Four Quarters

Through “Plot Basics” and “Mystery — How to Write Traditional & Cosy Whodunits”, both by Paul Tomlinson, I learned about the four quarters (and the eight sequences, but those will get their own blog post) and I’ve been playing around with them and finding them very useful. What are the ‘four quarters,’ though?

They are a structure to superimpose on your story in order to plot it or check the plot when it feels like it is dragging somewhere. What exactly is in each quarter differs from genre to genre and book to book, but they can help you find the right place for a twist (at the end of each quarter, safe for the last) and to see whether your beginning or end are too long or a part of your middle is too short.
Let’s have a look at this from the very beginning, though, and start with the three-act structure.

I admit I’ve met the three-act structure late. When I was studying literature in Germany, my professors were more likely to tell us about the five-act structure (which, admittedly, is not really better), but I have heard about it once I started to read English texts about writing.
The three-act structure essentially tells you that a story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. While this is completely correct, it is not very helpful for a writer. People who sit down to write a story are usually aware that they need to start somewhere, have a story to tell, and stop somewhere when the story is done.

What the four quarters do, is split the second act of the three-act structure. Instead of having this very long act without any further suggestions, the four quarters give you two quarters which form the second act. The structure is then beginning (first quarter), middle (second and third quarter), and end (fourth quarter).
At the end of the first quarter, you usually have the ‘call to adventure’ — the hero has more or less accepted their mission and is leaving their regular life behind. At the end of the second quarter, you have the midpoint — at this point, there’s usually a twist, showing that the hero has not yet understood how to solve their problem. At the end of the third quarter, you have the dark moment — a severe failure which makes it seem impossible to win. At the end of the fourth quarter, the story ends.
The midpoint is a very important part of the story, as it were — it helps to keep the plot moving and to keep the tension up, as it is a twist and the audience loves twists. It is a way to structure the story better and keep the middle from dragging — which is a well-known problem for many writers.
At this point, I should also mention that this is not a mathematical middle. You don’t have to make all four quarters the same length in words, scenes, or chapters. Generally speaking, beginning and end tend to be a little shorter than the two middle quarters. Yet, if your beginning is longer than your first middle quarter or your second middle quarter is very short, you usually have a problem with your plotting. If the middle quarters are about equal in length, the middle is usually fine. If your beginning is very long, you might want to check whether you’ve added stuff that could and should be put in later. The same goes for your end, which could include stuff that belongs earlier in the story. Chances are you did make those mistakes if the quarters are too different in length.
What does belong into the four quarters, though?

As mentioned above, the four quarters are not the same for every story. Depending on the genre, they will differ greatly. I’ll give you a general overview first, then two examples for simple four-quarter plans with a midpoint added.
The first quarter is usually very much the same in principle every time. You introduce the setting, the characters, the conflict, and the main character’s flaw (if you wish to have an internal plot arc as well). Once this is done and all is in place, your hero will accept that they have to do something about the conflict and sally forth to do so. This is the end of the first quarter, sometimes referred to in books on writing as the ‘call to adventure.’
The second quarter represents the first try of the hero to resolve the conflict. Usually, they are not quite sure about how to do it or they might be too certain they can do it. What happens here is down to the genre.
The midpoint twist is the result of the first solution sought. Most of the time, it’s a failure, teaching the main character that their approach was wrong. In romance stories, though, it might be when the hero and the love interest get together (which qualifies as success), before the dark moment at the end of the third quarter rips them apart again.
The third quarter represents the second try of the hero to resolve the conflict. They have analysed what went wrong the first time and try a different approach. (In the aforementioned romance novel, the hero and the love interest have a good time until the dark moment, which is brought about through a third party such as parents who forbid the relationship or a misunderstanding which makes them break up.) The second approach will fail as well in the dark moment where the hero is at their lowest. At this point, the internal flaw will come in (if there’s an internal arc) and the hero will realize they need to overcome their flaw to succeed.
The fourth quarter includes the climax of the story where the conflict is resolved for good — usually as a success for the hero, but some genres (especially horror) also allow for a final failure. After the climax, there is time to tie up some minor plot threads and show the hero return to their normal life or reach a new normal, depending on the story.

The examples:

James Bond story:
1. James Bond gets his mission and the villain is introduced.
2. James Bond begins his work on the mission.
3. (Midpoint twist) James Bond is captured.
4. James Bond is tortured and a try to kill him is made.
5. James Bond escapes the villain and saves the day.

classic mystery story (midpoint murder):
1. Characters are introduced with a focus on the future victim.
2. The detective does another investigation (minor crime etc.).
3. (Midpoint twist) the victim is killed.
4. The detective investigates the murder, using information from 2.
5. The murder is solved.
(There is also the classic mystery with a first-act murder where the victim is either killed before the story starts or is dead by the end of the first quarter. In this one, the midpoint twist is often a second murder or attempted murder.)

As you can see, it’s mostly the second and third quarter which differ, as mentioned earlier. The eight sequences, about which I will write in another post, split up the quarters again, giving you a place for minor plot twists, but I’ve already found the four quarters very useful.
I use the four quarters for short stories, as they don’t need that much detail in pre-plotting as novellas and novels do. I write down what should dominate the quarters and set a midpoint, then I do the actual plotting scene by scene in Scrivener.
For novellas and novels, I first do the quarters (plus midpoint), then I go into more details for the sequences, then I pre-plot, looking at the sequences, and then I do the final plotting in Scrivener. All pre-plotting is done in Scapple, because it works best for me that way.

Take a look at the four quarters and see if they can help you. I find them useful for keeping my middle from dragging and they do also help with seeing whether something is in the wrong place. They’re more helpful than the three-act structure (due to giving more structure to the middle) and you might get quite a bit of use out of them.