Good turning points are distinct

Sep 2, 2025 | 8 min

Summary: To create good turning points, first identify specifically what changes and precisely when the change happens. Then write the turn in order to emphasise its distinctiveness.

“A good writer tells the story. The aspiring writer is searching for it. Almost apologizing for being there. How can you tell the difference? It’s pretty simple. One makes choices. The other one doesn’t.”
— Tom Vaughan (Vaughan) (Emphasis mine.)

Among all the professors I had in university, none stands out more in my memory than my Basic Drawing professor, Robert Graham. Graham was remarkable. Some fellow students referred to him as an “African American Santa Claus.” He certainly had the huge bushy beard. When inspecting our work, he’d sometimes remove his glasses and hook them into his beard for stowage. Then, critique done, he’d forget they were there and go looking for them.

Graham leans toward the camera with gloved hands crossed and resting on the top edge of one of his paintings. He looks down, contemplatively. — Professor Robert Graham
Photo from roberthenrygraham.com

The Santa Claus appearance belied his approach, though. He was no jolly elf. His class was boot camp for artists, and he was our drill sergeant. He’d earned a reputation for making students cry. But he wasn’t cruel. He cared about our craft and wouldn’t let us get away with half-effort. Relentlessly, he broke down our bad habits and built up new, better ones.

One of this favorite things to tell us was, “Push your values!” Beginning art students tend to be timid. We sketch lightly, hesitant. Professor Graham had no place for that. He forced us to lean in, commit. To draw thick, dark lines and deeply shaded regions. To widen the dynamic range of our work.

And our drawings were better for it. When we let go of our timidity and drew with the full range of depth, we found new space for nuance and subtlety. We shaped the edges and focal points with more dexterity and control. Our work was richer, clearer, and more compelling.

Distinct turning points help you see the story

A turning point in a story is like an edge, the place where a shadow and highlight come together. If all the edges in a drawing are blurry and faint, it makes it difficult to identify the focus, what the picture is about. If the main edges are clear, so is the image as a whole.

Distinct turning points help your audience see the story.

If that’s true, you and I benefit from making our turning points distinct. But how do we do this, exactly?

I’m not confident in this claim, but I hypothesize there are three steps:

Identify the specific thing that changes (what)
If you were in Professor Graham’s class, this would be the moment when you decided which fruit to draw first in the still life. Maybe you pick the apple or the bunch of green grapes.
Identify the specific moment of change (when)
Continuing the metaphor, this is when you measure the size of the fruit with your eye and consider its juxtaposition against other fruit and the bowl and table. You want your drawing to match reality, so you need to place your lines and shapes and shaded regions in the right places.
Find a unique and differentiated way to demonstrate the change (how)
This is when you fill in the details, the little specular highlights, the reflected ambient glow on one side, the textures and shadows. This is when a circle becomes a rich, juicy grape, an oval becomes a thin, papery leaf.

Step 1: identify the specific thing that changes

The Story Grid methodology is big on turning points. Shawn Coyne, author of Story Grid claims that every scene should make a change in some way. (Coyne, Pages 203-204) The key moment at which things shift is the turning point.

I believe that’s true. And I believe it applies to larger units of story structure just as well as it does to indiviudal scenes.

So, when building a story, we need to ask ourselves, “For each unit of the story’s structure, what changes? What is different after the turning point compared to before?”

If it’s an idea story, the key changes turn around the understanding of the protagonist and the audience.
If it’s an event story, the key changes turn around the protagonist’s situation.
If it’s a character story, the key changes turn around the protagonist’s beliefs about herself and her identity.

What changes in Jurassic Park

Situation: life and death and dinosaurs

In Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film, Jurassic Park, the tentpole turning points of the external event story are when Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler agree to come to the park, when the dinosaurs escape containment, and when the remaining humans escape the island.

From . . .	To . . .
Uninvolved in the issues of the park	Immersed in them
Safety	Danger (and then, in the end, back to safety)

Belief: embracing uncertainty

The main turning point for Dr. Grant’s character arc is when he spends the night in the tree with the kids and decides to “evolve.”

From . . .	To . . .
Believing he can ignore the chaos and unpredictability of the future	Accepting that he must face it

What changes in Star Wars

Situation: Beggar’s Canyon to Death Star trench

In George Lucas’ 1977 film, Star Wars: A New Hope, some key event story turning points are when Obi-Wan invites Luke to go with him and Luke’s family are killed, when they arrive at Alderaan and are captured, and when Luke participates in the assault on the Death Star and fires the battle-winning shot.

From . . .	To . . .
Uninvolved in galactic affairs	Right at their center
Boring farm life	Exciting adventures
Powerless victim of the Empire	Dealing the death blow to their most powerful weapon
A “nobody”	A celebrated hero

Belief: trusting the Force

The main turning point for Luke’s character arc is when he listens to Obi-Wan’s Force ghost and decides to trust the Force.

I’m still working on how exactly to articulate Luke’s character change. It may be something like:

From . . .	To . . .
Naively believing that worth comes from flashy accomplishments	Understanding that sometimes what’s most important is to let go and trust something bigger than yourself

Step 2: identify the specific moment of change

Once you decide which fruit to draw, you need to start measuring, laying down the edges, blocking out the shapes and volumes.

Drawings are two dimensional. You need to think about how things are spaced from left to right and top to bottom. Stories, on the other hand, are linear. There’s only one dimension in which you place things: time.

So, once you know what happens, you need to identify when.

We’ve considered before how stories are composed of moments and spans. Turning points are the moments. You should try to identify, as specifically as possible, the exact point at which things change, down to the individual beat.

When changes happen in Jurassic Park

Situation: the monster escapes

In Jurassic Park, the single most impactful turning point in the external event story is when the dinosaurs first break loose. This is embodied in the scene when the T-Rex escapes its paddock. The precise moment is when the monster first snaps the de-electrified cables and steps out into the road between the protagonists’ vehicles.

Belief: treetop epiphany

As mentioned above, the most impactful moment in Dr. Grant’s character story is when he’s in the tree with the kids and decides to embrace the uncertainty of the future. The precise moment is when Lex asks what he and Dr. Sattler will do now that the existence of living dinosaurs has put their careers as paleontologists at risk. His answer is the turn. “I guess I’ll have to evolve . . .” (Koepp, Page 92)

When changes happen in Star Wars

Situation: Alderaan, capture, escape, battle

One of the many virtues of Star Wars is that its many external event and revelation turning points are very distinctly rendered. Obi-Wan’s invitation and Luke’s denial are clear. So is Luke’s decision when he discovers his family has been murdered. Or when he and Obi-Wan and Solo arrive in the Alderaan system and discover the planet has been destroyed. Or when they are captured and brought aboard the Death Star. All of these moments are clear, helping the plot to move along at a brisk pace.

Belief: switch off the targeting computer

Luke’s character change, too, is quite distinctly rendered. The specific moment is when Obi-Wan’s Force ghost tells Luke to “Trust the Force,” and Luke decides to switch off his targeting computer. (Lucas, Pages 148-149)

To be continued . . .

Distinct turning points help your audience see the story you’re telling more clearly. When you’re building your turning points, you should work to identify as specifically as possible what changes and the precise moment when it happens.

Why does that specificity matter? It helps you do the next thing, which is demonstrate the change in a unique and differentiated way. We’ll talk about that next.

Onward!