Pinch Points

I found, on Romance University's blog CJ Lyons plot structure. I like that it's set up for a 400 page book and it chunks writing into manageable sections. I came across the term pinch points in my romance novel research and had to know more. I like that she said a pinch point separates Drama from Action. A pinch point is when the character goes through emotional conflict rather than plot conflict.

One of the biggest ways to show a pinch point is through internal dialogue- which is something I'm going to work on today. I think conversations with a parent, friend or mentor would work for this as well. I think Elle Kennedy does the conversation version of this well in "The Goal." Her heroine, Sabrina, speaks with her mentor about having a child while starting law school. I think it just depends on the personalities we develop for our characters. I'm not quite sure what what Norah will do. 

I've also decided to set up my story using the formula below. I think it will help to give me a more concrete direction. Now, I've got two pages for Norah's story. 1- The actual story. Google Docs has a helpful outline feature where you use the headings to direct you to specific pages. I've started labing major scenes from my novel so that I can move around the book more quickly. The second document is the planning guide where I've copy and pasted the formula below and I'm mapping out my story. I used to hate the idea of mapping things out, but I think it's what kept me from having plot focus. This could be the reason my college professor called my work a "bathtub" story.

Big thanks to C J Lyons for the formula- I'm looking forward to some direction. 

The three act structure the acts are laid out thusly (approximate page numbers for a 400 page book):
P.1—opener
P.40—catalyst
P.100—TP #1/End Act 1
P.200—Midpoint
P.300—TP#2/End Act 2
P.360—Black Moment/Climax
p.390–Resolution
Notice how huge Act 2 is—half the book (or more, as Act 3 is often the shortest of all the acts).  That’s 200 pages to fill—without boring the reader!!!  Yikes!
Now look at Act 2 using Pinch Points:
P.100—TP#1/End Act 1
P.150—Pinch Point #1
P.200—Midpoint
P.250—Pinch Point #2
P.300—TP#2/End Act 2

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