October 17, 1989, at 5:04:15 p.m. (PDT), the epicenter of a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit nearly smack in my garden. The doorframe I clutched shifted erratically, the floor beneath me shook, the house creaked and moaned, and all water in the little neighborhood pool across the street shot into the air and broke over the side.
As Robert Page, U.S. Geological Survey writes of the event:
“It was a wakeup call to prepare for the potentially even more devastating shocks that are inevitable in the future.”
Wakeup Call
That’s sort of like the soul shattering hit the protagonist suffers at the Crisis around the three quarter mark of your story. The ground shakes, uncovering all illusions about herself and the world around her, leaving her blinded by the truth of her own insignificance.
What truly defines the protagonist is what she does after the crisis. First she swings from one extreme of intense vulnerability to another of shame and discomfort. All the while she’s quite aware she had a part to play in her own demise. The crisis is merely a wakeup call to prepare her for the even more devastating shocks to come.
Motivation
Her motivation must be strong and meaningful to go forward in the face of such torment. So much easier to get lost in the haze of addictions and self-loathing… oh, that’s the human condition. For your protagonist, she often needs a spell of reflection. Then she’ll let go of everything that no longer serves her and gather resources and allies.
At the point she steps over into the last quarter of the story to gain her true freedom, the End begins.
The End
Along the way on her ascent to the Climax, quake your story with some of those inevitable and more devastating aftershocks. Entering the End she’s wobbly, uncertain, and highly vulnerable. Her emotions are at their peak. The hits give her chances to stretch beyond who she was beforethe crisis, come into mastery or at least a firm grip of all the lessons and knowledge she’s gained and prepare her for the Climax where she demonstrates who she is becoming.
For more steps how to plot and write the rough draft of a story,
27-Step Tutorial: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?
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