How to Outline Your Romance Novel using Emotional Story Structure

1. Introduction to the Course: When you are planning to write a new story, ordinary to focus on are two things. First, a story idea which would love to explore, and secondly, a cast of characters, your hero or heroine. And how to get them onto the page. And acting and reacting to the story idea so that you can watch them fall in love. This course will take you through everything that you need to do to plan out the opening sequence of scenes in your romance novel. The focus is always on the characters. You will learn how to develop characters who have internal conflicts and emotional barriers which will drive the story forward. Once the opening scenes have been created. The course describes how to plan out the remainder of your novel using a story and mapping process. The fourth stage story structure is explained in detail so that you will never get lost when you're writing your Romans ever again. By the end of this course, you will understand how to use emotional story maps to plan out the key story points in your romance novel. 2. The 6-Step Story Development Process: The emotional story map. I know that when we set out to write a new story, there was always a mixture of acceleration and terror. There are so many things to think about when it comes to planning and used Roman story that it can be paralyzing. What can we do to shortcuts procrastination and use the energy and enthusiasm of a new story. I believe that we can leverage the power of the one very special aspect of romance fiction, which makes it unique. We can use the emotional journey that our hero or heroine will take and how they change as a result of the romance relationship. How to use a six-step process to get started, to plan out any new Roman story and spark your imagination as quickly as possible. You basically need to do six things. Step one, develop a simple story idea or destroy situation, which you can describe in a few sentences. Step to focus on one main character who will open a story. Step three, Give that main character one limiting belief, just one. Step four, give that main character one reason why they are totally at the end of their tether when a story opens, step five, create the ideal hero or heroine who's going to challenge your main character and fall in love with them. Step six, combined a story idea with the character idea and get your main character onto the page. And inside that story world you've created, then you can introduce the lover. Once you understand the mindset of your heroin or your hero, you can begin to map out their emotional story structure of your romance novel by using the internal conflict and character change of that main character. Why is this so important? What I remember most about any particular book or story or the characters, something about the hero made me swoon and fall in love with him. This is the heroine did. What about the heroin? I wanted that guilt. You're my best friend. She was the equal of the hero and meet him work for her love. There was something about one or more of the characters that connected with me at a visceral and emotional level. Here's what Romans author Lynne colony says. Romans isn't about the plot. It's about the characters and how they react in certain situations. It's about individuals. Absolutely right. Lynn, how do we use a six-step process to develop the opening scenes for a New Roman story. Let's start at the beginning of that six-step process is step one, develop a simple story idea or story situation, which can describe in a few sentences. Now this is the truly fun part of any story development process. You are completely free to choose, Edit, Character, type, or location, or stories situation in any romance, sub-genre or timeframe or storyworld, anywhere, anytime any world. It's also the one area where writers spend a huge amount of time worrying about coming up with a new and fresh Dory idea which will bring their hero and the heroine together. The truth is you only need to have a fleeting idea about the story situation or story idea to get started. There's a reason why romance story tropes, like the Cinderella story or fake fiance or so successful. They work because they're shortcuts into your story idea and your stormy world. The goal is to create a frame around your characters and the world they inhabit, and then set them free to reveal that deep character within the confines of that frame, you're creating a sort of magical stage where your characters can come alive. This is a sandbox time, brainstorm the story idea. Expand and play with your idea in the character sketches and situations and develop them into a scenario which you would love to see more of. You want to explore this, then play the what-if game with those characters and situations. At the end of that process, you can summarize a story idea in one sentence. That's why the story idea is going to be as unique as you are and will vary according to the subgenre of the romance at LMU ideas for the setting. If you're writing a historical or paranormal Romans, for example, the location and store situation might be the very thing that sparks your interest in writing this particular story. In many cases, the idea might be bubbling away inside your head bridges, building up in layers and waiting to be explored. But this point, don't worry if your story ideas not fully developed and the conflicts have not been