Help arriving after the dark moment is an element of stories that follow the hero’s journey framework. You don’t have to have it to tell a good story, but it’s a great opportunity for your side characters to shine and can be one of the most meaningful scenes in the book.
In the main character’s season of darkness, help arrives in the form of a character. And that character brings something critical to our protagonist that gives them hope and causes them to leave behind the dark night of the soul.
Consider Frozen, where we’ve had the high of Anna getting to the castle and finding Hans before her heart freezes. Hooray! But—plot twist!—Hans is the bad guy. He leaves Anna to freeze to death by herself in a room behind a locked door. This is Anna’s dark night of the soul, as discussed last week.
Then, help arrives in the form of Olaf and his characteristic laugh. He comes in and he sits with Anna in her darkness and lights a fire (don’t we all need that in our hard times???) He helps Anna realize that what she believed about Hans was a lie, but that Kristoff has put her needs above his time after time and that’s a mark of true love.
Here are a few variations on this story element that can maximize impact, depending on the type of story you’re telling:
Help Arrives, But It Costs That Side Character Something
Something that can be very effective is when your main character needs help, and a side character steps out to help them even though it costs them something personally. Think of Ron Weasley sacrificing himself in wizard chess in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
In my YA contemporary, The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet, the character who brings help to Ellie by publicly defending her—Palmer—has to lay down his own pride to do so.
Help Arrives, And It’s Not Who We Expected
There are a few ways you can go with this, and all can be very effective. The two broad categories I can think of are:
- Somebody who we thought was the bad guy is revealed to be a good guy when they show up to help the main character in their dark night of the soul.
- Somebody who is technically with your main character but is an antagonist of sorts is the one who has the truest advice in their time of need.
Having help come in this form can be a wonderful Act III surprise for the reader!
Help Arrives, But Not Intentionally
I don’t see this one very often, but you can also play with having help arrive in the form of a side character who is trying to dissuade the main character from doing what they should.
The first instance that pops to mind is Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice. She drives all that way to see Lizzy and explain to her how ridiculous these rumors are that she and Mr. Darcy are to be married. By doing this, Lizzy realizes that if Lady Catherine is this freaked out, there might be some truth to Darcy still having feelings for her. That’s really not what Lady Catherine was trying to do.
You might also have a side character telling the main character, “We can’t win this thing. Let’s give up and go home,” and by doing that, the main character realizes that’s just not true. There are lots of fun ways to play with this moment!
Do you have help arriving for your character?
Ooh, so many fun ideas and possibilities!
It really is fun to play with!
It would be a good & challenging exercise to brainstorm each angle to choose from!
That’s true! There are so many interesting ways for your main character to receive help.
These are some of my favorite parts in books and movies. All the many ways that it can happen are amazing. I think one of my favorite help arrives moment is from Endgame, but I really like them all, unless of course it’s a sad one (like Ron Weasley in wizard chess).
They really can be some of the most meaningful scenes in a story!
Ooh, I love this concept! I have a vague idea for help’s arrival in my current work, but I’m drawn to the idea of unexpected places providing it. I may just have to plan around with my plan now…
It can open up a lot of fun options!
Love this tip. Those three twists you provided seem really fun. I’m not sure if they fit my WIP, but I can’t wait to use them in another story some day.
In my story, there’s more than one dark night of the soul and help arrives scenes.
I’m still not too far into my first draft, (about 45 pages) but my MC has already had a couple instances where side characters have to help him out. Help arrives scenes are fun!
One help arrives scene that I like is in Witch of Blackbird Pond, where Kit is on trial, and Nat comes with Prudence, and Prudence reads from the Bible to prove that Kit taught her how to read.
In the Hardy Boys series, there’s always a help arrives scene at the end, which, since its a series, it’s sort of predictable, since you can’t have another Hardy Boys book when the Hardy Boys are dead, lol.
Ha! Yeah, knowing that there are a million more books in the series takes some of the suspense out of it 🙂
I love that scene from The Witch of Blackbird Pond! It’s so great! Actually, that book in general is awesome. ?
Thanks, Stephanie!
I’m excited to work through some of these ideas in a story that I’m doing the rough draft for. Help arrives scenes are interesting to write because I’ve found that you can put unexpected plot twists in them and I love plot twists.
What is your favorite help arrives scene variation, Stephanie? 🙂
It’s hard to choose! I’m intrigued by the idea of help coming from an unexpected place. I haven’t yet done that in a story (I don’t think, anyway…) I’d like to try that one.
Oh I love these ideas– especially the unexpected helper one! I’ll definitely keep these in mind any time I come upon a dark night of the soul!
They’re a really fun way to twist your plot late in the game!