Story structure
Midpoint
The turning point near the middle of a story where the protagonist stops reacting to events and starts acting.
The midpoint is the beat near the middle of a story that cuts the long second movement in half. Reedsy's craft guide notes that "perhaps the most crucial plot point occurs near the middle of a story" and defines the beat directly: "The Midpoint is a crucial turning point that forces the protagonist to stop reacting and start acting." Before it, the character responds to the problem the first plot point created, often choosing not to act; after it, "the protagonist then experiments with agency, taking different approaches to overcome the central problem," with mixed success.
For novelists the midpoint is the standard diagnosis for a sagging middle: if nothing flips from reaction to action around the halfway mark, the second act drifts. Serial writers feel this most, because a fixed release schedule punishes a drifting middle with reader drop-off, chapter by chapter. The beat sits inside three-act structure and appears in Save the Cat and other beat sheets.