Plot points are a vital part of storytelling, but many writers aren't taught about them until they are elbow-deep into writing. Some are lucky enough that they naturally put proper plot points into their stories without consciously understanding what they are. But others . . . aren't so lucky.
Today I want to go over what actually happens when you don't put enough plot points in. But first, let's review what a plot point is.
What is a Plot Point?
A plot point is also called a "turning point" or a "plot turn," so we have three terms for the same concept. It turns the direction of the story. The story was going one direction and then wham! an action is taken or information is revealed, and the story is now going a new direction.
I like to use the metaphor of a railroad to explain it. Simplistically speaking, your protagonist is a train engine pursuing a goal, on a railroad. The tracks lay down a pathway, a trajectory, to get there. A plot turn (or plot point or turning point) is like that train track that switches the direction of the train. The character was on trajectory A, but is now on trajectory B.
For example, in Star Wars IV, Luke learns that the princess is on the Death Star. This changes the direction of the story, because now Luke's goal shifts to saving Leia. His trajectory changed.
A proper plot point will always shift the character's goal and/or plan to get the goal in some way. If it doesn't, it's not a true plot point because it doesn't carry significant consequences (which means the trajectory didn't really change).
If you want to simplify all this, though, you can probably easily identify the biggest plot point of the story: the climax.
Notice that the climax quite literally, visually turns the direction of the story, from rising action to falling action. After the climax, the character will have definitively achieved or failed to achieve the main goal.
The climax is the biggest turning point of the story.
But it shouldn't be the only turning point of the story.
Each act should have a turning point, and even most scenes should have a turning point.
The difference is that the smaller the unit, the smaller the turn, and the smaller the impact.
So if you find it easier for you, you may think of turning points as smaller climaxes.
Commonly, the term "plot point" is used specifically for act-level turning points, but in some circles, it is also used for scene-level turning points.
You can learn more about turning points here and here.
How Plot Points Typically Show Up in Story Structure
Most stories follow three-act structure.
Usually, the second act is split into two because it is the longest act (usually ~50% of the story). We could argue, then, that such a story is really four acts. To keep with the common terminology though, I call the two middle pieces, Act II, Part I and Act II, Part II.
So essentially, act-level structure looks like this through a story.
The peaks are the plot points, and different writing approaches give them different names.
In 7 Point Story Structure, it goes like this:
In Save the Cat! it goes like this:
In the Hero's Journey, it shows up like this:
In any case, you will see there is a major peak in each quarter of the story--a plot point.
Within each act, there is usually a medium-level turning point too, so that there is a key turning point every ~12% or so of the story.
I know not everyone likes using percentages, because they feel stifling, but it's the quickest and easiest way to say when something typically happens in a story, and they are just guidelines--you do not have to hit them exactly.
For simplicity's sake, I'm not going to go into the medium turns too much in this article, but you can learn more about them in "The 12% Rule of Story Structure."
Other than the climax, another key recognizable turn is the inciting incident. This is the first turn that kicks off the main plotline, such as a letter from Hogwarts or Katniss's sister being called during the reaping, or Gandalf inviting Bilbo on an adventure.
What Happens When There Aren't Enough Plot Points?
Unless you edit stories from beginning writers like I do, chances are you actually haven't read a full story that lacked plot points. Most stories that do, don't get published, and if they do, they probably landed in your DNF (Did Not Finish) pile.
Or, maybe you are a writer who has been told your story lacks plot points, and you're wondering what that means and if it really matters. Is it really a big deal?
What does happen when a story doesn't have enough plot points?
Well, to put simply, a whole lot of nothing.
Even if you think that is untrue or unfair, that's often how the reader feels.
Plot points change the direction of the story.
Scene-level turns change the story a little bit.
Act-level turns change the story a lot bit.
When you don't have them, or have them to the right degree, the story becomes monotonous, repetitious, predictable, slow, and boring.
It feels like the writer is trying to fill up a word count for NaNoWriMo, and is using a lot of what is actually filler, to get there.
No Plot Points
Thankfully, most writers are familiar with the concepts of the climax and the inciting incident (even if they can't name them), so luckily those are usually in place. But let's consider a "story" that doesn't even have those.
Nothing happens.
Okay, sure, there may be scenes of the character talking to different people, going to work, or eating breakfast, but if there is no inciting incident that disrupts the character's current normal life, then there is no journey worth going on. We are just reading about the character's day-to-day life, and well, I can have Auntie Muriel talk at me if I want that.
This would be like Luke never hearing Leia's message. Yes, he wants to get off the farm, but nothing happens that allows him to do that. We are just watching him working on the farm and living with his aunt and uncle.
Harry never gets a mysterious letter.
And Prim's name doesn't get called, so Katniss just stays in District 12.
Gandalf never calls Bilbo on an adventure.
And Charlie never finds a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.
It's not really a story.
Chances are, you probably wouldn't or haven't written a story like this. So let's talk about not having enough plot points. . . .
Not Enough Act-level Plot Points
Because most of us weren't taught what acts actually are, it's entirely possible to write a story that lacks act-level turning points. (This is, in fact, one of the culprits behind saggy middles.)
