writing

Suffering from mid-book sag? Is your story slumped in a sofa hole, not going anywhere? Don’t worry, rescue is at hand. Welcome to the mysterious midpoint and the miracles it will work for your book.

First things first, where does the midpoint fall? Right in the middle of your book, that’s where! So, if you’re planning to write a novel or memoir of 80 000 words then around the 40 000 word mark (adjust the maths to suit). To discover the midpoints of your favourite novels, flick the book open to halfway and you’ll see the midpoint unfolding.

Your midpoint is the tentpole which will hold up the centre of your story. Midpoints change things up, and most importantly make things worse. Much worse.

Think back to your inciting incident or call to adventure, the external event that forces your character to take up the quest or challenge of the story. The inciting incident falls within the first quarter of your book and starts the story action properly. Before then your character is quite happily (or unhappily) plodding along in their everyday world, until BAM, the inciting incident sets them off on a course of action which they have no choice but to pursue.

Once we’re into the body of the story, most of the plot points are based around actions that the protagonist decides upon and takes. They make plans, sometimes sensible, sometimes not, and carry out those plans. Unfortunately for them, they’re book characters, so mostly these actions only make things worse.

Then we hit the MIDPOINT. Like the inciting incident, this is another external event – the character does not choose this event, in fact they’d have run a mile if they’d seen it coming.

EXAMPLES

In Gone with the Wind, Scarlett has escaped the war in Atlanta and faced all sorts of dangers to make her way back to the family mansion. She arrives only to find it stripped by the Yankees, broken down and bereft. Not only is her home destroyed and the peace and plenty she’s hoped to shelter in gone, but her beloved mother has died. All the good and beauty has gone from her world, and she can no longer be the pampered princess she once was. She is being forced to change.

Sometimes the midpoint is where we realise that everything we thought was true has changed. The plot is flipped on its head and suddenly we’re in much deeper water than we thought.

In Titanic, for example, we’ve had plenty of tension and conflict with our star-crossed lovers from the start, but what happens at the midpoint? Can you guess? Suddenly we go from a troubled cross-classes love story to a story of survival when The Titanic hits the iceberg. We are in deep, cold water, literally.

In Gravity, the astronaut who’s been sent spinning into space after an asteroid shower finally reaches the ship, only to find it is out of fuel. In Fatal Attraction, Glenn Close tells (the happily married to someone else) Michael Douglas, she’s pregnant and is keeping the baby.

Look for midpoint examples in the books you’re reading. In Thrill Seekers, the boys mucking about and drug taking suddenly gets serious when one of them is killed. In Hard As, Bryan is transferred to a youth detention centre after voicing concerns about girls at the orphanage being molested. In Pride and Prejudice, Lizzie’s youngest sister runs off with the despicable Wickham and the whole family is thrown into disrepute and turmoil.

The protagonists don’t choose for these things to happen to them, but they do and suddenly all their old ways of acting are redundant. The enemy is much worse and much stronger than they thought. The protagonist is going to have to change and make new and better decisions. This is perhaps the point where one of their strengths proves to be a weakness or a weakness becomes a strength. Things are turned around.

If you are writing a novel, imagine some external event, perhaps exacerbated or in some way triggered by the actions of your protagonist, that you can insert that will ramp up the tension and put your character under pressure. For example: Let’s say you’re writing about a troubled detective who has to solve a crime before another murder is committed. They have imprisoned who they thought was the killer, but while that person is in jail, another similar murder takes place.

If you’re writing a memoir, have a look at your key Heart Clutching Moments and see if you can find an external event that threw a big spanner in the works, or something that turned your life upside down and made the problem even worse. For example: Let’s say the memoir is about a woman searching for a child she’s given up for adoption. She’s been following all the clues, and finally tracks down her son, only to discover he’s dying.

Keep an eye out for midpoint moments in every book you read and every film you watch. It’s always right in the middle and even though the action may be small, like the young men kissing in Moonlight, it makes everything much worse and forces change and action.

Prop up that sagging centre of your project with a miraculous midpoint that will bring a whole new boost of energy to your book!

What’s your favourite midpoint moment? Need help talking through possible midpoints for your project? Just leave a comment!

Keep going! Let the midpoint escalate your book. Go crazy and have fun! Writing is a crazy business, we may as well have fun playing with characters while we’re at it!

Lots of love

Edwina xx

PS. These images have been generated with AI. Kind of fun to play with too 🙂

Happy campers with our vision boards, freshly minted.

The magic of Bali and the kindness of the people worked their miracles again this year on retreat. With a small group due to some last-minute mishaps, (poor chookies, luckily we ask all participants to hold comprehensive travel insurance) we were able to spread out over the beautiful grounds of Bali Ecostay and enjoy the peace and privacy of our exclusive use of the unique open air bungalows, lulled by the ever-present music of the stream running through the property and powering our lights. With water drinkable straight from the taps, sourced from Bali Ecostay’s own spring, and all organic bath products as well as delicious food prepared with love and sourced from their own incredible permaculture gardens and food forest, we were able to totally relax into the Bali of days gone by.

