Full transcript
0:00You know the feeling when a story's
0:01middle just sags? The beginning is
0:04great, the ending is planned, but that
0:05huge chunk in the center just feels like
0:07it's dragging its feet. It's a super
0:09common writing problem. I even talked
0:10about it in my last story structure
0:12video about the three-act structure. But
0:15there's a 19th century German playwright
0:17who actually came up with the perfect
0:19solution. Hey guys, my name is Jason.
0:21And as someone who geeks out about
0:22storytelling more than almost anything,
0:24I love finding tools that solve these
0:26exact kinds of problems. It's what
0:27inspired me to write my own plot
0:29structure book known as the 40 chapter
0:31plot module. And today we're talking
0:33about Freay tags pyramid, a structure
0:35built uh around a massive turning point
0:38right at the middle of the story's
0:40midpoint that completely flips the
0:42narrative on its head. This is one part
0:44of my ongoing series on story
0:45structures, and it's one of the most
0:47misunderstood. So, let's fix that. Frey
0:49tags pyramid isn't a one-sizefits-all
0:51formula. It was designed by observing
0:53classical Greek and Shakespearean
0:55tragedies. So, it's tailor made for
0:57stories about fatally flawed heroes and
1:00downbeat endings that pack a serious
1:02punch. It breaks a story down into five
1:04distinct parts. The introduction, the
1:06rise, the climax, the fall, and
1:10catastrophe. Now, even if you don't
1:12write tragedy, understanding this
1:13structure is like learning a secret
1:15language of storytelling. It teaches you
1:17how to manage tension and create an
1:19emotional arc that feels inevitable and
1:21deeply satisfying. Let's break down each
1:23stage. Act one, the introduction. The
1:26first act is all about orientation. It
1:29answers the reader's first two
1:30questions. Where am I and what's
1:32happening? This is where you establish
1:34the status quo, the normal world, before
1:36everything goes sideways. You introduce
1:38the main characters, their
1:40relationships, and necessary backstory
1:42to understand what's at stake. Think of
1:44the opening of Romeo and Juliet. We
1:46immediately learn about the two feuding
1:48families in Verona. We meet Romeo,
1:51lovesick over someone who isn't Juliet,
1:53which establishes his passionate,
1:55impulsive character. We see the world as
1:57it exists before the real story kicks
1:59off. This act ends with what Freight Tag
2:02called the exciting force, what we now
2:04call the inciting incident. It's the
2:06event that disrupts the norm and sets
2:08the story in motion. For Romeo, it's the
2:11decision to crash the Capulates party.
2:13This single choice triggers a chain
2:15reaction that will ultimately lead to
2:17ruin. It's the first domino to fall. But
2:20what an inciting incident does is kick
2:22off the next and often longest phase of
2:25the story. Act two, the rise. The second
2:29act, the rising action, is the buildup.
2:31The inciting incident has lit a fuse,
2:33and in this act, we watch it burn. The
2:36tension escalates, the plot gets more
2:38complex, and new obstacles are thrown in
2:40the protagonist path. The hero is
2:41actively pursuing a goal, but their
2:43every action creates new reactions and
2:46complications. Frey Tag called this the
2:48play and counterplay, like a game of
2:50chess where every move by the
2:52protagonist is met with a counter move
2:54from an opponent. This creates a
2:56spiraling acceleration toward the
2:57story's turning point. Importantly, this
2:59phase often contains a false sense of
3:02hope. Things might seem to be going the
3:04protagonist way, even as the stakes are
3:06getting higher. For instance, in Hamlet,
3:08the rising action is his figning
3:10madness, his plots to expose his
3:12murderous uncle, and the mounting
3:14pressure from the court. He's actively
3:17trying to achieve his goal of revenge.
3:19But each step he takes complicates his
3:21situation and pushes him further from
3:23his old life. By the end of this phase,
3:25the hero should be so entangled in the
3:27conflict that turning back is no longer
3:29an option. This leads us to the peak of
3:31the pyramid and the part that everyone
3:32gets wrong. Act three, the climax. Now,
3:35forget everything you know about the
3:37word climax. In modern storytelling, we
3:39think of climax as the final explosive
3:41confrontation near the end of the story.
