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Reminder

📌 Watch for pushpins in the section headings—those mark the spots where Marlowe has provided actionable feedback on your story.

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Marlowe has identified the major emotional plot turns in your manuscript and has represented them in the graph at the top. Upward slopes in your line show your novel’s moments of conflict resolution, where the mood takes a hopeful or positive turn, signified by joy, excitement, love, relief. Downward dips illustrate where things take a darker turn or where there is a progressive complication presenting obstacles and challenges for your protagonists.

The dashed line in the middle of the graph represents emotional neutrality — the midpoint between your story’s high and low emotional points. Higher peaks and deeper valleys increase the emotional intensity, and the more frequent the peaks and valleys, the more the story becomes an emotional rollercoaster for the characters — and for readers. 

Think of the graph above as capturing the “emotional arc” of your story — a snapshot of your characters’ emotional journey throughout your book. While the narrative arc graph depicts the high-level overall tone of your book, this graph illustrates what Marlowe detected as the major emotional shifts in the storytelling. To be more precise, Marlowe is not detailing the ups and downs of the plot; it is providing a snapshot of the tone crafted by the POV characters in describing the events of the plot.

💡 Key insight: You may not need to change events in the plot. Instead, you may want to change how the plot is narrated — reframe the events by changing the language used to recount the plot.

It’s important to think about plot turns not just in terms of where and how often they occur, but also in terms of their intensity. It’s fine if most of the twists and turns in your story fall within the white band, but 90% of bestsellers have at least one emotional peak that extends into the top tint block and at least one emotional valley that extends into the bottom tint block.

Be aware that plot turns generally correspond to events in a scene and may not correspond to a specific passage you see by mousing over a plot turn on the graph. And note that emotional plot turns may or may not always correspond with the major plot points in your story. But chances are that they will often align — if something tragic happens or your characters suffer a major setback, it’s likely that the emotional temperature of the scene will follow suit.

And a final caveat: Some genres, like cozy mysteries, have a much more positive tone than the general rule for bestsellers, so don’t fret if your cozy doesn’t dip into dark territory. Conversely, some authors want their novels to remain mostly dark the whole way through.

For more information plot turns in your story, see the Story elements and Story structure sections.

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Plot turns are an essential ingredient of a page-turner. They are significant shifts in the narrative that alter the direction of the story. These turns can enhance tension, deepen character development, and keep readers engaged by subverting their expectations. There are two main types of plot turns: unexpected plot turns and plot twists.

Unexpected plot turns

• These are developments that change the trajectory of the story without necessarily redefining previous events. They introduce new challenges or revelations that propel the narrative forward. For example, a character may face a sudden betrayal or discover a hidden truth that alters her motivations but doesn’t retroactively change earlier events in a drastic way.

Plot twists

• A plot twist is a more dramatic turn that often recontextualizes the entire story. It typically occurs at the midpoint or toward the end (or both) and reveals information that forces readers to reassess everything they’ve read to that point. A classic example is when a character reveals themselves to be an antagonist or when a seemingly straightforward narrative takes an unexpected turn, leading to a shocking conclusion.

Each turning point has several important elements:

• It turns the storyline in a new direction.
• It raises the stakes.
• It takes us into a new section of the story and gives us a new focus for the action.
• It raises the central story question again.
• It’s often a moment of decision on the part of the main character.
• Often it pushes the story into the next major act.

In his book Story, author and story consultant Robert McKee wrote:

“The turning point in a beat, scene, sequence, act, subplot or story is the moment when new information comes to the fore and a character can’t help but react. This is where the rubber meets the road in a story. Without clearly defined and surprising turning points, the reader/audience will lose interest. Quickly.

“There are only two ways you can create a turning point in an event.

• Character action: A character does something that changes circumstances materially.
• Revelation: Information is revealed that changes circumstances materially.”

Perfectly plotted turns

In Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl, major plot twists occur at the 25%, 50%, and 75% marks: 

• 25%: Evidence accumulates that Nick Dunne is responsible for the disappearance of his wife, Amy. 
• 50%: At the midpoint, a major twist reveals that Amy has meticulously planned her own disappearance. 
• 75%: As the story progresses toward the climax, Amy returns home, having framed Nick for her murder.  

You don’t want all or even most of your plot turns to turn into over-the-top moments of ecstasy or despair (unless you’re writing a melodrama, soap opera, or telenovela). However, you do want to include memorable scenes that push the emotional gas pedal.

