Isolate the Moment Your Hero Changes

In every good story, the hero must change. In every great story, the hero changes by making a risky decision that changes their life for good. So if you want to write a great story, start by isolating that one crucial emotional moment that contains the following elements:

• The villain is on the verge of victory
• The hero has one chance
• The hero must choose between safety and the risk of massive failure

In “Star Wars” that moment occurs when the Death Star is nearly in range of the rebel base. Luke has once chance to blow up the Death Star but must choose between relying on his tracking computer or putting his faith in the Force.

In “Little Miss Sunshine” that moment occurs when Olive’s family urges her not to go on stage and compete for fear she’ll embarrass herself. Yet if she fails to go on stage, her whole trip to the beauty pageant will be wasted so that’s when Olive decides to go on stage and compete anyways.

In “Finding Nemo”, Marlin (the father) has finally found Nemo but Dory and some other fish get caught in a fisherman’s net. Now Marline is faced with a choice between losing Dory (his friend) and the other fish, or losing Nemo. That’s when Nemo says he knows what to do and dives into the net with the other trapped fish. Now Marlin decides to trust that Nemo knows what he’s doing as Nemo urges the fish to collectively swim towards the bottom and break free of the net.

Your entire story should lead up to the hero’s final decision near the end where they must make that one choice that will forever define the rest of their life. After the hero makes their final decision, their life should never be the same again (and should be much better).

So focus on that one scene near the end of your story where the hero must make this final, risky choice between a safe solution or a completely risky solution. Only by choosing the risky solution can the hero hope to finally overcome the problems of their past and triumph in the end.

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