fully worked out, all you need is a ****** of an idea to spark your imagination. Step to focus on one character. There are going to be two characteristics in any romance, since both the heroine and the hero will be transformed as a result of the Romans relationship. But the planning stage, it pays dividends to focus on one character and use that profile as the driver for the staff of the story. I would usually recommend you spend time developing the character of the heroin. We want to see the world through her eyes and step into her shoes and fall in love with a hero at the same time as she does, you can always switch the point-of-view character during the self-edit or when you have completed that first sequence of scenes. But starting with the heroine means that you will get to the heart of your Roman story as fast as possible. So dive deep. It's this one character. That you know who she is and how she's likely to act and react when the heroes dots journaling during her, ask her some questions about her life and what she loves to do in her ordinary world. And what you're actually like to do instead, look for inspiration, look for photos or addresses or celebrities who you might Jim would look like your character and give her a name. Names are powerful. So start asking deep and searching questions about how your character sees the world and how it works, and also her place in the world. Step three, give you a heroin. One limiting belief, this girl would probably have more baggage than Victoria Beckham launching a new fashion collection. But you know what? You don't need to know all of this when you're planning a new novel, those gram-negative will pop up all by themselves as you write. This is how screenwriting coach Michael Hague defines internal conflict. Internal conflict is whenever quality within the character that prevents them from achieving real self-worth. Self-worth. Those are the two key words here. One thing however, is crucial to the success of your Romans fiction. The profile you create for your characters has to be credible and understandable. The answers to the questions will determine the types of decisions that she will make during the story and how her worldview will shift or arc from the start to the end of the story because of the Romans with the hero, these internal barriers that the hero and the heroine have created to having any kind of relationship must be there from the very start. Then you can add on the extra barriers to her falling in love with a lovely hero, you are going to drop into her life. But you have to start with a solid idea of what her internal conflict is. One main internal conflict, give this girl one major fear or limiting belief that you can use as her main internal conflict into the story. How do you do that? Look into her past and choose one event which shaped the way she thinks about her life today. This is going to be what screenwriters call her ghost. This is the wound she's carrying. The UNH healing source of continuing pain. How does she stop that pain from happening again? By creating protective barriers. This creates the one rule she lives by. That event will inform her current controlling and limiting belief systems, which sets out all the rules about how she lives her life. This limiting belief will also become the major relationship barrier. So it is crucial to developing the internal conflicts which will keep the hero and heroine apart. Early on in the story development. When the story opens, the character will come on stage with those rules and limiting belief systems all in place and protecting her from pain. During the course of the story, these beliefs will be challenged and the damaging or limiting elements overcome with the help of the other Romans character, who was in turn has their own set of controlling beliefs. In the opening chapters, the reader will only know how the character reacts to the challenges you hit them with. It is crucial that you know the deep-seated root cause of these beliefs. Before you get the character onto the page. In a romance, we're mainly concerned with the emotional eternal conflict. But there could be several Leslie's beliefs which will be revealed at the crisis. Key decision points in the story. Step four, give her one reason why she's at the end of the tether wonder story opens just one. This is usually the one thing she wants at that moment, but feels frustrated that you cannot achieve. Link this to the story idea to bake the character come alive inside that story situation. The heroin, heroin must have a powerful or consuming short-term goal. When the story opens, it is easy to understand and for the reader to relate to. The stakes per reaching that goal must be set high to make the reader care too. This is a crucial element in creating belief will character motivation? How, by making your character sympathetic and empathetic, the reader feel sympathy for the situation and empathizes with their need to achieve their goal. Because it could happen to us. This creates that gut emotional appeal, which grabs you as a reader and makes a story feels very personal. We need that reader to intensify with your character and care about the outcome of the story. Step five, create the ideal hero or heroine Who's good to challenge your main character and fall in love with them. Link so the character to the story idea, that relationship is going to be locked into the story idea at the same time. The main