3:43Froto at Mount Doom, for example, the
3:45final. That is not what Freight tag
3:47meant. For Freay Tag, the climax is the
3:49literal midpoint of the story. It's the
3:51top of the pyramid, the apex of the
3:53roller coaster right before gravity
3:55takes over. It is a point of no return.
3:58It's the moment when the protagonist's
3:59fortunes reverse. And in a tragedy, this
4:02is where a hero who has been on the rise
4:04suddenly begins to fall. In a comedy,
4:06it's a character who has been struggling
4:08who finally starts to see things turn
4:10around. This climax isn't always a huge
4:12action sequence. It can be a quiet
4:14realization or a crucial decision. Like
4:16in McBth, Freight Tag identifies the
4:18climax as the banquet scene where the
4:20ghost of Banquo appears. This is the
4:22moment McBth, now king, realizes his
4:25power is built on a lie and that his
4:27ambitions have doomed him. He says,
4:29"Blood will have blood." And from that
4:31point on, his paranoia and tyranny
4:33consume him, leading directly to his
4:35downfall. It's not the final battle.
4:37It's that pivot point from which there
4:39is no recovery. And this is the key to
4:41fixing a saggy middle. Instead of just
4:43adding more complications, you introduce
4:45a massive reversal that changes the
4:47entire direction of the plot. And by the
4:49way, if you'd like to learn more about
4:50how to use AI as an authorled
4:52productivity tool to help you write 12
4:54plus books a year easily, perhaps more,
4:56and without compromising your creativity
4:58or ethics, check out the StoryHacker
5:00Gold group down below in the
5:01description. Now, once that midpoint
5:03reversal happens, the story begins its
5:05descent, leading us to act four, the
5:08fall. The fourth act, the falling
5:10action, is the slide into disaster.
5:13After the climax, the plot speeds
5:15forward with a chilling sense of
5:16inevitability. The hero might still
5:18struggle, but the audience knows it's
5:20hopeless. The director, Ivo Vanhov,
5:22described this feeling perfectly. It's
5:24as if you see two cars and they are
5:26driving towards each other and you know
5:27what will happen. The tension here
5:29becomes almost unbearable because we see
5:31the tragedy coming and can do nothing to
5:33stop it. Freight tag called this section
5:35the return, and it's where the
5:36consequences of the climax unfold. This
5:39is where plot twists might be revealed
5:41or where the hero's flaws fully take
5:43control, and you focus on fewer
5:45characters and scenes than in the rising
5:46action, narrowing the scope toward an
5:48unavoidable conclusion. During this
5:50fall, Frey tag noted the importance of
5:52the force of final suspense, a last
5:55fleeting moment of hope that tragedy
5:57might be averted. Juliet fakes her
5:59death, hoping to reunite with Romeo. For
6:01a second, we think it might work, but
6:02this glimmer of hope only makes the
6:04final crash even more devastating when
6:06it ultimately fails. This is the
6:09unwinding of everything the hero fought
6:11for in the first half and it leads
6:13directly into act five, the catastrophe.
6:16The final act brings that catastrophe.
6:18This is when the character is brought to
6:20their absolute lowest point. It is the
6:23forceful violent conclusion to all the
6:25building tension. It's when Edipus
6:27blinds himself, when Gatsby is murdered,
6:29or when Romeo and Juliet lie dead in the
6:31tomb. Everything the protagonist has
6:33feared since the first act finally comes
6:36true. This isn't just a sad ending for
6:38the sake of it. Because of the
6:39structure, the catastrophe feels earned
6:41and meaningful. It's the logical
6:43conclusion of the hero's flaws and
6:44choices. Following the catastrophe, many
6:46stories include a dum, a French word
6:49meaning to untie. This is a short scene
6:51that wraps up any loose ends, and we see
6:53the consequences of the hero's fall on
6:55the surviving characters and the world.
