Today, in the Writers Support Group, a fiction writer wanted to talk about a turning point in her story – the moment when a character must make a big decision and act, one way or another.
Her main concern – at first, anyway – was to make the action justifiable and not too obvious.
She’s writing fiction, but the same principles apply to narrative non-fiction, which at its best uses any and all of the tools of fiction.
I can’t go into specifics, because the Writers Support Group is a confidential space.
She described the context – the situation her character found himself in – and outlined the decision he faced, which involved revealing something about his identity.
As she described it, the stakes did not seem very high. He was going to reveal something about himself, but – so what? It didn’t sound particularly risky.
We talked about this and agreed that she has an opportunity to heighten the drama by creating more danger for her character. She could adjust the set up so that delivering the revelation might come at a high price. For example: he might lose his friends over it.
And she could also raise the stakes for her character not making the revelation. That should be high risk too.
That would certainly make the turning point more dramatic.
👉 Writers Support Group – details.
***
Note for your diary
I’m running a week-long course for writers at the Arvon foundation, with Wendy Jones.
Dates: Monday 23 – Friday 27 February 2026.
-
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it by email or on social media. Here's the link. Thanks, JPF.