character is going to be the person who has the biggest character change over the course of the story. Once you have a powerful belief, your main character, you can then think about the other character and his romance, the lover. Going to be very broad characterization strokes at this stage. And the goal is to have just enough to get these two characters off the page into the story, acting and reacting, talking, and challenging one another about what matters to them. For example, if the hero is the best month to Cowboy wedding, he has his own reasons for not wanting to be there and no wedding date, but it does believe in marriage and takes it seriously. He wants to make sure his brother's wedding is as perfect as possible. You are heroine is both a wedding planner and a tilted bright. She's got to struggle with some serious issues about believing in marriage and what she's doing, but she is totally broken. The only job she knows is arranging weddings. These two people are going to clash, are more things in the flower arrangements. How do you persuade your heroin to change her mind? The stronger the main female lead than the stronger hero has to be. He has to be a good match and equal to her in every way with the quality she needs in her life at that moment. If just being portrayed in the past, then you have to show that he is loyal and honest and worthy of their trust. Not just once, but many times in his opening scenes, he has to come onto the page abi, totally authentic and honest from the start, no pretense one lie here on unless it has powerfully motivated, the heroin will certainly not trust him. So think of a couple of ways in which a hero would challenge that internal conflict that your main female character is wearing as her armor. Step six combined the story idea with the main character idea for your hero or heroine and get that one main character onto the page in their storyworld as soon as possible. And then you can introduce a lover. Don't worry about whether this texts will end up in your final manuscript or not. This is playtime freewriting as an experiment to get the feel of whether this character is someone you like and want to spend time with in the next few weeks or months. If they are great, stay with them after you have completed the opening sequence of scenes and use their emotional conflict to sketch out the rest of the story. But if you're not interested in writing this story, because you're interested in writing this person. Then this is the time to find out, scratch that idea, and go back to step two and redevelop your character. The next video we'll discover how to plan out the crucial opening scenes or your romance novel using these characters to drive the transformation. Even though you haven't written a word of the novel, I'll see you there. 3. The Power of Story Maps: I love maps, don't you? I am lucky enough to have visited many wonderful locations around the world. Brandon, no adrenaline junkie. I always took a map so that I knew where I was going. I'm equally important how I could find my way back. Most of the time it was unknown territory. I had no clue what I was going to find around the next corner or on the other side of the mountain that I always stick to the map. Of course not blackout confident about wandering off down the side streets away from the truest areas because I knew I could find a way back to the main road at anytime. I knew where I was going, I had a plan on how to get there and how to wake my way back. What I found was that using a mouth was not a constraint. In fact, it was the precise opposite. Having a map gave me the freedom and the confidence to explores areas just off the road, which I otherwise would have missed. If I had to stumble around looking for signs and asking kind strangers who did not speak English. How does it get back on the track? Having a map made each journey and exciting and interesting adventure. Why didn't know where I was going to discover next? When it comes to writing, an outline, frames the world of your story and gives you a main road which trucks a story from start to end. It Is Your Story Map. You know who you're traveling companions are going to be and where they want to go on this journey. There'll be some stopping off points and Crossroads marked on the map where you know that you have to stop and make sure that you can take the right turning, but you choose the turning, you take. The story magic happens when you step off the tarmac and onto the dirt track, what leads towards the magic forest. You can still see the road. If you look over one shoulder, that gives you the confidence and the freedom to explore as much as you want and learn new things about the characters who are walking by your side. How will they react when you see the unicorn? Find a shallow grave with some fresh flowers on top, I'll come across their boyfriend from working with their best friend. What do they feel and say and do? And what path does that take them down before you rejoin the main road together? Or do decide there's a better road for your characters. Time to find out. 4. Writing Sequences of Scenes: Writing the sequence of scenes. If you're writing strict order, then your objective is to write from one orientation point to the next, following the two main characters as they fall in love and experiencing the ups and downs, conflicts and complications at the same time as they do. On the other hand, and many authors, including