Let me help you imagine what this reads like:
When her grandfather dies, our protagonist receives an ancient magical artifact of his with a note from him saying she needs to take it to Far-Away Country where it will be safe (inciting incident), but soon after, she is attacked and pursued by Bad Guy Organization. She runs away, but she is still pursued. She takes a train, but she is still pursued. She takes a boat, but she is still pursued. She takes a horse carriage, but she is still pursued. She takes a hot air balloon, but she is still pursued. Finally, she makes it to Far-Away Country where the artifact is safe.
On the surface, it may not sound that terrible. We have a goal, antagonist, and conflict. We have a plotline. And you might even be thinking you've seen stories like this before. I mean, doesn't this sound similar to Lord of the Rings where Frodo has to get to the Crack of Doom while being pursued by Sauron's forces?
But imagine reading that hypothetical story for 300 or 400 pages.
Doesn't that sound kind of monotonous, repetitious, and boring?
Sure, the protagonist is traveling in different ways, but at its heart, it's just the same situation over and over again--it's the same conflict. She escapes bad guys. They pursue. She escapes bad guys. They pursue. She escapes bad guys. They pursue. She doesn't deal a major blow to the bad guys, crippling them so they have to regroup and replan. And they don't deal her a major blow that forces her to really shift her goal or plans.
On the surface, these encounters may look different, but we are just repeating the same conflict. Nothing significantly changes.
Act-level plot points should shift the story in a big way.
An example would be if the protagonist discovered her father was the leader of the Bad Guy Organization. Now, she stops running, and they have a meeting. Her father wants her to join him and hand the artifact over. The Bad Guys can actually use the artifact to save her own country. Maybe our protagonist doesn't yet trust them, but goes along for now, in order to gather more information about what's really going on. OR, maybe she does trust her father, until at a later plot point, she discovers he killed her grandfather to try to get the artifact in the first place, and now he plans to kill her in order to use it to save the country.
Those turns are plot points.
They are big. They are meaningful. And they shift the story a lot.
Even in a good journey story, where the protagonist is being pursued, there will still be great plot points--like Faramir capturing Frodo and taking him to Gondor, where he can give the Ring to his father; or Smeagol leading Frodo straight to Shelob, where he gets stung and wrapped for dead
It's still a quest, but the story is changing directions along the way.
A story without enough plot points, feels like a long slow monotonous march to the climax. Without turns, its scenes become more repetitious and may even deteriorate into filler.
If nothing is shifting, evolving, or changing, it feels as if nothing is happening.
A similar effect can happen when there are act-level "plot points" but they aren't really act-level. They may "change" the story, but it's not a big enough shift.
Plot points are big shifts. They carry significant ramifications.
Our protagonist discovering she's lost her raincoat when a storm is coming in isn't big enough to be an act-level plot point. It isn't shifting the story very much. If handled right, it could work as a scene-level turn. But it's not important enough to be act-level probably.
On a scale of 1 - 10, one being a tiny turn and ten being huge, act-level plot points should be an 8, 9, or 10. Maybe a 7. But definitely not a 1 - 6. Those are for the scenes.
This doesn't mean that every act-level plot point needs to have guns blazing, characters dying, and shouting matches.
Rather what it means, is that it shifts the story in a significant way.
An act-level plot point could be the protagonist cleaning out the closet and finding a box of chocolates addressed to another woman. Realizing her spouse is cheating, she resolves to figure out who the woman is and capture them together.
On the surface, finding a box of chocolates isn't "guns blazing," but the ramifications are enough to threaten an entire marriage, to shift the story to a completely different path. The protagonist is now going in a totally different direction.
No Scene-level Plot Points
Scenes without turning points can be an issue too. While there are exceptions, ideally, almost every scene will also have a turning point. It's just smaller.
But this doesn't mean it has no ramifications.
Just that it has less.
Say our earlier protagonist is hiding to eavesdrop on the Bad Guys, but she gets caught by one of their servants. She decides to come clean, and the servant becomes an ally. That's a nice scene turn. Notice it still shifts the story: she now has an ally to help her get info from the Bad Guys. But it's more like a level 2 - 4 shift, not an 8 - 10.
Be careful of scenes that create a circle, not a turn. Here is an example.
Our protagonist hides to eavesdrop on the Bad Guys. She struggles to hear and understand them at first, so she has to carefully inch closer. She almost gets caught when her shoe hits a crate, but she stays safe. She hears the Bad Guys talking, but they don't say anything she doesn't already know. Everyone goes their separate ways.
On the surface, this may seem fine (and it might be okay on occasion)--the protagonist has a goal and encounters opposition. But notice nothing shifts. It doesn't have a turn. We just completed a circle. The protagonist is in the same situation as before.
This scene is likely just filler in disguise. You can cut it without really affecting the story.
The scenes between act-level plot points should also be progressing the story. If they aren't, and they are secretly filler, the journey through each act is going to feel like a monotonous march. Admittedly, this isn't as terrible as if you are missing act-level plot points. After all, you can get away with some scenes not having turns, but not nearly every scene.
So there you have it--that's what happens when you don't have enough plot points, and why you need them.
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