Transcription
This video is brought to you by Campfire. Wow, look at the audience sitting all comfortable there, thinking they know how the story is going to go. It would be a shame if the author suddenly… pulled the rug from under them!
I’m not just talking about a sudden plot twist, though a good plot twist will certainly help in this regard. No. I’m talking about a mid-series shakeup to the established story that changes everything. Nothing will be the same anymore after I cover mid-series shakeups in this video!
Now, what exactly is a mid-series shakeup? A mid-series shakeup occurs when a story has a set plot or pattern that each entry or chapter in the story follows, that establishes a routine or certain set of audience expectations that is then upended by a dramatic turn of events.
For example, a story can structure itself as a monster-of-the-week story, with each chapter featuring a new monstrous foe for the protagonists to defeat. This establishes a familiar pattern that the audience grows accustomed to. Then, the mid-series shakeup occurs when, instead of a new monster for the protagonists to face, the protagonists are instead betrayed by their fellow monster hunters, their fortress destroyed, and are suddenly wanted fugitives by the very people who were formerly their patrons. This changes the story from a monster-of-the-week plot to a cat-and-mouse game, as the protagonists are forced to evade their former allies and escape.
A mid-series shakeup can re-contextualize the plot and dramatically shift the narrative’s direction to keep a story fresh. But the real reason to use it is so I can feel as though I pulled one over on the audience and completely trash the fun story they were enjoying just because I got bored with it. It also can be a great tool for writers that need a story to have a high rate of audience retention, but don’t have the skill to pull this off without burning down the entire story every 10 chapters with the vague promise that the next 10 will be better.
So, how can a writer pull off a mid-series shakeup? Rather than one specific method, there are in fact a massive number of ways this can be accomplished, so I will instead be covering some of the more common and useful tools when it comes to shaking up a story. Let’s begin with one of the most dramatic!
Brutally murdering one or more important characters! Killing one or more important characters can mark a clear and decisive point of transition for the story. There are two kinds of characters that are typically killed this way. The first is the sacrificial lion. This is a character that is a major part of the story and is usually integral to the cast and plot. Often, they are the pillar that supports the protagonists and their allies and are featured often in the story. This makes their death extra shocking, which is why I’m going to undermine it by foreshadowing it way too much! The noble, flawless character who is always kind to the protagonist, can solve all of their problems for them, and can have their death act as an emotional fulcrum to further the protagonist’s character development? Yeah, no one will see that character’s death coming. Extra points if they’re a mentor and/or parental figure. Does the story build up to the sacrificial lion’s death by making it the natural result of the decisions of one or more characters? I don’t know, I can’t see because of all these neon-colored death signs blocking my view.
Now, if building up to a big character death is hard, then maybe just downgrade to a sacrificial lamb instead of a lion. Now, sacrificial lambs don’t nearly have the weight of a lion, as they tend to be side characters or secondary characters that appear only so often in the story, but if set up well, then they can add a decent enough tonal shift to shake up the story, especially if no other characters have died yet. Even with this lesser status, the death of a sacrificial lamb can be amplified by making them foils to the protagonist or even making them far more skilled in order to show just how dangerous the threats they face are. But there is no way I’m going to put in that kind of legwork, so instead, I’ll just make the lamb a pure, innocent character that can be killed only for shock value. Will cynical audiences see through this? Of course, but that’s their problem. Besides, if that doesn’t work, then just go for quantity by killing off a bunch of characters without worrying about the principle of diminishing returns. Because everything changed after what’s-his-name died.
If killing a character suddenly isn’t your style, then an even more dramatic solution is to instead reveal that a character is dying of some probably unspecified, so I don’t have to research it, illness. You know it’s fatal because they cough up blood and have no other symptoms. As the character is dying at the speed of the plot, this leaves the writer lots of time to make it as agonizing for the audience as it is for the character. This can be a turning point of the story, as it adds a sense of urgency that previously wasn’t there to either find a cure or for the dying character to complete their task before their symptoms become terminal, but I’m going to milk this for all it’s worth and drag it out so long that the audience will be wishing for the sweet release of death long before the ill character ever does. Good thing the character’s illness doesn’t seem to bother them during the action scenes. Even better, just forget the entire illness thing completely after I get bored with that plot or just chicken out and find a cure at the last minute off-screen.
