by Dr. Diana Stout

Without thinking about it, name your favorite go-to movie or book.

I bet it’s your favorite because of the main character. Because of the trials that character has to traverse, which make you cry, sigh, laugh, or have you holding your breath in anticipation. What makes them memorable?

I would guess that you either fell in love with them, could relate to their struggle, or admired their strength and ability to reach their goal despite the hardships; or, if they didn’t reach their goal, you respected their honor in their failing.

You felt emotional about this character. You felt like you knew them, or knew of their struggle because it was or is currently your struggle, too.

My favorite movie is Jane Austen’s Persuasion because I can relate to the struggle of the main character, Anne. She’s followed a life script others wanted for her (and still do), plus she spent her life trying to make everyone else happy. As a result, she never said no and doesn’t experience true happiness, until the end, when she finally says no and follows her own path.

Another go-to story for me is The Martian by Andrew Wier. An astronaut gets left on Mars after everyone believes he’s hit and blown away by debris and presumed dead. How could I relate to a survival story? Because he meets every dead-end problem straight on and finds solutions.

Why We Read Books and Go to the Movies

It’s no surprise we go to movies and read books to be entertained. Whether about surviving love lost, being lost, or feeling lost. But, it goes beyond entertainment. We want to know how they reach their goal after hitting rock bottom emotionally or physically. Or, how to survive toxic people or toxic situations. All stories fit into these broad classifications.

We love these characters because they overcome. Moving past situations or people, which in turn creates growth and inner joy.

One reviewer, writing about one of seven novellas in my Laurel Ridge romance series, said my characters felt real. “You can tell she's lived among her characters long enough to understand them yet still loves them enough to let them stumble. That blend of warmth and wit is rare. It's not just romance—it's restoration, the quiet work of forgiveness wrapped inside humor and longing.”

I felt their pain and laughed aloud at their antics. I wanted to run around with them and meet with them regularly. I wanted to party with them. I wanted our relationships to continue after the books’ publications. The characters were that real to me.

Have You Hurt Your Character Badly Enough?

To create a memorable character, they have to hurt emotionally and psychologically, to the point that their wound is exposed—to themself and to others in some form.

Exposing that wound represents danger. They’re afraid what others will think about them. That they could lose their job, the battle, their family, friends, everything important to them.

It’s that paralyzing fear of their wound being exposed that creates the conflict.

And, that’s what the Mirror Moment is about. This midpoint Mirror Moment occurs at the fifty percent mark and is the only major plot point where the flip comes from the character’s internal conflict—their wound and the lie they’ve been living. The other four major plot points (New Opportunity, Change of Plans, Major Setback, and Climax) deal with the external goal and external conflicts.

• For the first time, the character sees what they need to do, what they need to become. They recognize what they don’t want to be anymore. Oh, they still want to reach their original goal but not for the same reason as when they started. They’re realizing their morals matter more than their past behavior and beliefs.
• For the first time, they’re acknowledging the immense pain that’s been buried and being honest about themself. As much as they want that goal, they’re filled with doubt that they can reach it now. Confidence is at a new low. They can’t go back to what they used to be. That person doesn’t exist anymore. But, how can they go forward?
• The questions facing them in that mirror are: Can they become the person they want to be? Will anyone like them anymore? Will they fail?

This is where the audience's hearts are tugged. They’re strongly rooting for the character to succeed.

In Helping Others, They Sacrifice

From the Mirror Moment to the Climax, they try to become a better person. They try hard to change, but then they reach the Major Setback, that Do or Die moment, when they realize if they can’t save themselves, at least they can try to save everyone else. That’s the tieback to the Mirror Moment.

Without the Mirror Moment, that strong Major Setback and Climax can’t be reached. It’s about the internal change at the Mirror Moment that creates the external change of action, of behavior, that wins the day regardless of whether they succeed or fail. If they fail, they do so with honor, and that becomes a win. A strong win. A solid win.

That win—even in failure—is their crossover, their arc into becoming a better person.

How To Fix a Stalled Manuscript

What I’ve discovered from reviewing early manuscripts where I stopped at the sagging middle and by working with other writers suffering the same plight, is that in every situation the Major Setback or Climax plot point was sitting where the Mirror Moment should have been.