In the graph at the top, only 10% of bestsellers we’ve studied have plot turns that fall entirely within the white band. By contrast, 90% of bestsellers contain at least one emotional high point that extends into the top tint block (representing positivity) as well as at least one emotional low point that extends into the bottom tint block (representing setbacks or gloom).

Emotional relativity

When you call them up as a comps on the Narrative arc page, there are certain bestsellers that might be considered outliers: the entirely positive vibe of Eat, Pray, Love and Little Women, and those with an entirely dark edge (we’re looking at you, The Wager). But here on the Plot turns graph, lo and behold: Eat, Pray, Love has low points (darker scenes) and The Wager has high points (scenes with a lighter tone). What gives?

In the Plot turns graph, you are looking at the emotional range of the storytelling within that one specific novel. Even a very dark novel has scenes that are “less dark,” and even a very happy novel has its low points. (Each book is centered on its own emotional line of neutrality.) So keep in mind that the graph at the top is not a gauge of how “light” or “dark” your story is but rather how often and how strongly the scenes deviate from your story’s mean (as they should!).

💡 Key takeaway: If your book stays entirely within the white band, or it’s entirely light or dark, you may want to increase the dramatic range of your plot turns.

Consider the following:

• Emotional neutrality: A story that remains in a state of emotional neutrality lacks the dynamic tension that engages readers. Good fiction revolves around hopes raised and dashed. As Henry James observed, “Plot is characters under stress.” Therefore, a narrative that rarely deviates from neutrality is unlikely to become a bestseller. Many debut authors include conflicts but fail to explore their significance for the characters. Clearly communicate the stakes of the conflict — what will be lost if the main character fails — and allow time for the character to react and process significant developments.

• Peaks and valleys: A gripping page-turner requires sufficient peaks and valleys throughout the narrative. If your story seems flat, consider adding twists and turns to heighten excitement. If most of your plot is positive, introduce additional challenges for your protagonist to face. Conversely, if your story leans negative, provide moments of success for your main character, as these highs will make subsequent lows feel more impactful.

• Dynamic pacing: Ensure that highs and lows occur consistently throughout your book. Many debut authors find their novels sag in the middle, following an inciting incident and leading up to climactic events. Hollywood story consultant John Truby recommends peppering stories with dozens of action beats to maximize the narrative drive. Look for opportunities to add reveals or significant obstacles in the middle of your story to keep the momentum going.

• Climactic moments: The final third of your book should contain some of the highest peaks or deepest valleys. While starting strong is essential, endings hold even greater importance. Typically, greater emotional intensity leads to a more satisfying resolution.

• See what bestselling authors do: Compare your story against bestselling novels in your genre by clicking the purple SELECT COMPS button in the top graph. Analyze whether the comps exhibit a similar number of plot turns and if those turns are well-spaced throughout the narrative.

• Genre awareness: Become familiar with your genre’s tropes and reader expectations. In romance novels, dips in the graph may represent moments when lovers seem star-crossed due to external or internal conflicts. In thrillers, these dips might indicate a setback, the death of an important ally, or the loss of a critical resource. The type and intensity of conflict should align with your genre and target audience; it doesn’t have to be life-or-death to create a strong emotional experience — it just needs to matter deeply to the characters.  

Run some of your past titles through Marlowe

Running some of your published books through Marlowe can be eye-opening. You’ll be able to compare different uses of story beats, plot turns, pacing, and more as your craft has developed and matured over time. Running comps against your backlist can also show patterns: Did one or two books perform better or worse than others you’ve published? If so, perhaps you can spot the differences in Marlowe’s AI-generated graphs that provide a visual snapshot of your story.

Using the Select Comps button

You may also want to use the SELECT COMPS button in the top graph to compare your work against other works in your genre. Don’t be concerned if the subject matter or style of that book differs significantly from your novel. For example, The Da Vinci Code and Fifty Shades of Grey are very different books, but they actually have very similar plot trajectories and provide similar emotional experiences, with readers consistently describing both of them as page-turners. Knowing about other books with similar plotlines will help you understand the experience readers will have as they traverse your narrative.

You can select up to four comps at a time. Want to clear a title from the row of comps you’ve chosen? You don’t need to hit the Clear Comps button. Just select the title in the Bestsellers field and hit delete.