So, we’ve murdered some characters to shift the tone into darker territory, but a mid-series shakeup often requires a bit more to give that little push forward. And one way to push our protagonists forward is to smoke them out of their comfort zone by burning down the setting! Now, a major change-up in the setting can sometimes really open up a story to a wide array of new possibilities. Is the post-burn setting well thought out with the consequences of the changes fully realized and accounted for? No, I just got bored and wanted to shift genres on a whim. Will this traumatic transition actually add story possibilities without losing the audience more invested in the older setting and tone? I mean, the old setting was about as solid as a wet tissue, so I don’t really see what the loss is anyway, but um, I’m sure the jaded audience will.
Now, if a writer doesn’t want to completely burn down the setting, then they can instead opt to merely shift the balance of power. This can be something like allies and enemies suddenly changing allegiances in relation to the protagonists, forcing them to fight alongside former foes against former friends. It can also be something as major as the bad guys winning and taking control, and thus forcing the protagonists to continue the fight underground or from the shadows. Wow. Both of those sound like really interesting and engaging ideas that require a lot of forethought and good narrative instincts to pull off. But I can improve them! Now, I could have the protagonists carry on the battle against the now-ascendant villains from the shadows, desperately scraping whatever resources they can get their hands on while staying only a few steps ahead of their foes with just their wits. But a far better use of this arc would be to just have the heroes spend all of their time in their hidden base arguing about how bad things are and pointing fingers at each other. Is this internal strife caused by being put under constant stress? Well, actually, it’s mostly a result of the author’s lack of imagination, which is why you’re going to get more of those scenes for like, way too long. Dealing with the actual details of a major shift in the balance of power in a setting requires that the setting actually develop, with power dynamics often becoming more complex and difficult for the protagonist to adapt to, which is why I would rather spend time on shallow melodrama because I can just churn that tripe out on the cheap.
Now, if a power dynamic shift is too difficult for a writer, then there are still easier ways to build up to a mid-series shakeup. Like a sudden plot twist! Now, I’ve touched on plot twists before, and just to reiterate, the best plot twists come out of nowhere and are mostly there for a writer to feel as though they’ve pulled one over on their audience. Springing a plot twist around the same time as another major turning point in the story can have a multiplicative effect by compounding the complexity and weight of the situation for the protagonists. But don’t worry, there’s no way to fumble that with a plot twist that face-plants into the ground. The best way to execute a plot twist at a key moment is to never bother to like, plan it out, and instead choose plot twists solely on the basis of desperately recapturing a waning audience’s attention rather than something as silly as a plot twist that actually makes sense and that has a causal chain that can be traced back to the story’s beginning foundation with enough red herrings and decoys to keep most of the audience guessing until the last moment. And if that doesn’t work, then just use the spray-and-pray approach and saturate the story with an increasing absurd number of plot twists and sudden reveals one after another in the vain hopes that at least one of these will get the ratings up.
This is also a great time to pull a true villain reveal. Finally, having the real man behind the man step out of the shadows and challenge the protagonists directly can also be a good way to let the audience know that something big is going down. Boy, it’s a good thing I didn’t forget to build up to the reveal, adding tension, foreshadowing, and menace to make the grand villain’s debut have its maximum impact. Oh wait. I did forget. Oh well, no one will notice when this new big bad just comes out of nowhere, nor will they care when the villain returns to nowhere and is never mentioned again in spite of the story’s sudden insistence that this guy is “very important and very bad,” even as the writers chuck him into the recycle bin in the very next season. Maybe I can turn a previously established joke villain into a serious threat that forces the unprepared heroes on the back foot thanks to the villain’s sudden competence? Where does this newfound competence come from? Character development? A villainous training arc? Nah. The villain just suddenly becomes a real threat after entire chapters of being nothing more than slapstick comedy fodder. Does this sudden streak of competence make the villain difficult to write, as the villain is so competent that I simply can’t figure out how the heroes will defeat them? Then don’t worry. Just have all of their menace and scheming suddenly vanish into the same void that YouTube threw the dislike ratio into.
Now that I've covered the small-scale tactics that can be used to create a mid-series shakeup, it’s time I cover the overall strategies that can be employed to tie all of these tactics together. Pansters, AKA discovery writers, AKA writers who don’t really follow an outline, might especially struggle with this, as shake-ups usually require at least some ability to plan in order to not completely destroy an audience's willing suspension of disbelief. And even planners with detailed outlines might struggle to execute something as complex as a mid-series shift. But that’s all a misconception. Pivoting a story, especially in a long series, is like making a sharp maneuver with a large, unwieldy vehicle, in that it can be made on a whim and without worry that it will shear the entire thing in half.