myself, would prefer to jot down notes and write the scene as it comes to them, completely out-of-order, which could be anywhere in the story, any point in the story. This is often a major turning point scene where conflicts can be exposed or a secret is revealed, resulting in one of the characters being much more vulnerable than before. Because the action in one scene, the reaction in the following scene. This can be a fast way to get into the story as soon as possible. For example, if you're heroin or your hero reveals the reason for that pain, then the other counter will respond to that revelation. A drive the story forward. Be prepared and give yourself full permission to write a seriously rough first draft, a word vomit first draft. Otherwise, there's a real risk that you will lose all the momentum and the first three chapters and never finished that first draft. This is crucial. If you don't know about a detail, then you can highlight the text in Word or leave a marker or bubble comment in the text on the side. Such as, what kind of saddled as a cowboy ride in a rodeo, or would you assessed at really sleep with your boyfriend just to prove a point, then you can come back when the manuscript has finished and you've done your research without breaking off from the story flow. But please don't step away right now to track down the information or work on a character point. You know what would happen if you go onto the Internet. This is another form of procrastination. Drive on the head, even though it feels complete and wrong to leave that part of the story incomplete. Then come back after you reach the end of the story scene and go through the comments and notes and fix anything that adds to the story. At that point, you're bound to have new ideas for scenes as you write, jot them down on the last page or document if your computer or on my ideas file, then you can work those scenes in. When you come back to the draft orders garden with the dome fit, it could be the start of another story. Let's now look at the detail of each of the four stages. Stage one. We've covered this in the previous video. But you know that the opening scenes have to work very hard to meet all the structural demands the story needs. So now's a good time to check that all the basic elements are in place with a sketch of the first sequence in stage one that you've completed. Stage one, we have setup the hero and the heroine are too many characters and have them meet for the first time. Something is going to happen to upset their ordinary worlds and throw them out of balance. As a result, they're going to be forced to make a decision which will lock them together in some way. We see the here on the heroin in their ordinary life with the limiting beliefs they have created to protect themselves from pain, suddenly there's going to be challenged. But by the end of the first sequence of scenes, the reader has to know what these people are afraid of and what they've always wants to do in their lives. Also. Why now? Why has this change happened right now? Stage one of the story idea. What happens in this first sequence of scenes which provokes a fundamental shift or change in the character and their situation. How does this major change kickoff the story? Something has got to happen to keep us glued into the story and keep us turning the pages. Then the most important part, how to stage one impact the emotional journey of your two main characters. At the end of stage one, you should be very clear about the deep seated conflict, which are going to prevent your hero and your heroin from being together. These barriers have to be so powerful and deep seated. But it does not matter if your two characters are trapped in a spaceship or worked in a busy city office, the belief systems would still be in place, preventing them from harm no matter where they are and who they're width. These barriers may not be the ones that you originally his daughter when he started writing, could be extensions of them are completely different in every way. Don't worry, this is entirely normal and only to be expected. You want your characters to takeover and reveal why and what and who. It should be very clear that something happened in the past, which is still causing them problems in the present, in the form of self-defeating beliefs and behavior that ghost, remember that term from screenwriting or wound from the past is still causing them pain. The emotional story map for the entire rest of the book stems from these limiting beliefs and thought patterns in and outline like this. All you want to do is create a very high level plan of the main points. This is not for detail. This is only very, very sketchy. Draft hand-drawn map of the signposts are where you want to go on the way for the next three stages. How many rocks, Cagney throat, these two characters, and how many forests can get lost him before finding a way out together? Where do they start up physically and emotionally? And where do they end up at the end of the road? Think about Jane Eyre. She starts out as the unwanted child and the great house were cousins, despise her. She's alone, friendless, fearful and powerless. She has no control over what happens to her, has to endure great suffering, physical and psychological. She ends up at the end of the book as an independently wealthy woman married to the man she loves. And on the terms where she is completely in control, how she