Begin your story “in medias res”—in the midst of the action—either starting at the midpoint or structuring your plot around a central event. According to K.M. Weiland, the midpoint is the “heart of [your protagonist’s] character arc.” There are many on YouTube and other streaming apps who call for plotting your story around your midpoint. This is the moment your character takes charge of their own journey and becomes a driving force for change. He hasn’t rejected the lie that manipulates him, but lessons from the first half of Act Two (in a 3-Act structure) now drive him to confront his lie and its repercussions. Starting or structuring around this moment can help ensure you have a strong pivot moment in your story.

The Emperor’s New Groove is one film that starts in medias res. We see the emperor already as a lama and wonder what he did to be turned into a lama. Then we go back to Act I and introduce Kuzco as the self-absorbed, entitled, inconsiderate ruler of an ancient South American kingdom. The fundamental conflict is between Kuzco and Pacha, whose village Kuzco threatens to destroy to build himself a water park. Yzma, his overreaching advisor, puts Kuzco’s transformation, physically and internally, into motion when she tries to have him killed and instead of poisoning him, turns him into a lama. Kuzco must learn to put other’s wellbeing over his own. Pacha’s courage and selflessness serves as the foil of Kuzco’s selfishness and cowardice. A man of family and community, he gives up his time and time with his family to help return Kuzco to the palace to save his village. Only when they work together can they defeat Yzma and return Kuzco to his human form?

At the start of the film, we see a dejected, lonely lama who has just realized that he is not the center of the universe, and he cannot accomplish his mission alone. However, that is exactly where we start off with Kuzco. The story draws us in by asking simple by intriguing questions: How and why does Kuzco become a lama? And will he be able to reclaim his home and humanity?