Here at the middle of Script Frenzy 2008, we asked screenwriter and producer, Blake Snyder, for his advice on conquering the middle of any story. Take it away, Blake!
In both my Save The Cat! books and also the Save the Cat! Story Structure software, I have stressed the vital importance of figuring out what the midpoint of a screenplay is. I like to say that if you can crack the midpoint, you can crack the story. And it may not be until you do that you truly know what your story is really about!
To me, the day I discovered there is a secret to what happens at the midpoint in EVERY story, I was rocketed into a whole new dimension in my abilities as a writer.
There are two things that have to happen at the midpoint, both vital to making your story work:
- "the stakes are raised," and
- a "time clock" appears
When we meet the hero in Act One, and he decides to go on an adventure in the Break into Act Two, it isn't until midway through the movie that these two key elements cause him to truly decide if continuing on is for him. Thus the midpoint becomes a vital "weigh station" for the hero of every story, primarily because of these two simple devices.
Here are three classic examples of a midpoint when both the “stakes are raised” and a "time clock" appears:
- In Titanic, Kate Winslet is a pampered Victorian debutante when she begins her journey, engaged to the wrong guy, tied to her fearful mother, suicidal, and then she meets him... Leonardo DiCaprio. For the first half of Act Two, she and Leo fall in love, and at midpoint, two key things happen: They make love (ending her relationship with Billy Zane) and, most importantly, the Titanic hits an iceberg. These two “stakes-are-raised” beats force Kate to decide, and mostly force her to change. Is she really in love with Leo? Is she really committed to leaving her mother’s world behind? Kate must figure it out—and fast!—because there is cold water rushing in, sinking the ship. Meanwhile, the captain, having learned his ship has hit a big ice cube, turns and asks "How much time do we have?" This “time clock” serves the function of accelerating the pace of the story to the end.
- These beats don’t just happen in dramas. In Bruce Almighty, the midpoint occurs when Jim Carrey, as weatherman Bruce Nolan, realizes that the godly powers he got from Morgan Freeman have a price: he has to answer prayers too, not just get his own wishes granted! The "stakes are raised" in his adventure, and lo! a "time clock" appears as the number of prayers he must answer begin to accelerate.
- And in Alien, the midpoint is the moment when, having previously thought John Hurt had sloughed off the monster who grabbed onto his face while he was leaning over a hatching alien egg, we see John sitting at dinner with the rest of the crew of the Nostromo when suddenly the monster pops out of his chest, takes a look around, and scampers away into the darkness. Talk about "stakes are raised"! The annoying inconveniences of picking up an alien hitchhiker just got a lot more serious, and guess what else? The "time clock" of having to track that thing down and kill it before it morphs into a bigger problem starts ticking away like mad.
Cracking your midpoint is the key to figuring out not only where your story goes, but what it means. By forcing these "stakes-are-raised" moments on your protagonists, and laying in the accompanying "time clocks" that put pressure on them to decide what to do, you may make their lives more difficult, but you also force them to address the changes that will truly make them worthy of the term "hero."
In his 20-year career as a screenwriter and producer, Blake Snyder has sold dozens of scripts, including co-writing Blank Check, which became a hit for Disney and Nuclear Family for Steven Spielberg. His book, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need 