moves from one state to another forms the backbone of the Jane Eyre story. How did you find the strength to stand up for yourself and work towards the truth? What were the crucial events along the way which made her the woman she turned out to be, she made a terrible decision. You remember what? You've walked away from Rochester? This is the character change or the character arc that readers wanted to see in a romance. Now you have to plot out how the characters are going to change through the story. You only need to do this in very broad strokes. But you're looking for the major turning points where something can happen or is revealed, which makes the characters react and shift and change. So now we can move on and develop a plan for next three stages. Stage two. This is the falling in love stage. Show how the hero and heroine start to see that their lives can be different if they let go the old beliefs, the C1 other in a new light and recognize their true natures. The end of stage two there with some form of commitment. This sequence of scenes show the hero and heroine falling in love and acting and reacting to the situation you are all unique story has placed them in the sequence end in an obligatory seen. This is the moment of no return, where they make some commitment, which marks the transition from the falling in love to being in love with the other person. At this point, there's no going back. They are locked together now. It could be a first kiss, a declaration, first real intimacy. But nothing will be the same ever again. In screenwriting, The often call this the sex at 60 moment because screenplays up often to a 120 pages long stage three, commitment to the other person leads to increased vulnerability. Passion and sex leads to extra exposure, which reveals that deep fears and intimate moments. At the end of stage three, something will challenge them and they have to make a critical decision of how they wanted to live their lives and move forward. The stakes are going to increase in stage three. That's going to be greater and greater challenges to the internal conflicts and barriers that these two characters are created to protect themselves. And those barriers starts to crumble. As they become more intimate. Each of them reveals a source of their pain and in the process makes themselves a vulnerable and open to be hurt. Again, at the end of the sequence of scenes, there was one major obligatory scene where something happens which makes the two characters feel that they had been betrayed because it hits precisely home with their greatest fear. This is the black moment, the dark moment where it looks like all is lost on the romance is over. It can be a sudden revelation or recognition of a truth or a lie, but it has to be an explosive seen. It could be one of the characters, or it could be both of the characters. But it has to be major. In stage four, they take a leap of faith and let go of their old ways of self-protection and face their fears. There's a price to pay for this new relationship. And it has to be a concrete decision which pushes them forward into a new way of living. Now they are ready to embark on a successful relationship and find real long-term love with one another. Because the characters have grown and are stronger as a result of the romance, they able to confront the fears are limitations together and decide to let go with the old ways they have used to protect themselves. This is who they truly are inside. And this is the person that the other character has actually fallen in love with. The reward is to find love and the future is that authentic selves. That final resolution is at the heart of all Romans fiction. And the reason why it is a literature of hope. Somewhere out there. There's someone who will love you for who you truly are. This is why we write romance fiction. And I hope that these emotional story maps will help you to create your own powerful romance story which will resonate with readers. Joy, the writing. 5. Romance Story Structure and Character Arcs: In some commercial fiction, such as crime fiction, the external plot is crucial to the story. These are known as plot driven books. Romans fiction, on the other hand, is fundamentally character-driven. But that does not mean, but you can neglect the plot. The plot is the sequence of events that create the strong backbone. But you're wonderful. Romance is built on. Now that you've worked on the character arcs for your hero and heroine, you can start editing your draft for the turning points of your novel that will create the page turning read that your readers will adore. Character is plot. They are completely intertwined in commercial romance fiction, which is character-driven. This has to be reflected in the draft or your novel, your manuscript. Work together so that character is revealed by the actions and reactions are decisions that character takes in response to the challenges. You've gotta throw at them through the external plots situation. In turn, the plot is driven by those reactions and decisions in a series of scenes and sequels to those scenes. That in one scene, the character makes a decision at the end of the scene, which leads automatically to the start of the next scene. That way, the scene and SQL links to the character and the plot to create a unified whole. The plot is built up by the actions of the characters take under pressure. You've already started working on the