Turning Point Progressive Complication

Question 1

What is a Progressive Complication?

Answer 1

Progressive complications follow the INCITING INCIDENT, which has knocked the protagonist’s life out of balance. The protagonist begins taking a habitual series of steps to restore the balance that existed before the inciting incident. Each of these steps fails — or is complicated — which forces the protagonist to move to their next tactic.

Question 2

4 Rules for Progressive Complications

Answer 2

1. The Stakes Must Escalate
2. The Choices Must Grow in Irreversibility
3. The Complications Must Connect Back to the Inciting Incident
4. The Complications Must Exhaust the Existing Tactics and Resources of the Protagonist

Question 3

Rule 1. The Stakes Must Escalate

Answer 3

The difficulties and successes the protagonist must contend with (the conflicts) must steadily escalate through the UNIT OF STORY. If we track the anxiety/conflict level for every progessive complication on a scale of 1 to 10, the progressive complications should start atthe low end of the scale and steadily increase until the CRISIS is reached.

Question 4

Rule 2. The Choices Must Grow in Irreversibility

Answer 4

As the protagonist continues to contend with the escalating stakes of the progressive complications, each decision becomes harder to reverse. Because the situation is becoming more complicated, it is building up a spider’s web of decisions around the protagonist that eventually traps them and forces them to the CRISIS.

Question 5

Rule 3. The Complications Must Connect Back to the Inciting Incident

Answer 5

The progressive complications cannot be random. For the narrative to make sense, complications must be directed in a way that forces the protagonist to grapple with the problem at the heart of the story — which the AUTHOR sets up by choosing the correct INCITING INCIDENT.

Question 6

Rule 4. The Complications Must Exhaust the Existing Tactics and Resources of the Protagonist

Answer 6

As the protagonist escalates their response to the complications, they must reach a point where all of the usual emotional and physical tactics and resources have been used up. This puts the protagonist in a situation where the next complication to arise pushes them into an area where they have not been before and forces them to contend with true change in their life.

This moment leads to the Turning Point.

Question 7

What is the Turning Point?

Answer 7

The turning point is the progressive complication that pushes the protagonist beyond their habitual responses and forces the protagonist into new territory they have not experienced before. The moment illustrates that their tactics have failed because the INCITING INCIDENT is a bigger problem than they anticipated and is beyond their current understanding. The turning point sets up the CRISIS of the UNIT OF STORY.

The turning point forces the protagonist to change. All the existing strategies to deal with INCITING INCIDENT have been used. The turning point pushes the protagonist to the edge of a cliff where they are forced to make a CRISIS decision.

Question 8

____ is what connects the reader to the protagonist.

Answer 8

The turning point

It generates empathy between the reader and the protagonist because the reader experiences the failed attempts to restore balance along with the protagonist.

Question 9

2 Categories of Turning Point Progressive Complications

Answer 9

1. ACTIVE
2. REVELATORY

Question 10

Active Turning Point

Answer 10

Active turning points are complications that arise because of AVATAR actions. Someone does something that renders the protagonist’s initial strategy useless.

Question 11

Revelatory Turning Point

Answer 11

Revelatory turning points offer new information that forces the protagonist to change.

Question 12

Valences of Turning Point Progressive Complications

Answer 12

1. Obstacle
2. Affordance

Question 13

Obstacle

Answer 13

An obstacle is a negative event that blocks the protagonist’s pursuit of the goal. The protagonist’s tactics fail because it is beyond their current ability to overcome the obstacle presented by the INCITING INCIDENT. For example, the protagonist is beat out by a hated coworker for a promotion.

Question 14

Affordance

Answer 14

An affordance is a positive event that gives the protagonist what they want, but not what they need, to make the change necessary to overcome the inciting incident. For example, the protagonist gets the promotion but is still not happy.

Question 15

Analyzing the Turning Point Progressive Complication

Answer 15

Active or Revelatory?
What is the protagonist’s initial strategy?
How does this moment make that impossible?

Question 16

Active or Revelatory?

Answer 16

Determine the category of the turning point. If you get stuck, analyze whether the turning point event creates new information for the protagonist to process or exposes existing information.

Question 17

What is the protagonist’s initial strategy?

Answer 17

Identify the strategy the protagonist follows in response to the inciting incident. Find the common thread that unites the tactics the protagonist employs in the first part of the story to understand the worldview at play in the protagonist’s actions.

Question 18

How does this moment make the protagonist’s initial strategy impossible?

Answer 18

Effective turning points make the protagonist switch gears. To answer this question, identify how the turning point stops the protagonist from pursuing their original strategy or, if it is still possible, how the turning point has created new consequences for following the same path.

Question 19

The result of the turning point progressive complication is

Answer 19

a decision point we call the CRISIS.