In essence, there was no Mirror Moment.

Moving the misplaced plot point forward to its proper place, opens up the entire second half of the second act and then some. I’ve seen it happen not only with my stories, but with the stories of writers and students I’ve coached.

Plot the Mirror Moment First

Now, whenever I start a new story, I immediately take the character’s goal and their wound and go to the Mirror Moment. This one plotting device works for pantsers, plotters, and planters alike.

• How does that wound affect their goal?
• How does their journey crash to rock bottom where the wound is totally exposed to this character as they look in the mirror, whether for real or a mental self-examination?
• Are the actions and decisions up to this point exposing the wound bit by bit?
• What must the character let go of in that mirror moment? What must they change internally, emotionally, and psychologically in order to do the right thing? To reach their goal, yet remain honorable?

The Big Shift

It’s not until the Major Setback that they fully acknowledge, there’s no saving the self anymore. It’s about saving everyone else or in coming clean. While it wasn’t fully expressed at the Mirror Moment, it’s fully expressed at the Major Setback, the entry into the final Act III.

That’s what the second part of the second act is all about—the journey toward the Major Setback.

It’s at the Major Setback where honor becomes more important than pride. Should they lose their goal, they’re willing to start anew, alone or with a team, and as someone willing to sacrifice.

From Ordinary to Extraordinary

We remember these characters because while they’re ordinary in the beginning, by the end of the story, they have become extraordinary. Memorable.

Their wound has been healed.

The best stories are where character wounds are deep and pushed down, hidden from view that even they don’t recognize that the wound has been driving their decisions until the day of the inciting incident, the day when their world first changes. The first time they’re facing their wound and quickly dismiss it.

Only at the Mirror Moment can they acknowledge the truth behind Inciting Incident and what it did but couldn’t name until now.

That’s how you prevent a sagging middle.

What has your experience with sagging middles been like? What is your favorite go-to story? What’s the underlying reason why it’s a favorite?

About Dr. Diana

She loves talking about writing, and she enjoys helping other writers. To that end, she’s created the Grammar and Punctuation Recuse Series. Short-read books: I Hate Commas Comma Book, and I Hate Helping Verbs are the first two books published, so far.

The second series, Finding Your Fire series, include Dr. Diana’s Toolkit to Better Writing, CPE: Characters, Plot, & Emotion, The 3 Secrets of Time Management and Eliminating Procrastination.

The author of Grendel’s Mother, a medieval story that gives voice to a famous character who was voiceless, Diana is a screenwriter, author, blogger, writing coach, and former university English professor of writing classes. An award-winning writer in multiple genres, one judge said, she’s "a writer to watch."

Earlier this year she published her first thriller, a split-time lake house story, Harbor House: Deadly Intentions. By the end of July, she will have published a second thriller, When the Walls Listen, and is publishing a third thriller, Buried Trash: A Shelby Hale Thriller, later this year.

To learn more, visit her website at sharpenedpencilsproductions.com.

Top image purchased from DepositPhotos.com

By Jaime Buckley

I want to tell you something I'm not proud of.

There was a point in my writing career where things were actually working. Books selling. An audience growing. A community of readers who showed up because they genuinely loved the story I was telling.

And I threw it away.

Not in one dramatic moment. Not because of a single bad decision. I threw it away slowly, quietly, one small compromise at a time...until the thing I was writing had almost nothing to do with why I started.

It took me years to understand what happened. Now I think it's one of the most important things a writer can know before they build an audience.

Because if you build one the wrong way, losing it is the best thing that can happen to you.

When the Money Showed Up

Let me back up.

I started writing because I had a story that wouldn't leave me alone.

A character.

A world.

Something I believed kids needed to read.

I wasn't chasing a career.

I wasn't thinking about platforms or algorithms or revenue streams.

I was just trying to get this thing out of my head and into the world.

And it worked.

Readers found me. Tens of thousands of them. I still don't entirely know how. I hadn't done anything clever. I just showed up and told the truth about a boy trying to figure out who he was...and apparently, a lot of people needed that story.