character arc for your hero and your heroin. You know, and have a strong sense of who your main characters are. The external plot is the dilemma, challenge or conflict situation which you put them in. Their responses, actions and decisions will generate your plot. Then you can start shaping those reactions into the best form possible for your story. This is story structure, and that's what you're going to talk about next. Story magic. Story structure, magic, how a story is really structured. How can you work out the right structure for your story? Well, the good news is, that's already been done. Frameworks have been created for you to use. I spent years studying the best drawing telling teachers like Joseph Campbell, Robert McKee, John Truby, Blake Snyder and Christopher Vogler. Plus the published full-time Roman source there with mills and boon and Harper Collins. I worked with several terrific waters, terrific editors who have shared with me in-depth information about story structure, counter development, and how to write compelling Romans fiction. When I started out, this was gold. It allows me to combine story structure from screenwriting and novelists with the romance story development I needed. I learned how to combine story craft with Roman specific story structure to create award-winning romance fiction. Imagine that you are building a house. You start at the bottom with the foundations, the groundwork for floor layout and the underpinnings of the building. Then the brick work starts. You can build an office block, a residential home, or a retail store, or wherever you're architects blend dictates, but Sundays are exactly the same. Story structure is the foundations which underpins all of your work. On top of those foundations, you can build any kind of fresh and new store you like of any length and an, any Roman sub-genre. The foundations of the story or the same. That's crucial fact. The store you build on those foundations is your creative genius. But you need a story structure to support your work. Does that makes sense? I hope so. Story structure is a solid foundation underpinning for your romance. The story idea and the characters may sound great as an idea, but without structure, you'll end up sliding down the side of the mountain. As this bond was just about to do recent holiday in Switzerland pre-COVID-19. How can we use stories, craft techniques from screenwriting? The good news at the same stores have to take news used by screenwriters can be applied to fiction. And especially. Commercial genre fiction such as romance. Why? Because the growth goal of a screenwriter, the objectivist screenwriter, is precisely the same as a novelist. Master great, a compelling emotional journey for the audience, Narcos readers. And there can be no better journey than the ups and down roller coaster ride of Romans fiction. Their job is to choreograph and control the emotions of the audience who are watching the movie in every single scene. I think it was Joseph Campbell who said that movie is made up of 60 two-minute great scenes. It is a scene by scene analysis of the emotions. Don't have to do that with our work. But you can see the fundamental similarity. Properly constructed movie or any story. The story consists of six basic stages to defined and broken up by five key turning points in this plot. Not only are these turning points always the same, do the same function, the occupy the same positions in the story. More or less. Not wonders writers who says it has to be exactly this percentage, but it's more or less the same position in the story. Wonderful screenwriter, Michael Hagen, who was, has wonderful story classes, has a diagram below which describes classical story structure. What he's describing is a structure made up sequences of scenes which combine into act. You're right, your scene. You write a number of scenes, clip them together to make a sequence. Then those sequences combined to react. Doing writers combine to act 23 in many cases, but not always. In most fiction, that would be four acts. If you're writing a long novel, it could be three or four sequences of scenes per act was a short story or short novel. We only have one sequence broken up into small chapters. But the fact is true in classical story structure, scenes are collected into sequences of scenes. Was a start, a middle, and an end to each collection of scenes. Each sequence ends up at the turning point that hooks onto the next scene sequence. Don't worry, I'll explain that in much more detail in a moment about turning points here. I think that these drawing turning points as tent poles, if you've ever gone camping and have a tent, or been to a circus where there's a big tent. You need to hold up the tent with poles. These temples hold up the rest of the story as the conflict increases. If the ten ports are all in one side of the tent and the whole thing is completely unbalanced and it will collapse. We've all read Romans drawings were the setup and ordinary world seems to take forever. Then suddenly the love story and the dark moment and the resolution is crammed into the end. No, don't do that. Use these techniques, use these TurningPoint techniques to set milestones on the journey that the characters are taking and it's balanced out. Across your eight sequences. Your story will meet the expectations of your readers who want to see the characters battle against the odds and make the wrong choices before they