I've heard many writers give the advice that in every story the protagonists should have a breaking point (or at least a low point), before the climax and eventual resolution. That's a bit of a snag for me... I have several main protagonists and several POV characters in addition to that. The primary plotline of the novel involves the majority of these characters politicking and travelling together, but there are a few extraneous POV characters doing their own thing on other continents. So should I have a breaking point for one, several, or all of the characters? Or is it unnecessary? Edit: I should add, there is a major death about 1/3 of the way through the novel, and this leaves some of the characters damaged, but this seems to early to qualify as the breaking point.
If they're all working and traveling together, then they could certainly have a collective "breaking point"...Things like low morale, overall feeling of malaise, sickness or starvation, a Valley Forge kind of moment, dissension among the ranks when they can't agree how to proceed, a member who goes crazy or develops an addiction and pulls some of the others down as well, or one who goes rogue and tries to separate the team...There are many possibilities that aren't necessarily a literal mental and physical breaking point of only one person.
