimes shares a helpful story structure to keep you on track with your writing:

Imagine it’s the beginning of November and you’re starting an epic month-long road trip. You’re headed from California to New York City! You’ve got your car packed, your playlist loaded, the good snacks in the front seat. You’re ready to go.

So, you pull out of your driveway and you start driving. You even manage to get going eastward, but you end up in Florida a month from now after winding all over the place between Canada and Mexico.

Ah, right. You forgot your roadmap. 

Starting NaNoWriMo with the spark of a story idea is like an epic road trip we take every November. The good news is, we don’t have to head off without a roadmap. There are five key plot points that every story has. (Yes. Even yours!) If you figure yours out for your story, you’ll have some guideposts to keep you headed in the right direction all month long (or to get back on track if you’ve gotten lost).

I’ve taught thousands of Ninja Writers how to easily and quickly plot this course through their stories. It’s often the difference between a good start that goes nowhere and a great finish.

You can learn more about these plot points and how to use them to go deeper into plotting before you start writing. I even wrote a book about it. But just having these basic guideposts creates a roadmap that’s really all you need.

The Inciting Incident

I like to think of the inciting incident, or the call to action, as a question. Often, it literally is. The question at its core is this: Do you want to come into this story? This is the first really unusual thing that happens to your protagonist in the story.

The Inciting Incident generally happens somewhere in the first half of Act I, after you’ve developed the ordinary world.

The Lock-In

If the inciting incident is a question, the lock-in is the answer. Spoiler alert: the answer is always yes. Always. One way or the other, your protagonist has to get from the ordinary world into the world of the story.  The lock-in is the transition between Act I and Act II of your story. It happens about a quarter of the way through. 

The Midpoint

The midpoint is the second biggest moment in your whole book. In a non-tragic story, it’s a big, big win for your main character. I like to think of this as a window into what things could be like if everything just happens the way it should.

As its name implies, the midpoint happens in the middle of the book. It bisects Act II. 

The Main Climax

This is the biggest scene in your whole book. The main climax, in a non-tragic story, is often called the dark night of the soul. Everything is lost. The reader and the protagonist both don’t know how this could possibly turn around. 

The main climax happens at the end of Act II, about three-quarters of the way through your story.

A Note About Tragedies

Quick note before we move on. If you’re writing a true tragedy—meaning your main character is either dead at the end or would be better off dead—then your midpoint and main climax will be inverse. 

Your dark night of the soul, mirroring the tragedy of the end, will happen in the middle of Act II. Your high moment, the really good win for your protagonist, will happen at the end of Act II, to give you protagonist a big cliff to fall from into the tragic end.

Third Act Twist

The third act twist is the part where your protagonist takes everything they’ve learned through your story, and whatever strength they already had, and figures a way out of their mess.

Shaunta Grimes is a middle grade and YA author and a teacher. Ninja Writers lets her do both and is her happy place. Ninja Writers is dedicated to helping new writers become working writers. We offer dozens of live online classes and workshops every week and the opportunity to join a thriving writing community.

You can connect with Shaunta and Ninja Writers on Facebook or Substack. Click here to try the Ninja Writers Club for $5 for the first month.