If you celebrate Easter, I hope you had an enjoyable holiday! I’ve always really enjoyed celebrating Easter with church, family, and my kids dressed in cute spring clothes that it’s not quite warm enough for yet. I always enjoy the day … but the individual years blur together in my mind. Like many of you, Easter looked very different for us yesterday. For better and worse, I don’t think this one will blur with the others!
Let’s talk about that transition moment from Act II to Act III in your story. This will happen around the 75% mark of your story.
(As I’ve said in previous posts, if you can’t tell what percentage of the story you’re at, don’t sweat that. Discerning that comes with practice, and it’s okay to not know!)
Often, this transition into Act III is a one-two punch kind of moment, beginning with a high and ending with a low.
Your character is enjoying the beauty of the river around him, thinking how fortunate he is that the journey brought him here, only to round the bend and be pitched into an unexpected rough part of the river. The rough rapids cause the canoe to start leaking again, they lose their oars, and they wind up completely alone.
You’ll hear this part of a story referred to as many things. The all-is-lost moment, the black moment, the whiff of death, or dark night of the soul are the ones that come to mind. It’s pretty ubiquitous in stories, even comedies.
Cars is a good example of a high moment right before a low moment. Lightning McQueen is basking in his new friendships with the town and the success of a surprise he’s planned for Sally, when the media arrives and whisks him away to his race in California. In Radiator Springs, the neon lights go off one by one, leading to a literal black moment.
Tangled is another strong example of this. Rapunzel and Flynn have spent the day enjoying the festival in the town and are out on the boat with the magical floating lights. They’re realizing that they’ve come to care deeply about each other, and then the Stabbington brothers appear on the shore. Flynn goes to meet with them and give them what—he thinks—they’re hunting him for, but instead they kidnap him, and make it look like he’s abandoning Rapunzel.
And then for an example that isn’t a Disney movie. In Pride and Prejudice, specifically the 2003 screen adaptation, Lizzy and Darcy are getting along very well. He’s showing hospitality to her aunt and uncle, and the tension between the two of them over the botched marriage proposal has faded. Lizzy is realizing that he’s not who she thought he was, that she quite possibly loves him, only to receive a letter from home that her younger sister has run away to elope with a man (and not just any man, but the sworn enemy of Darcy’s). With our modern lens it’s a little difficult to understand how dark of a moment this is in its historical context. That by the younger sister committing such a scandalous act, she has ruined her sisters for good marriages of their own. Especially for Lizzy and Mr. Darcy since the man she eloped with is a nemesis of Darcy’s.
Every story has different needs, so you won’t always have that high before the low, but the contrast is very effective for readers and audiences. Even if you don’t have the high, that low emotional moment is really important to creating an effective climax.
Here are some things to consider about this plot point:
Make it dark.
Whatever you pick for this moment needs to be strong enough to knock your character down without outright killing them. And the farther they fall, the more satisfying their comeback in the climax will be.
I love how in Cars, Tangled, and Pride and Prejudice, the main character is literally sent back to their home world. Having the characters return home, yet not belonging like they once did, is very powerful. (Obviously this doesn’t work for every story, so don’t try to force it if it doesn’t work for your book!)
Be clear about what they lose.
It needs to be really clear to the characters (and the audience) what exactly they’ve lost. Rapunzel loses not just Flynn, but her freedom. Lightning loses community. He’s back to a place where his value to those around him is strictly based on him being a fast car. Lizzy loses the good marriage she had been waiting for, and it’s made even more painful by the knowledge that she could’ve had it if she’d said yes to Darcy the first time.
The lie they believe has never felt heavier.
We’ve talked in several posts about your character having a lie or misbelief that they need to overcome. In this scene, the lie should weigh on them. Like how in Tangled, Rapunzel has believed throughout the movie that she’s not really strong enough to handle life outside of the tower. At the high moment, in the boat with Flynn, she believed she was strong enough. But the black moment brings the lie back with greater intensity.
The main character is now tied to the antagonistic force.
This moment is critical in pushing your character to the climactic moment of the book, so it should tie them to the main antagonist. Lightning is back to racing Chick, Rapunzel is in the tower with Mother Gothel, and Lizzy is back home with all the poverty and dysfunction that makes her a bad match for Mr. Darcy.
In addition to the villain or main antagonist, you need to be moving all the characters into position. Your supporting characters might be trying to find your main character, or maybe they’re part of the problem. Whoever is going to be at the big dance at the end, start getting them into place, even if your main character is too low to notice.
If you’re reading all this and thinking, “But I don’t even really know what my climactic moment is yet!” that’s okay.
I never get my endings right the first time. I nearly always scrap the original ending completely or do so much work on it in edits that you wouldn’t recognize it from what I’d originally written. Despite having studied story structure for years and constantly consuming stories, I never get the end right on my first pass.
But you know what’s most important when you’re writing the first draft of your ending?
Writing an ending.
You can’t fix something that’s not written.
If you don’t know the right way to end the book right now, that’s fine. If you’re like me, you maybe have to write a wrong ending before you understand what’s required for the right ending. That’s frustrating—believe me, I know—but sometimes that’s how it works.
Do you typically know your ending from the time you start the story, or do you figure it out as you write?
I think a lot of people are feeling like Rapunzel right now!
I like to have an idea of an ending when I start but be open to it changing if needed. It feels good to have a target but not have a death grip on it being exact.
That’s funny! It’s a fantastic shelter-in-place movie!
