The Two Halves of the First Plot Point

The First Plot Point is one of the most important turning points within the entire structure of story. As with all of the major structural beats, the idea of a “turning point” offers the inherent concept of two halves: turning away from one thing/state into another thing/state. The First Plot Point is often referred to as a threshold or “Door of No Return,” which offers another type of visual metaphor to represent the native two-sidedness of all the major structural beats.

Last week, with a post about the Two Halves of the Inciting Event, we kicked off a little informal series in which we are breaking down the major structural beats into the halves that create their crucial scene arcs.

The beats we’re exploring are:

Inciting EventFirst Plot PointMidpoint (or Second Plot Point)Third Plot PointClimactic Moment

As the transition between the First Act and the Second Act, the First Plot Point creates a tremendous arc—out of the protagonist’s Normal World and into the symbolic Adventure World of the plot’s main conflict. It is one of the most crucial beats not just for getting a story off to a good start, but for ensuring that the following plot mechanics can operate at full capacity. A weak (or missing) First Plot Point can irreversibly damage the entire story. I would argue weak First Plot Points are one of the main reasons readers put down a book and never finish it.

In writing a story with a strong First Plot Point, it is important not just that it is there at approximately the correct timing (around the 25% mark), but that it includes the two crucial and important halves that will ensure it creates the necessary arc into the Second Act.

Once again, here is a quick overview of all the major structural beats and their recommended timing:

The First Act (1%–25%)

The Hook – 1%

The Inciting Event – 12%

The First Plot Point – 25%

The Second Act (25%–75%)

The First Pinch Point – 37%

The Midpoint (Second Plot Point) – 50%

The Second Pinch Point – 62%

The Third Plot Point – 75%

The Third Act (75%–100%)

The Climax – 88%

The Resolution – 99%

This series is discussing the intrinsic structural halves of the italicized beats.

What Is the First Plot Point?

Although all of the “main” structural beats (those listed above) are necessary for a strong and complete story structure, only three of these beats are classified as “major plot points.” These are the beats that divide the story into fourths (taking placing at the 25%, 50%, and 75% marks). The First and Third Plot Points mark the transition between acts (the Midpoint, or Second Plot Point can be seen to do this too, if you prefer thinking of the model as Four Acts instead of Three).

In short, plot points are a big deal. In some respects, they can be thought to be the entire story in microcosm. This is because the plot points, more than any of the other beats, signify not just a turning point or a “movement” of the plot—but a total paradigm shift or reversal of the protagonist’s current course of action.

We can recognize this in the terminology that often refers to the First Plot Point as the Door of No Return. What happens at this plot point, and indeed all of them, cannot be reversed. Particularly in the case of the First Plot Point, even if the protagonist could return to the Normal World, he could not return to it as it was (or as he was). In short: the First Plot Point has consequences.

Within the customs of the Hero’s Journey, this is the moment when the protagonist leaves behind the Village and embarks into the unknown wilds on a dangerous Quest.

The First Plot Point signifies the end of the First Act’s setup and the beginning of the conflict proper. From here on the protagonist is totally absorbed in seeking a goal—and in struggling against an antagonistic force that is creating conflict by throwing up obstacles to that goal.

Screenplay by Syd Field (affiliate link)

So what are the two halves of this important beat? Customarily (and hopefully not too confusingly), I have always referred to these halves by the names I first learned in Syd Field’s book Screenplay: the Key Event and the First Plot Point.

Over the years, people have often been confused by this distinction, since it quite obviously separates the Key Event from the First Plot Point as a beat of its own. But in harking back to the doorway metaphor, I believe the best way to distill the symbiotic relationship of the two is to view them as existing immediately on either side of the same doorway.

If you visualize your entire First Plot Point as a doorway between the First Act and the Second Act, then you can see your Key Event as the moment when the protagonist steps into the doorway, and the First Plot Point as the moment when the protagonist steps out of the doorway.

This concept will of course be dramatized in a either a single scene or a sequence of scenes. In fact, the Key Event can take place much nearer the Inciting Event (at the 12% mark) than to the First Plot Point proper (at the 25% mark), depending on how your First Act requires you to set up the entry into the Second Act.

Regardless of timing, what is important is that the Key Event and the First Plot Point function as two halves of the same whole, acting together to create an arc that, just like any good arc, reverses the “value” of the scene or sequence (from happy to sad, passive to aggressive, ignorant to curious, etc.).

Now, let’s take a look at each of these two important halves.

The Key Event

Put simply, the Key Event is where the protagonist actively engages with the conflict for the first time. It is a choice of some sort.

