At the Emirates Airlines Literary Festival last March I was the moderator for a workshop by
Louise Doughty and in it she spoke about turning points. These were key ones where there was no way the story could go/slip back - irreversible change. She said in effect it almost became a different story. She spoke of films and Sid Field's The Screen Writer's Workbook. Then she mentioned the film Truly Madly Deeply -1/4 bereavement then boyfriend comes back...no going back.
So what had me thinking about these things was not the current book or even the one I'm editing but yesterday. Yesterday I took my eldest to university. As my husband and I drove back in sun and rain and times watching the most amazing cloudscapes and rainbows I had ever seen...we had just experienced a major turning point - ours and his. Yes, he would still come home and want to be fed and so on, but it would be different. Holidays will no longer be planned around us, decisions made would be about his life and not our family. Life from this point forward will be from his point of view based solely on his needs until another big turning point happens in his life...
Yesterday really put turning points in a story into focus...life goes on but differently. From my point of view as a mother I have to let go....from his everything is possible....
Come back on Thursday to see what Biddy has to say.