I’m very similar. When I start planning, I often have no clue where I’m going, but by the time I’m done with my synopsis, I have a general idea.
I want to plan as much as possible before starting. I’ve been reading a lot about story structure & the process of writing.
I want to map out as much as possible but it’s overwhelming bc I just don’t know specifics all the way through.
I’m wondering if I’m trying to plan too much & put it through everyone’s process that I had read about :/
Felicity,
What I’ve found is that it works best for me to figure out what will work best for a) the project and b) myself.
For a book that I’m editing, I knew where I wanted it to begin and end and then I literally winged everything else. Probably not my best decision ever, but my book is still holding up…
For another book that I’m writing, I planned out everything and I’ve been going through all of the #wewritebooks posts, even though they are 2-3 years old. That has really helped me in some ways, because it is step by step and there’s a list of what to do with the information that you just absorbed at the end of each post. I love lists and structure 😉 so it’s helped me in that way.
I think that finding what works best for you is probably key, because I have friends who are writers and they use completely different processes.
However, that’s just my two cents. You’ve got this, Felicity! I’m cheering you on from the sidelines!
It’s really normal to not know specifics all the way through, Felicity. When I’m planning out a book, I typically have a clear idea of the first half, and everything gets much fuzzier after that. That’s okay! Like Adi said, not every book is going to need the same things. If you feel like you’re planning too much, it might be time to step back and do some writing. You’ve got this!
I completely understand that, Felicity. Whether in life or writing (which over lap some,) I’m a planner. The more I have boxed up, in place, perfect, and scheduled, the better. I don’t like spur of the moment ideas, but I’ve also learned a concrete plan can hinder growth. I’ve taught myself to allow and embrace last minute changes. Finding a balance is hard.
Here are my thoughts on planning your story: Take what’s comfortable and understandable from those who are more experienced. If you’re still missing something at the end of your first draft, you have the edits to fix it. Especially as this is your first book, it’s okay to just focus on writing. I completely agree with everything Adi said. Play around with it and find what works well for you and your story.
You’re going to write a story, plan or no plan. I believe in you!
I usually have an ending in mind, I always had one for the book that I’m editing now, because I knew it would have to end in a battle because the whole plot surrounds my main characters preparing for an attack.
I do have a quick question– when I was plotting out my novel with Jill’s plotting chart (it’s so helpful, Jill, thank you!) I struggled figuring out my “dark night of the soul” moment. I knew it was going to be that the enemy attacked earlier then planned (which leaves the already weakened kingdom my main characters are fighting for unprepared), but I’m struggling to make it really feel like a dark night of the soul, especially because I have an ensemble cast, and my ensemble cast is either preparing for the attack or trying to gather support from other countries some aren’t even there for my “dark night of the soul” moment. Do you have any tips for this, Stephanie? Thanks!
Adi, that’s a great question. This is a very tricky thing about ensemble casts, and I won’t even pretend that I’ve attempted anything like that. Usually with an ensemble, there are a couple of character who are more prominent than the others, so I would focus on making it a dark night of the soul for them. Since your story hinges on the battle, I would also focus on snuffing out hope where that’s concerned. They were counting on support from other countries and it looks like no one is coming. The person in charge of their battle plans is found out to be a fraud. They learn the enemy is 10x the size they originally thought. Etc. Those are my thoughts on how to make it work. I hope something in there is helpful, Adi!
Thanks for your help, Stephanie!
I’m excited to work the gravity of those different ideas in. Have a magnificent day!
My story has two main characters, and they each have their own dark nights of the soul. These happen at different parts of the story, so some characters are actually really happy at the point one character is devastated. Should I only have one of these points in my story, or is it normal to have multiple for each character?
I think what you chose could work! In Within These Lines, I had two POV characters so ran into a similar issue. I gave them both dark nights of the soul, though one was darker than the other character just by the nature of circumstances.
This is actually right about where I’m at in my WIP right now. My characters just experienced their lowest emotional point where they confronted some of their deep internal struggles. However, they have some more external ups and downs to go through before the climax, and there are more clues and unanswered questions that they have to piece together before the final showdown with the antagonists.
Is it okay to have that much of a gap between the climax and the dark night of the soul moment, or will that derail the energy of the story?
It really depends on the length of the story. 25% of the story is significant, so you have some space to work with still. You probably want it to be a steady build to the climax from that dark moment. I say write it the way you planned, and then evaluate from there how well you think it worked.
I pretty much have an ending. I just don’t know how exactly I am going to get there. I have several ideas, but I don’t know which one is the best choice for the story.
I’ve heard of a few writers who know the ending before they know anything else, and I just can’t wrap my brain around that! I’m very linear.
For my current project I had a vague idea of an ending when I started, but as I wrote I understood my characters, their desires, and their needs more, which lead me to a plotted ending. I basically just add more to the plan as I go.
That seems like a good way to do it. Having a general direction to go is nice, but you want to leave space for what you learn along the way!
I’m not there yet in my story, but I’ll have to start thinking about it… I’m sort of a mix between a planner and a pantser, so I start planning something, then just get to work on it without knowing entirely what I’m doing yet. I have an idea of how I’m going to end my story, but as for getting there… Not sure.
For some reason, my story seems like it’s going to be pretty short, (I’m on page 38, but I’m in Act 2 I’m pretty sure) is there anyway I can lengthen it? Without putting way too many sickeningly over-descriptive scenes, and unneeded fluff?