The previous Inciting Event introduced the protagonist to what will be the main conflict. I like to think of the Inciting Event as the moment when the protagonist “brushes against” the conflict. Up until the Inciting Event, even if the protagonist was aware of a desire for the story goal and/or the problems created by the antagonistic force, the protagonist was not yet asked to face, confront, or perhaps even acknowledge its presence in or impact upon her life.

A good example of this can be seen in romance stories. As mentioned last week, the Inciting Event in a romance is almost always the first (or at least the first “true”) meeting of the love interests. They may have been completely unaware of each other’s existence prior to this moment. But thanks to the Inciting Event, they “brush against” the main story goal and conflict, which will be, of course, their relationship.

But they are not yet “connected.” Either or both can walk away (and indeed, in fulfillment of the Refusal of the Call, probably will do so). Not until the Key Event/First Plot Point will one or both initiate an active choice to engage with one another in a way that neither can subsequently walk away from unchanged. Continuing with the romance example, this “engaging with the conflict” might be as simple as the two leads deciding to go on a first date and begin their relationship. On the other hand, in an adventure story or the like, the protagonist will make a choice to pursue the plot goal that later (in the second half of the beat) will pit him against the antagonistic force in some way.

Regardless of genre, the Key Event is the protagonist’s response to the Inciting Event. It is a further reversal from the Refusal of the Call. Whether or not the character really wants to or is yet committed to fully engaging with the conflict and leaving the Normal World for the Adventure World, she is at least making a choice to do something about the situation. Therefore, the Key Event is when the protagonist engages with the conflict.

The First Plot Point (Door of No Return)

So then, if the Key Event is where the protagonist chooses to do something to respond to the Call to Adventure and engage with the main story goal in some way, what then is the First Plot Point?

As ever, the point of there being two halves to the major structural beats is that these halves create an “arc” or a reversal of value. This value will be inherently emotional, but particularly in the case of the First Plot Point it should be dramatized through physical value as well.

If the Key Event is about the protagonist’s choice to respond to the Call to Adventure, the First Plot Point proper is then about the consequences of that choice.

You can also think of it like this: the Key Event is something the protagonist causes to happen; the First Plot Point is something that happens to the protagonist.

But, of course, the link between the two is not random. As with all good story developments, what the character suffers should always be a direct result of his own choices (if not necessarily his culpability). The most interesting character development almost inevitably arises from consequential situations for which the character must, in some way, take personal responsibility.

Back to our metaphor of the doorway, the protagonist’s decision to engage with the Key Event allowed her to step into the Doorway of No Return. Now, in the second half of the beat, we get to discover just what that choice entails and why it is one from which there is “no return.”

In adventurous or dramatic stories, this principle of “no return” is often created by literally destroying the protagonist’s Normal World or in some way barring him from it. For example, in The Terminator, Sarah Connor’s friends are murdered and she herself is attacked and must leave her Normal World to go on the run from her would-be assassin.

In a romance, the consequences are usually much less violent and perhaps even implicit, in that the now-dating (or whatever) characters must begin to grapple with the incompatibilities, great and small, of their new relationship.

You can also see less dramatic but still absolutely consequential First Plot Points in stories such The Great Escape in which the First Plot Point signals the departure from the Normal World of the prison camp simply by having the characters begin digging their escape tunnels. These tunnels both represent the new Adventure World of the Second Act and also represent a course of action from which the characters cannot turn back, since the evidence of their escape attempt is now writ permanently within physical reality.

In this instance, the true consequences are delayed (in fact, until the Midpoint when one of the tunnels is discovered by the German guards), but what is important is that the characters’ choices in the Key Event and their actions/reactions in the First Plot Point cannot be reversed. The characters have committed to the main conflict—and the Second Act can now roar out of the station.

Within the nomenclature of classic scene structure, the Key Event can be seen to be the character’s Goal (and therefore decision to act), with the First Plot Point  functioning as the concluding Disaster—which, in this case, will prompt the need for the entire subsequent plot.

Together, the Key Event and the First Plot Point create that all-important threshold of the Door of No Return between the First and Second Acts. If you can get your protagonist through that door, then you can be sure you’ve also gotten your story off to a good start.

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Stay tuned: Next week, we will take a look at the two halves of the Midpoint: the Plot Reversal and the Moment of Truth.

Previous Posts in This Series:

The Two Halves of the Inciting EventWordplayers, tell me your opinions! Can you identify both the Key Event and the First Plot Point in your story? Tell me in the comments!

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