Every day the local elder, dressed in traditional garb, prepared floral offerings and delivered them to our bungalows, the temples in the gardens, and to the sacred waterfall, making every day feel blessed indeed. On our first day the local women dressed us up in traditional kebayas with sashes and taught us how to prepare our own floral tributes then led us to the temple to offer them to the gods of the property, the river and the village, to bless us all, and all the staff. We even blessed the kitchen utensils! To close the ceremony, we daubed our foreheads and throats with grains of rice, tucked flowers behind our ears and scattered them through our hair. Such a beautiful ritual and an honour to be included in this sacred ceremony.

As usual on our writing retreats, our greatest joy is watching new writing friendships blossom. Writing can be a lonely business so connecting with other like-minded souls in a supported environment is a special element of these writing adventures away from home. From Victoria, with 35 books under her belt, to Carol, right at the start of her writing journey, to Kylie straight out of the outback sharing her hilarious stories about bulls, to Yvonne writing of her battle with debilitating illness, to Yuan fascinating us with stories of her great-grandmother who was a Chinese pirate of the south seas, we had an intriguing group, growing closer through the week, until we all felt like sisters by the last morning, sad to say goodbye. So much creativity and inspiration and many epiphanies about projects underway and new projects to begin. Because all activities are optional on our retreats you are free to create the retreat you most need – lots of learning or lots of writing time. Interaction or time alone.

Our mornings began with gentle yoga in the spectacular open-air yoga shala, a mandala of fresh petals at the centre, incense and flowers scenting the air. Then to a plentiful breakfast – fresh tropical fruit, coconut yoghurt, toast, eggs, tomatoes, fresh delicious greens, coffee grown on the property, ginger tea for me, plus pancakes with butter and sugar palm syrup and homemade jam and other sweet treats depending on the day. Yes, we were stuffed like Christmas geese! Luckily many scenic walks through the food forests to the waterfall and spectacular rice paddies are easy to find. And writing takes energy too!

The morning workshops were fun and interactive as well as informative and inspirational, incorporating guided meditations to get our retreaters writing up a storm. From freewriting to carefully curated prompts, to sharing craft knowledge and know-how on structure and all aspects of creative writing, these workshops incorporate sharing and discussion as all voices and input is valued and appreciated. It’s basically an entire university course on creative writing crammed into a week, so retreaters needed to put on their brain-caps, and wear their happy pants too.

Afternoons were reserved for rest, writing, adventures, swims in the waterfall, and one on one feedback sessions with Kerstin and I, plus tarot readings later in the week to offer new insights as participants prepare to move into a new phase of their lives after the retreat – empowered and believing in their right to tell their stories, rewrite the past and create a brave new future of their own making.

As the sun set each day, we gathered again in the yoga shala for some calming yoga breathing (pranayama) to clear our minds, relax deeply and prepare for a restful night. Cocktails and glasses of wine were ordered as our lovely kitchen ladies brought out our dinners, each one delicious and followed by scrumptious desserts. Everyone had their favourite. I love the black sticky rice pudding with hot coconut cream. Kerstin craved the lime dairy free cheesecake, or was it the dairy free chocolate gelato or chocolate pie? Let’s just say we feasted happily without having to lift a finger!

First collage by the very lovely artist and writer, Julie Parsons

On the final day we discussed publishing options and got our heads around submitting our work and, as is traditional in the final session, we left words behind and used collage to create vision boards for the future using images and colour. We shared what we’d created and our dreams, laughed and encouraged each other as we set intentions for the lives we want to lead, and the pain we want to leave behind. Our final night bonfire took our pain and our dreams to heaven as we stood together by the rice fields dancing with fireflies, creating light of our own. Our readings night saw both laughter and tears, with people sharing work and testing their voices, inspiring us all.

As always, I found this retreat richly rewarding, connecting with many special writing souls who gave as much as they received. So thank you my dear new friends for sharing this special week with Kerstin and I and for giving so much of yourselves, for supporting each other, for listening and for speaking up, for your writing, your inspiring creativity and your kindness, laughter and smiles.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s the people who come along on these retreats that make them so special. THANK YOU!

Are you ready for a grand adventure? Bookings are now open for Blissful Bali 2025 June 23 – 29. All the info here.

In 2025 we have Vietnam in February (10 – 16) also open for bookings, Bali in June, Italy in October and introducing our first Writing for Wellness Retreat in Byron Bay in November. You can book both Vietnam and Bali now and we’re working on getting the others up as soon as possible.

Super keen? Make sure you’re the first to know by joining the waitlist for your preferred retreat. Just drop me a line and I’ll add you to the list. And for all the latest retreat news, writing advice and publishing opportunities subscribe to my newsletter.