Then I started paying attention to what sold.

Not in an obvious way. I didn't sit down and say, "I'm going to sell out now." That's not how it happens.

It's quieter than that.

You notice what gets the most response. You nudge the next piece in that direction. You make decisions based on what the market seems to want, instead of what the story actually needs.

Before long...it wasn't my story anymore.

The Slow Drift

The hardest part about this kind of drift is that every individual decision seems reasonable.

Bring in a real person as a character...because it'll help sell more copies. Shift the tone here...because readers responded better to this. Change the arc there...because this is what the genre expects.

Each one makes sense in isolation.

Taken together, they add up to a betrayal.

Not of your readers.

Of yourself.

And your readers can feel it, even when they can't name it.

The comments thin out.

The energy shifts.

People who loved your early work start to drift away...and you can't figure out why, because you've been working harder than ever.

Here's why: they came for you. The real you. The honest, unpolished, slightly-weird-and-entirely-genuine you.

The moment you started optimizing, you started disappearing.

I'd sold around 24,000 copies of my first novel. It stayed in the top 20 of its category on Amazon for over three years.

Then I stopped telling the truth.

...and everything started to fall apart.

The Moment It Broke

I won't pretend I saw it coming.

I didn't.

A single person came into my life and told me I couldn't write.

He was calm about it.

Polite, even.

And I believed him.

Weeks later I still couldn't take a full breath without pressure on my chest.

It still hurts to say this out loud…but I pulled everything I'd written offline. Books. Blog posts. Short stories. A decade of work...gone. Because one man's opinion confirmed the fear I'd been carrying for years.

Here's what I know now that I didn't know then.

I was already weakened.

Let me say this again, and listen carefully:

I had already done the damage to myself, slowly, over time.

The slow drift away from truth had left me hollow. I didn't have anything solid to stand on, because I'd spent years building on sand. Chasing what sold, what performed, what pleased...instead of what was real.

The real, original story I'd planned back in 1990.

When you write from truth, criticism lands differently. Sure, it might sting…but it doesn't shatter you, because you know what you made is real. You were there. You put something honest into the world.

When you write for performance...one bad review can take the whole thing down. Because deep down, you already knew it wasn't quite true.

What Truth Actually Costs

Here's the thing nobody tells you about writing honestly.

It's slower.

You can't just produce content. You have to sit with things. You have to be willing to write the part that makes you uncomfortable, not just the part that makes you look good. You have to trust that the reader will meet you there.

That takes patience. And it takes a platform that rewards depth over volume.

That's why Substack changed things for me.

Not because it's magic. Not because it solved the drift problem automatically. But because the model itself asks you to build a direct relationship with real readers who chose to show up for you specifically.

Not an algorithm.

Not a trending topic.

You.

That kind of accountability is uncomfortable...and it's exactly what I needed. It's harder to drift into performance when the person reading your work knows your name and pays for a subscription because they trust your voice.

It keeps you honest.

Start With the True Thing

If you're building a writing practice right now...or trying to rebuild one...here's the only advice that actually helped me.

Start with the true thing.

That's it.

Not the marketable thing.

Not the thing you think people want.

Not the version of you that's been sanded down and optimized for engagement.

The thing that's been sitting in you, a little uncomfortable, that you haven't said yet because you weren't sure anyone needed to hear it.

That's the one.

Write that. Publish that.

Let the readers who need it find it.

The audience you build from that place is durable. They're not there for the trend or the topic or the packaging. They're there because you told them something true...and they recognized themselves in it.

That's the only kind of audience worth having.

The true thing is waiting to be written.

What is your one true thing?

If you want help building your audience, that's exactly what we work on inside Substack for Authors. How to set up your publication the right way, so you can find your true voice, build the right audience, and create a writing practice that doesn't ask you to disappear in the process.

Come find us.

About Jaime

Jaime Buckley is the author of the Chronicles of a Hero series and the founder of LifeofFiction.com on Substack. He teaches writers how to build a sustainable publishing practice at JaimeBuckley.com and through the online course Substack for Authors.

Featured image purchased from DepositPhotos.

