What's up my friend?
Abbie here and welcome back to WritersLife
Wednesdays where we come together to help
you make your story matter and make your author
dreams come true.
Today, we're talking about writing pinch points
into your story and what a pinch point even
is.
I'll give you a hint, it's a little bit of
suspense that goes a long way.
If you've been on this channel for a while
watching my videos, you know what's up and
you know why we are talking about pinch points
today.
But if you're new around here, we've been
breaking down in detail the three-act story
structure, like every single story beat of
the three act story structure.
If you missed the other videos covering act
one, you can check out all of those.
They are linked below for your viewing convenience,
the hook, the inciting incident, a cool inciting
incident case study, and the first plot point.
You want to make sure you watch all of those
and get all of those story beats nailed so
that you can really have an amazing first
act of your story.
Today, we're digging into the last story beat
of the first act.
Okay?
There's still two more acts to go.
But before we dive into the midsection of
your book, we want to pull the reader in even
more with a little hint of the trouble still
to come.
Let's talk about the first pinch point and
explore the brain science of suspense.
Why does your story matter?
Good question.
What if I told you that there's a science
behind every great story?
I don't just teach you how to write.
I teach you how to change the world with your
story and make your author dreams come true.
Before I begin, I have to mention that there
are commonly two pinch points in the three-act
story structure.
One appears at the very end of act one and
the other one is at the very end of act two.
Some people might say that the first pinch
point actually appears at the beginning of
act two.
But what's the difference?
I like to think of it as sort of the book
end of act one because it just seems more
ominous that way and also more symmetrical.
In my three-act story structure template,
you'll see that the first pinch point shows
up at the end of act one.
Speaking of that template, which is linked
in the description box below, by the way,
make sure you grab your copy, let's start
off by reading the description of the first
pinch point.
First pinch point, opposition or antagonistic
force looms in the distance.
You can have a pinch point even if you don't
have a villain character in your story.
It doesn't have to be a villain.
It doesn't even have to be a person.
It just has to be something that is ultimately
going to come back to haunt the protagonist
later.
It can even be the protagonist's misbelief.
Prompt, ask yourself, what is the opposition
or antagonistic force my protagonist is going
to have to face head on later?
How can I show the reader that it's already
looming in the distance?
Foreshadowing, suspense, impending doom, whatever
you want to call it, the first pinch point
is our first taste of that as we head into
the second act of your story.
But wait, Abbie, if I show the reader how
the antagonist is looming in the distance
already, it won't be a surprise plot twist.
No, it won't be a surprise.
It'll be something so much better, suspense.
Don't worry.
Your story is still going to have the element
of surprise and that's going to show up in
your plot twist, so we're going to talk about
that very soon.
But for now, let's talk about suspense, adding
suspense a little bit of it early on in your
first pinch point.
Now, it is generally known that there are
three kinds of suspense, one, vicarious suspense
where the audiences in on it, but the character
has no idea, two, shared suspense where the
audience and the character are both in on
it, and three, direct suspense where the audience
is worried about something on their own and
not worried for the character.
Since number three is more suited to films
and video games where you can unexpectedly
scare the audience with a sudden jump scene
or something, let's just battle it out between
vicarious suspense and shared suspense.
Both of these forms of suspense are great
gut gripping choices and I totally recommend
using both.
In fact, a great way to use both is to use
vicarious suspense for this first pinch point
and then shared suspense for the second pinch
point.
But most of the time I only use vicarious
suspense.
Why?
Well, not only is it my favorite, but studies
in film psychology have proven that vicarious
suspense in film elicits the strongest emotional
reaction from viewers.
The reason is simple, people like to feel
smart.
Readers like to feel smart.
We like to feel like we know things that the
characters don't know.
We get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing
what a character doesn't know.
Moderate satisfaction out of knowing something
with the character and actual dissatisfaction
when the character knows something we don't
know or proves to be smarter than us.
No, I don't have actual science to back this
up, surprisingly.
It's more of just a social observation.
Just remember for a minute the last time you
played any kind of trivia game with a group
of friends.
You know that one person who seems to get
like all the answers right?
By the end of the game, they're like grinning
and so happy because they feel like they're
the smartest one.
They got all the answers right and you kind
of want to just ring their neck.
Same thing goes for characters in the story.
When you know things that the character doesn't
know, you're like the person winning at trivia.
You know all the answers and you feel smarter
than everybody.
Dopamine is firing in your brain and you were
happy.
But when the character knows something that
you don't know or knows a lot of things that
you don't know, they are now the person winning
at trivia and they just end up annoying you
with their omniscience.
That's why I love vicarious suspense.
If by this point I still haven't convinced
you to use vicarious suspense in your story,
let's hear it from the master of suspense
himself, Alfred Hitchcock.
"There's a distinct difference between suspense
and surprise, and yet many pictures continually
confuse the two.
We are now having a very innocent little chat.
Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath
this table between us.
Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden,
boom, there's an explosion.
The public is surprised, but prior to this
surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary
scene of no special consequence.
Now, let's take a suspense situation.
The bomb is underneath the table and the public
knows it, probably because they had seen the
anarchist place it there.
The public is aware of the bomb is going to
explode at one o'clock and there is a clock
in the decor.
The public can see that it is quarter to one.
In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation
becomes fascinating because the public is
participating in the scene.
The audience is longing to warn the characters
on the screen, "You shouldn't be talking in
such trivial matters.
There is a bomb beneath you and it's about
to explode."
In the first case, we have given the public
15 seconds of surprise at the moment of the
explosion.
In the second, we have provided them with
15 minutes of suspense.
