Monstrous - Chapter 34

This and tomorrow's chapter are officially the midpoint of the story. We're halfway there!

A little writing tip: the best midpoints of a story typically involve a major change or event. Traditionally it involves getting what Campbell calls "the Elixir" and what most movies simply have as the MacGuffin--the Mission Impossible movies usually have their most iconic scenes here, as the characters have to get some sort of information or object out of a ridiculously-fortified building.

The second most common midpoints introduce some sort of higher stakes and/or time limit. The first kiss of a romance or learning that the world's going to end in X hours/days/weeks unless the heroes Do A Thing (if that wasn't already established in the Catalyst/Inciting Incident.)

Midpoint plot twists are always super fun. Sarah J. Maas did this with all of her Throne of Glass books, to the point where I could count down the number of pages to the major story-defining twist after Book 3, even though I couldn't predict what the twist would actually be. Better example: the Red Wedding is the midpoint of the third Game of Thrones novel, A Storm of Swords.

And then there are the "shakeup" midpoints. These are the ones where the story takes a sudden, sharp turn, often pairing it with higher stakes. The first kill of a horror movie (excluding any opening scene murders) is often at the midpoint, as the first half is used to set up all the characters, themes, setting, etc (see, X or Alien). Justina Ireland's Dread Nation (set in the 1880s with zombies) did something of a genre-shift at the midpoint, as the characters are moved from the Atlantic Coast to the Wild West. Technically, the Red Wedding did this with A Storm of Swords, specifically with Tyrion, who spent most of the back half of that book in a prison cell.

Needless to say, I've grown rather fond of shakeup midpoints. It's really useful for this kind of story, where I have to set up the romance before the adventure. I did consider a dual-timeline story, where we start with Psyche doing her impossible tasks and then get a bunch of flashbacks that explain her home situation and then meeting Eros, but I figured this was better. Or rather, simpler. Dual timelines are hard.