Embracing Just-In-Time Learning

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the constant stream of new tools, platforms, and creative trends? Inbox full of more useful articles than you could ever read? You’re not alone. It feels like everyone around you is mastering the latest shiny thing. From book trailers, to dazzling websites, or visual social media magic, they’re powering forward and here we are, thinking, “I want to do that but I don’t even know where to start.”

Sound familiar?

We’re often following out-of-date advice. We’ve been told that knowledge equals preparedness, that learning everything up front is the only way to stay relevant in this fast-paced world. So before we can start, we need to learn the whole process. Right? But here’s the thing we have to accept: in our modern world, it’s exhausting. It’s suffocating. And worst of all, it’s not effective.

Why?

Because modern tools change faster than we can keep up. What you learn today will probably be outdated by tomorrow. Worse yet, trying to cram everything into your brain at once doesn’t just waste time, it smothers your creative spark. You weren’t meant to operate under pressure like that.

So, what if we flipped it? What if instead of chasing every new trend or platform, we learned only what we needed, exactly when we needed it?

This is the power of just-in-time learning.

The Relief of Learning Only What Matters Now

Imagine this: You’re working on a manuscript and suddenly realize you’d love to create a simple book trailer. But instead of spending hours watching tutorials or reading guides about video editing, you ask yourself, “What’s the bare minimum I need right now to make something decent?” Turns out, it might be as simple as creating a slideshow with some basic text and images. No complicated software required.

Or maybe you want to build a website for your writing. Instead of diving into coding or design frameworks, you start small: figure out the absolute essentials (like setting up a home page and an “About” page) using user-friendly platforms. The rest can wait—until you’re ready.

Just-in-time learning doesn’t mean ignoring technology or creative opportunities. It means choosing to learn what matters for your next step, and only that. No more feeling like you need to be a tech whiz or a design genius to create something meaningful. Those new tools that are always changing? You may be surprised at how easy what you want may have become!

Embracing the Overwhelm (And Doing Something About It)

If you’re drowning in industry newsletters, social media groups, and endless “you should be doing this” advice, stop for a second. You don’t need to read it all right now.

Is that newsletter useful? Maybe. Create a folder and throw it and anything else about that topic into that folder. Don’t try to read them right now. Just make sure your folder is well labelled. (If it isn’t useful, unsubscribe!)

The secret is that newsletter overload isn’t all that’s causing overload. The problem is learning to focus on only what’s directly blocking your ability to create right now. So unsubscribing from or archiving those newsletters isn’t an act of laziness. It’s an act of self-care. You can always revisit them later if something truly captures your interest.

Archives are your own curated knowledge. To learn more about how to build your own useful archive of knowledge (that doesn’t eat your time or brain space), you may want to read Building a Second Brain by Tiego Forte.

Taking Action, One Step at a Time

Next time you feel stuck or overwhelmed, ask yourself: What’s the smallest thing I need to learn right now to make progress on my creative goal? Then, tackle just that. Repeat as needed.

For example:

• “I want to try visual social media but I can’t draw.” → Learn how to use a simple graphic design tool or find royalty-free images and templates. Canva or Midjourney could be your new best friend.
• “I’d love to have a website but don’t understand technology.” → Use a no-code platform like Author Websites by BookBub to create a basic site with your writing portfolio. Want something more robust? Take a class focused on just what you need.

Your Creative Tool Kit

Just-in-time learning isn’t just about tools, it’s about reclaiming control. It’s about saying, “I’m not going to let this overwhelm me. I’ll learn what I need when I need it, and that’s okay.”

The next time you’re staring at a new trend or platform, don’t panic. Just take a deep breath and ask yourself: What one thing do I need to know right now to move forward? Then, let go of the rest until you actually need it.

What’s one creative goal you’ve been putting off because it feels too big or overwhelming? Share in the comments. I’d love to hear how you’re embracing just-in-time learning and reclaiming your creative power!

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not hanging out with her family, writing, or teaching, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of No Stress Writing Academy. She also runs Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!

This article is based on a chapter from her most recent book, The Work of Joy is now available here.

Top image from depositphotos.