In every story, there is a section before the climax when your protagonist sinks to her lowest and is an emotional wreck. It’s your job to get the character out of her depression and ready to face the big event in the climax. Today, I want to discuss how to do this quickly yet realistically for readers.
The Dark Moment
As I said, every protagonist must face some sort of loss before the end of the book, and they must react to that loss. This story structure point is called multiple names: Dark Night of the Soul, Lights Out, The Road Back, Dark Abyss, Lost Point, etc. The point is the protagonist wrestles with loss. It’s a sequence of scenes that show them mourning. They may have lost a loved one or their dream, and they’re grieving.
Unfortunately, book life isn’t the same as real life. Characters don’t get time to properly mourn. They need to be proactive and rush head on into the story’s climax. So, how do you get grieving characters to snap out of their emotional meltdowns and get back into the action? I’m glad you asked.
2 Ways To Snap Protagonists Out Of Grief
While there is an indefinite list of things that can motivate your protagonist into action, there are only two motivator types. Let’s examine each and how they can move your protagonist from sorrow to success.
Before we dig in, I want to make something clear. During this mourning period in your protagonist’s story, she must wrestle with her internal journey and embrace the lesson of the book (the theme). That internal step is what leads her into the climax of the story and enables her to achieve her goal. What I’m discussing now is how to get your protagonist from the shock of loss to a mental state where she can process and accept the internal character arc change. We are not looking at the internal journey right now. We’re looking at what “snaps” the protagonist out of self-pity and into someone who wants to embrace change and become better.
1. Looming Threat
One type of motivator to kick-start a protagonist is a looming threat. No matter how awful their lives currently are, things can always get worse. A looming threat doesn’t give the protagonist the luxury of an extended mourning period. If they don’t want to lose more, they must snap out of their emotional breakdown and get proactive in stopping the threat.
Looming threats can be small or big. If you are writing a family drama, it may just be the fact that a mother can’t continue to grieve and neglect her toddler without harming her child. On the other hand, the protagonist may find out that the person who ruined her career and turned her family against her is now getting ready to bomb the city. Both scenarios have a looming threat that would expand the loss the protagonist already suffers. A sense of preservation makes the protagonist set aside her emotions and focus on fixing the problem.
2. Slap To The Face
Now, if a character is so deep in self-pity she can’t see beyond herself, a looming threat won’t work to snap her out of her sorrow. Instead, she’ll need what I call a slap to the face. Someone else will talk with her, have a heart-to-heart, and tell her to get it together. She’ll need to be knocked out of her own head, and that often takes someone else putting things into perspective. It usually involves tough love and a truth that the protagonist would rather not face but has to when someone throws it in her face.
There are two ways to do a slap to the face. You can have your protagonist have this conversation earlier in the book and recall it in the dark moment, or you can have the conversation actually happen in that scene. If your pacing is quick and you need the character to quickly move to action, I suggest having the conversation earlier (and the protagonist dismisses it) and then recall it. If the pacing is slower though, you can show it happening in the dark moment.
Final Thoughts
Moving a character from reaction to action can be hard, especially if the character has suffered a great loss and lacks motivation. Finding the right way to snap their minds back into clarity is crucial for developing a realistic yet quick way to keep your story moving toward the climax. While the protagonist needs to accept the lesson and complete her internal arc to finish the story, this “snap” moment that puts her into a position to accept the change is just as important. Make sure you put thought into what kind of motivator your protagonist needs to move past grief and finish the story strong.
Thanks for reading!
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