“Are you ready to finish your book?”
Sally laughed as she sat down at the table in the corner. “I just started and already you want me to finish it?”
“I’m not asking you to write the end of the book, I just wanted to talk to you today about how knowing the black moment, and the ending actually gives power to your first act. Think of Act 1 and Act 3 as the “bookends” of your novel. They are the before and after pictures of your novel. Even if they begin in a happy place, there is still something that will cause your hero to become a better person through the book and they’ll with that lesson learned.
“They learn that lesson by experiencing the Black Moment, having their Epiphany and then changing for what we call “the final battle.” They show they’ve changed by doing something at the beginning they can’t at the end.
“If you don’t know what this Black Moment will be, then you don’t know what you’re aiming for, nor how to set up the fear that it might happen.
“Let’s go back to the conversation we had about Dark Moment plotting. Remember, we examined an event from your character’s past and pulled out the greatest fear and the lie they believe. These are the two things we’ll use to craft the Black Moment.
“Crafting the Black Moment is all about recreating the Greatest Fear in the past in some way so that your character can take another look at it, and this time, find a different answer, one that will change their life for the better.
“Let’s say that your character’s greatest fear is losing someone they love. I saw Frequency recently, an older movie that I love. The hero lost his father as a child, and he’s a mess today, in a broken relationship with his wife, dark, broody and miserable. Through a miraculous anomaly he’s able to talk to his father in the past through a radio. He warns him of his upcoming death and saves his life…in the past. Suddenly, the son has all these memories of a wonderful childhood…until he wakes up the next day and finds his mother has died instead. Now, he has to talk to his father in the past to discover why his mother died in the past…and stop it.
“His greatest fear happens when both his parent’s lives are threatened, and the bad guy arrives in the present to kill him, too.
“The thing is, our hero has never been able to stay committed to someone, to care about them, and the lie he believes is that he’ll never be like his father, the hero (we see this because he becomes a cop, not a firefighter).
“In a convoluted storyline that works, our hero from the present saves his father from the past, who then saves his son from the present. (does that make sense?) In short, everyone lives. And the son realizes he is a hero. And, in the final scene, we see him with his wife, a son and celebrating family.
“This is the magic of the Black Moment/Epiphany in a story. It changes your character. So, before you begin your story, you must know how your character will change…so you can show him the opposite way in the beginning. If will have a good relationship with his daughter at the end, show them at odds in the beginning. If he fears losing his wife to another man…show that fear in the beginning (and make it come true in some way).
“A story is incomplete without a Black Moment/Epiphany. And, if you don’t know where you’re going, then it’s like setting out to sea without a destination. You don’t know how to pack, aside from a swimsuit.” I winked.
Sally was nodding, drawing a big black dot on her paper.
“Let me ask you this. Have you written the synopsis yet?”
“No, I thought I’d wait until I actually did finish the story.”
“Write it now. You’ve gotten a little ways into the story, you know your characters. Now it’s time to sit down and tell yourself the story. You’ll see all the bumps and holes…and you can’t help but run right into the Black Moment, or at least the place for it. Having a Black Moment destination also keeps you from wandering around in the middle of the book. Everything that happens in the Second Act leads to the impact of the Black Moment, which usually happens at the end of the Second Act, beginning of the Third.”
“So, my assignment is to come up with a Black Moment, an Epiphany and then tell myself the story?”
“Yes. Make it as long and bumpy as you need to, for now. When you submit it with your proposal, it will be around three pages, single spaced (or five pages double spaced). But this way, you’ll know the end.”
Sally gathered up her notebook. “I think this is my Black Moment,” she said, smiling.
“You can do it, oh Padewan,” I said, and smiled back.
Truth: All novels should have a Black Moment/Epiphany to being a character to the point of change.
Dare: Tell yourself the story by writing the synopsis and you’ll discover if you have all the pieces…and if your Black Moment is truly black.
Happy Writing!
Susie May
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