6:56At the end of Romeo and Juliet, the
6:58feuding families finally agree to make
7:00peace, but only after their children's
7:03death have forced their hands. The Duma
7:05provides a final sense of resolution and
7:08lets the audience process the tragedy
7:10that just unfolded. So now you see the
7:12shape, but to really understand it, you
7:14need to know where it came from. Gustav
7:16Freight Tag wasn't just some guy with a
7:18whiteboard. He was a prominent German
7:20novelist and playwright in the mid-9th
7:22century deeply engaged in the politics
7:24and literature of his time. He published
7:26his theory in 1863 in a book called
7:29Technique of the Drama, and it was
7:30groundbreaking. Instead of laying down
7:32abstract rules, he did something far
7:34more practical, he reverse engineered
7:37success. Freight tag was obsessed with
7:39classical Greek tragedies and
7:40Shakespeare. He looked at plays like
7:42Edipus Rex and Hamlet, stories that had
7:45captivated audiences for centuries by
7:47that point and still today, and asked,
7:50"Why do these work so well?" He saw a
7:52pattern, a play and counterplay of
7:55rising and falling action around a
7:57central turning point. The pyramid
7:58wasn't a prescription. It was a
8:00description of a powerful dramatic
8:02engine he saw operating again and again.
8:04His work built on ideas from Aristotle
8:07who first said that a story needs a
8:08beginning, a middle, and an end. But
8:10Freay tag gave that structure a dynamic
8:13shape, visualizing the rise and fall of
8:15dramatic tension. The symmetrical
8:17triangle that he drew showed how a
8:20tragic hero's fortunes rise in the first
8:22half of the story only to be completely
8:24reversed at the midpoint climax leading
8:26to an inevitable fall. Of course,
8:28Freight Tax Pyramid has its critics.
8:30Some writers like Chuck Wendig have
8:32famously called it BS, arguing that it's
8:34too rigid and leads to formulaic
8:36writing, which is a common criticism of
8:38any structure out there. They point out
8:40that many modern stories, especially in
8:42film, place the big climax much closer
8:44to the end around the 85% mark, leaving
8:46little room for a long drawn out fall.
8:49As we already kind of mentioned, the
8:50climax in the center of Freight's
8:52pyramid is not the same as the climax
8:54that we get in a modern three-act
8:56structure. If you reinterpret freight's
8:58climax as a midpoint reversal, his model
9:00aligns surprisingly well with many
9:03contemporary structures, including the
9:05three-act structure. The pyramid is not
9:06the only way to tell a story, though.
9:08There are nonlinear narratives like Pulp
9:10Fiction and character-driven pieces like
9:12Lost in Translation that ignore the
9:14structure entirely. But dismissing Freay
9:16tags work is a mistake. Understanding it
9:18gives you a powerful tool. Even if you
9:20choose to break the rules, you first
9:22have to know what the rules are. Freight
9:24tag's pyramid illuminates why a strong
9:26midpoint reversal can electrify a story,
9:28solving that dreaded saggy middle and
9:30ensuring your narrative has momentum
9:32from start to finish. I would also point
9:34out that it's important to have a
9:36structure like this and slavishly adhere
9:39to it when you're just starting out
9:40because you can't break the rules until
9:42you have mastered them. Freay tags
9:44pyramid is just one of the many tools we
9:46can use to build better stories. And if
9:48you're serious about mastering the
9:50craft, from developing your initial idea
9:52all the way to marketing a finished
9:53book, I put everything you need in one
9:55place. And for that, I'd like to invite
9:57you to my school group, The Story Hacker
9:59Gold. Inside, you'll find my entire
10:01step-by-step process to take you from a
10:03blank page to a book in hand. We cover
10:06all the tools you need to market it, and
10:08we even explore how AI can enhance your
10:10process without diminishing your own
10:12creativity or compromising your ethics.
10:14The group includes weekly live calls
10:17with me, a full library of all my ebooks
10:19and audiobooks for authors, and a
10:21vibrant community of writers who are on
10:23the same journey. So, if you're ready to
10:24take your writing to the next level, uh
10:26the link is in the description, and I'll
10:28see you in the next