The conclusion is that whenever possible the
public must be informed, except when the surprise
is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending
is in and of itself, the highlight of the
story."
I read that quote on my last Patreon podcast
because a writer asked me if it's okay to
have two protagonists, one who knows pretty
much everything that's going on and one who's
totally in the dark, and I was like, yes,
absolutely because this is suspense.
Surprise doesn't last long, but suspense can
make your story unputdownable.
Knowing what's going to happen or at least
what might happen is far more emotionally
engaging than being clueless alongside the
character.
It doesn't make your story predictable.
Think of every movie you've ever seen about
some major historical event like Titanic or
Pearl Harbor.
Chances are you knew before watching these
films what they would be about.
You knew what the outcome of the plot would
be.
It's no surprise to you when the Titanic sinks
or when Pearl Harbor is bombed, which just
goes to prove that what makes a story interesting
is not so much what happens, but how what
happens affects and transforms the characters.
That in a nutshell is what I mean when I always
say that you should make your story matter
to your characters.
If historical movies never showed you how
what happens affects the characters, you might
as well just watch a documentary about that
particular event in history.
But I'm getting off topic.
Back to pinch points.
There is no one size fits all way to write
a pinch point, especially the first pinch
point, but some of your options include full
vicarious, where the readers see something
the protagonist can't see, antagonists plots
behind closed doors, or subtle clues, where
you go super mild on the suspense and just
leave clues to the future conflict hidden
in plain sight, the protagonist can see the
clues, but has no idea what they mean, or
shared suspense, where the protagonist learns
about the conflict they're going to have to
face head on later and already feels intimidated.
This is not an exhaustive list.
There are way more styles of pinch points
out there, but these are the three most common
styles and the first two are my personal favorites.
Let's look at some story examples that feature
these styles of pinch points.
First, full vicarious where we see something
the protagonist can't see.
There are tons of great examples of this kind
of pinch point in stories, but one that immediately
comes to mind for me is the Chronicles of
Narnia: Prince Caspian.
We don't just follow the Pevensie's as they
navigate Narnia and try to figure out what
happened in the past 1,000 years, and we don't
just follow Caspian as he runs from his evil
uncle who wants him dead.
We also follow said evil uncle King Miraz,
because what's happening with the Telmarines
is just as important as what's happening with
the Pevensie's and Caspian, because it's going
to come back to haunt them later.
It essentially is the climax when the Telmarines
go to war against the Narnians.
You've seen this a million times.
It's your classic, meanwhile, on the dark
side, you've seen in Stars Wars, you've seen
Disney movies, horror movies, everything,
vicarious suspense is popular for a reason.
Pinch point type two, subtle clues.
Great example, Jane Eyre.
Spoiler alert, the big disaster plot point
of the climax is when Jane is just about to
marry the love of her life, Mr. Rochester,
then she discovers that he actually already
has a wife, a lunatic who has been living
in the house she's been working at all this
time.
The interesting thing about Jane Eyre is it
has pinch points all over the place.
There is, of course, the major ones like Mr.
Rochester's room being lit on fire and his
brother-in-law nearly getting murdered in
the mysterious North tower, but some of the
more subtle clues are just as eerie as the
suspenseful moments, like the red scarf Jane
sees in the tower window or the times she
wakes up in the middle of the night to someone
rattling her door knob.
Although like Jane, we aren't sure what the
hell is going on, it pulls us in because we
know that these clues point to something and
we want to find out what.
Finally, type three, shared suspense, where
the protagonist learns about the conflict
they're going to have to face head on later
and already feels intimidated.
For example, pretty much every war movie you've
ever seen, right?
Your main characters are headed into battle
and they likely know what they're taking on,
but they're reminded of the danger and the
conflict of the situation by some flex of
the antagonists, like in the film Dunkirk.
The whole movie is highly suspenseful and
doesn't exactly follow the three-act story
structure, but from the first dive bomber
attack on the beach, we understand what the
characters are up against, and so do they.
There are several moments of the antagonistic
force flexing its power in the first act of
this film, all of which deliver shared suspense
as the characters are fully aware of the imminent
danger of the situation and so is the viewer.
There are so many examples of great pinch
points that I could just go on and on and
on about, but I'll stop there and ask you,
what is your favorite example of a gripping
pinch point?
Comment below and tell me.
Now, let's recap everything that we learned
about pinch points today.
All a pinch point must do is hint at the future
conflict that the protagonist is going to
have to face head on.
This hinting can take place in the form of
vicarious suspense, shared suspense, or subtle
clues.
You get to decide how much or how little you
want to reveal right now.
Remember, suspense beats surprise.
There's a time and place for surprise, like
in your plot twist, but now is the time to
give your reader a taste of the conflict and
the danger still to come.
Even if you give away what's going to happen
or might happen, your story does not become
predictable.
If that were the case, there would be no stories
based on historical events.
What makes the story interesting is not so
much what happens, but how what happens affects
the characters.
Ask yourself, what is the opposition or antagonistic
force that my protagonist is going to have
to face head on later?
How can I show the reader that it's already
looming in the distance?
Okay, boom, that's it for this story beat.
Next time we return to the story beat breakdown,
we're going to be diving into act two of your
story, ooh, the dreaded middle act.
But don't worry, it's nothing to dread.
It's going to be great.
It's going to be so freaking riveting not
only to read, but also to write.
Smash that like button if you liked this video
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The Patreon community is not only the best
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that I have over there for you.
Until next week, my friend, rock on.
Which just goes...
Oh my God.
How about you just stop freaking out?
Because it's going to be like an emoji graph.
Yeah, just like put emojis on the screen for
like...
You know what I mean.
I may not be able to talk sometimes, but I
can make a good chai latte.