can come together. The greater the battle, the sweeter, the end result. Let's think about that. If you're here on heroin, gets together on one, fall in love, get married and happy after. Thank you very much to the end. There's no emotional conflict there, there's no story. Not what readers want to see. They want to see these characters, their love, their Romans. Here's a great demonstration of those pegs. Temples from story fix. The major turning points and the plot shifts. The greater the battle, the sweeter. The end result. Here is the process I use. And I would recommend it to you. Let's say it's a 60 thousand word romance novel. We have four acts. In those acts, there are eight sequences of scenes. This is a very simple story, a plan, but it works well. I would recommend it to you. While I just say that I've just hit you a lot information about four act structure and 18 structure. But basically it's about conflict. Emotional conflict drives any romance. In act one, the hero or heroine, or leaving the ordinary lives than they meet, something happens and inciting incident, which completely throws them off guard. Turns out to their ordinary life. The point of the plot that begins a storyline. They're locked together in some way enact to fall in love. The conflict increases as the stakes increase. The turning point is where they have to decide and make a commitment to love or revert back to the old way of living and the old belief systems. And then that for the falling action phase, it's the events that lead to the ending. It's all about conflict. And the four Act eight sequence structure builds that conflict and gives you the strength you need. I've talked about. The journey begins in the opening few chapters, your Romans, stage one. The first act. We introduced an established our hero or heroine in the ordinary world that ordinary life. We hook the reader with interesting characters. Usually we start with one character and makes sure the reader understands this is the character that going to be most engaged with. Usually it's the heroin, uh, but it may not be in many books I used the hero. We then build sympathy and empathy fat character by showing they're lacking something that come onto the stage with their own needs, their own once and expectations for the future. By the end of this first collection of scenes, the reader should know the external conflict or both characters and their internal conflict. What is missing in the life? I'm a psychology of the protagonists with the other person will fulfill. This is the start of that character arc. This first sequence ends with a plot point or turning point called the inciting incident. From screenwriting. Something unusual happens in this ordinary world which completely turns the life around. Has to be something completely out of the blue. This usually happens about ten to 15% for the way through the book. That's sequence, one. Sequence to our hero and heroine are usually together at this point, we've introduced them both. They have to react to this new situation, this startling new event, this inciting incident. But they don't want to change. They're going to resist moving out of their established lives. So something has to push them to commit, to train, to change, and try something new. This is linked to their motivation and needs at this point where the story begins. But one thing is very clear from now on, their lives are going to be different. They're going on a journey, but at this point, they have a very new specific objective to achieve and decided to go for it. This is the external plot that brings a hero and heroine together. The story situation, what it does is forces them to stay locked together. The romance then truly begins from this point. This is turning point too, about twenty-five cents the way through the book, quarterly book, the rest of your story builds out from your turning point. At quarter way through the book. Actually was a falling in love stage of the book. This is the fun part of the book. This is why readers come to us. The first sequence, sequence three, is, I call connection and communication. In end of act one, we've locked them together in some sort of project or initiative or some way where they're forced to communicate and interact with one another. At this point, they're still relying on their old self protection mechanisms. But in this sequence three, they started to see another side of the person as they are forced to work, to weather and communicate. The sort of get attracted to one another. The start to notice more things about the other person. How they talk, the tone they use, the words they use, and how they act. Sequence three ends in a small turning point called a pinch point, where something changes in their relationship, which locks them even closer together. Usually around the 40% part in the book. Again, not being prescriptive. The second part of back to sequence for is recognition and communication. They recognize the value in the other person. And it started communicate like human beings. Connection and their dialogue and their actions built acceptance and trust with one another as the joy beam with the other person. The key thing you might sequence for is that it ends with a major shift in the external plot and the relationship which locks the hero and heroine together in a very powerful way. This could be a sexual moment, a close moment, intimate or personal moment, but has to be