What about sprinkling in smaller details that build up gradually to the story’s shakeup by having said details planted as early as possible? Foreshadowing small details won’t work because all of those scenes will get cut so I can shove in more banal, snarky dialogue to distract the audience from the makeshift patchwork of incoherent scenes I call a “plot.” Will this undercut any major story shifts down the road by making them appear as though the writers were grasping at straws rather than actually telling a competent story? Eh, don’t worry about that! By the time cynical YouTube video essayists and reviewers point this out, it will be far too late for everyone else.
In fact, this means that I can even ignore one of the most important facets of shaking up a story’s status quo! By simply not having one! Then, when the big story shakeup occurs, the audience will be totally duped by me simply saying that “everything is different now” in spite of the story being nothing more than an over-budget clip show with a depth measured in nanometers. Much like a successful YouTube thumbnail, the key is “bait and switch.” Just keep promising that a major story shift is coming, but then simply deliver what is basically a stale preview for the next episode promising the same thing. Or do what comic books do and have a massive change in the entire universe and promise that “this time, everything won’t be reset,” only to then reset everything back to its default state anyways because no one breaks their own money printer. I mean, you know, intentionally.
See, it’s all about what a story promises in the very beginning. If the story starts out a light-hearted romantic comedy before changing into grimdark cosmic horror, then don’t worry because I’m sure it won’t need a solid fulcrum to pivot on, or the whole thing will go flying into pieces. When the story suddenly wrecks everything the audience liked about the early parts, that will just increase the impact of the mid-series shakeup and not the impact of the story as it’s thrown back at the author’s face by a disgruntled audience mad that the thing they liked about the story was suddenly ruined so the author could brag about being a smartypants. This is why it’s far more important to write for audience retention rather than actually put in the foundational work to earn the audience's trust. Desperately trying to retain an audience's fleeting attention, even if the story crumbles under the weight of excessive story shakeups, is far more sustainable than laying down the groundwork for a mid-series turning point that leaves the audience in awe and encourages them to go back and see all of the little details they missed that set everything into motion. It’s a mistake to leave the audience pleasantly surprised and wondering how the heroes are going to pull it together in the next installment, rather than hopelessly confused and wondering how the writers are going to pull it together in the next installment.
SOLDIER: Alert! Alert! Imperial forces are approaching. All Megamercs prepare a Megadefense. This battle is brought to you by Megacorp!
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Alright. Clear. Knights! It’s time. The inner vault is ahead. All we have to do is…
SIR POPUP CRUSHER: Lookout! An ad!
MYSTERIOUS VOICE: This video is brought to you by Campfire. Over a hundred thousand writers use Campfire, which is a series of tools to help organize, improve, and showcase your writing. Utilize character sheets, timelines, detail relationship webs, and a full manuscript editor that references notes in Campfire Write. Or hone your craft in Campfire Learn as a central hub of educational resources.
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Wow! Nice work, Sir Popup Crusher.
SIR POPUP CRUSHER: The trick is to hit the false X and have that attack flow into striking the true X next. Pop-ups are tricky that way.
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CONSPIRACY GUY: Look at all this junk. Megacorp are pack-rats.
KNIGHT COMMANDER: There is no end to their greed and…
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SIR ADNNIHILATOR: I kill the ad. Yeah.
KNIGHT COMMANDER: That was close.
CONSPIRACY GUY: Hey. Anyone else notice a tone shift? Like things seem a little more serious than usual.
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Eh, not really? I mean, if we fail to stop the source of the ads, then the entire TWA expanded universe will be destroyed. But other than that.
SIR ADBLOCK: Look out!
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SIR ADBLOCK: Ugh. We need to destroy the source quickly. I barely blocked that ad! And there are more of them coming in!
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Look! The source! We’re close!
SIR BREAKER: Go! I’ll hold them off!
KNIGHT COMMANDER: But Sir Commercial Breaker, you might not survive ads that powerful!
SIR BREAKER: If there’s anyone able to break this commercial, it’s me! Go!
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CONSPIRACY GUY: Hey! Why did the next-to-last chain break?
KNIGHT COMMANDER: Oh no…