a fundamental shift or changes the entire direction of the story. This is slammed bank in the middle of your book. It's known as the mid point of no return. Turning 0.3 is halfway through the book. They come up, go back from this point. Everything else that follows pivots on this midpoint seen right in the middle of your book. That's how important it is. And also make sure there's no sagging middle. Something seriously happens in the middle of your book. Which moves us on to Act three. Enact three. The Archytas have to react to what's happened at that scene in the midpoint. The stakes increase at several levels. The relationship starts to grow and is threatened, but they go against that threat. Limiting beliefs and fears are overcome by deep connection. This step outside their comfort zone and start to disclose and share their life with the other person. Usually there's intimacy and passion for another, leaving to a strong trusting bond between them, linking them even closer together. What are the other the characters is trusting enough and vulnerable enough to share that background story. And the cause of inner conflict. In screenwriting terms is called the ghost because it's something that happened in the past which still haunts that character. Let's say it's the heroine telling the hero about her tilted wedding and the fact that her sister betrayed her with her boyfriend and her fiance arbitrary TO with his sister. He has to respond. Tensor leads the revelation with warmth and understanding, showing that she was right. It's okay to trust his person. It's okay to be vulnerable both this person. This leads us and see a bonding intimacy and sensitive, deep possibly even protection. This sequence five, ends in a pinch point, a small turning point when something changes in the relationship about the sixty-five percent point on the book, it could be a great disclose explosion of emotion. It could be a revelation. It could be the fact that they share this story, this backstory. But is it a major event in the relationship? We'll then move on to the second part of Act Three, sequence six. The relationship starts to have problems. The stakes ramp up. The problems ramp up. As external and internal conflict increases, as their passion for another develops, they grow and mutually dependent on one another and really unnatural bond between them. They really have fallen in love at this point. They both moved away from the limiting beliefs and grown as people into a trusting relationship and a trusting state. The other person will share their source of paint and internal conflict in a major revelation scene. But then something happens. Something major threatens their relationship. It's usually through the external conflict, but it directly challenges the internal conflict and fears of one of them. It could be linked to a revelation about the character's backstory or betrayal of trust. Or they think it's betrayal of trust, or a real attack on the person's self-worth. For example, the find out the other person who has been keeping a great secret from them or not telling them the whole truth. But it's a major setback. It threatens a relationship, it destroys some elements of the trust there. One of them steps back from the relationship and retreats back into the old self-protective mode because of this event. Sequence six ends with TurningPoint for the major setback at about 75% through the book. This is known as the dark night of the soul or the black moment, and it's a compulsory plot point in any Romans, it's a big threat to the relationship. It deserves to have its moment. We then move into act for for everything they gained in the story and relationships so far seems at risk. They're under attack. All their fields, fears and deep concerns about being vulnerable are back in place. They tried to go forward and grow. And it's welcome back In bit them. If you're miserable again now, the old belief systems threatened to destroy their relationship. Now at the chance, they have to regroup and workout where they wanted to do something to save that relationship. What they do now is in the final push, the US, the new strengths and lessons they have learned in their character growth, but not the same person there were where the story began. There have changed. Which means they have to take everything they have learned and take a remarkable leap of faith in the other person. Sequence seven ends in the turning 0.5. The climax decision. This is do or die. At this point, they commit the compromise or the walk-away. Simple as that. Usually this happens at 90% in the book as the action ramps up towards the end. Sequence eight is the final scene. Sequence is the aftermath and resolution. After the climatic decision, the hero and heroine commit to one another and find the life to work together in some way. They have resolved what happened at the end of the previous scene. The hero or heroine or both. And it's much better if it's both. Have a self-revelation, a new discovery, which drives them to become the person who represents their true self. They have to show how they have grown, overcome their obstacles, and conquered the old beliefs. They have earned their happy ever after. And this is it. This is the end of the book, harass. Now you know how classical story structure works. You can get started on building out a powerful emotional experience for your reader in your story. And that's what we're going to do next.