Write On! The Hero Goes All In
A common starting structure of a story has our hero becoming aware of something unusual or personally significant, often through a Precipitating Event in the first few pages. An object mysteriously missing. A wizard knocking at the door. An owl carrying a letter. An upcoming event which may be life-changing.
Our hero may be intrigued. She may be afraid. She may be thrilled at the chance to experience something new. But she’s not committed fully to the struggle, partly because she may not even know the full dimensions of what is going on.
Through a few scenes of Rising Action and skillfully delivered doses of Exposition, we and our hero find out more. Now we know about the opportunity, or the threat.
And that’s the moment our hero needs to decide. Is she going All-In, or will she shrink from the destiny that awaits?
Wait, wait! Of course the hero is in! Otherwise there would be no story. Why waste time with such navel gazing? Let’s get on with the action!
As readers looking in from the outside we know all this – but if it’s a good story, the hero is not aware that she’s actually in a work of fiction. A real decision, with a serious potential to go either way, makes a story more powerful.
Perhaps the most important reason to explicitly include such a decision is that from that point on, the hero owns the plot line as opposed to just being a passenger. Even in the face of vast and sweeping opposing forces, the principal reason the hero is in such a fix is because she chose that course. The hero has agency – having made a decision, she is going to see it through.
Portraying the moment of commitment comes with a risk of losing a connection with the reader. If the hero’s reason makes no sense, it can create a sense of contrivance – that the hero is a character rather than a person.
Let’s look at that moment of decision with a two well-known examples. No need to name the books, you know them.
“I volunteer!” I gasp. “I volunteer as tribute!”
Katniss volunteers to take the place of her little sister Prim, rescuing Prim from practically certain death and at the same moment dooming herself. This decision commits Katniss to a series of events extending through the entire first book in the series.
For all practical purposes, she has just committed suicide-by-oppressor. Why does this decision ring true?
Perhaps most importantly, it’s for love. In addition to learning a bit about the dismal surrounding world, the one thing we know about Katniss is that she cares fiercely for Prim. The decision, as impulsive as it is, makes complete sense based on everything we know.
Next example:
“I will take the ring,” he said, “though I do not know the way.”
Frodo steps forward to provide a resolution to the impasse which had gripped the Council of Elrond. [BTW it’s not a shouting argument as presented in the movie. Everyone is sullen and silent – nobody knows what to do.]. In doing so, he commits to destroy the One Ring in the Cracks of Doom or die trying.
This case is a little more complicated. Rather than an impulse decision, this dread moment has been mounting for some time. The decision is counter to Frodo’s every desire – at the moment before he volunteered, “An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo’s side in Rivendell filled all his heart.”
On the face of it, the decision may seem to be motivated by a desire to save the world from a far-off evil wizard, but that’s unlikely to be foremost. Big decisions are generally more personal.
The text of that scene doesn’t directly explain Frodo’s decision, and you have to glean from events and conversations upstream and downstream. There you see loyalty to friends as his enduring traits. If there is any single explanation for why he chose Mordor over Bag End, it may be that Frodo wasn’t willing to abandon his friends to a huge unresolvable problem.
The Hero’s All-In Decision in Your Story
Here are a few principles that may help with this moment in your story. I made them up, so Your Mileage May Vary.
- Make the All-In decision early in the story. Nobody likes a ditherer. Tolkein gets away with taking his sweet time on this (and everything else) because Tolkein.
- Explicitly show the moment of decision in a scene.
- The decision doesn’t have to be smart, but it has to make personal and emotional sense to the hero at that moment.
- The more personal and connected to caring for at least one other person, the better
- Avoid a decision based on bluster and bravado (unless that’s completely core to your hero and the tone of your story).
- If the decision involves taking on a lot of risk, don’t base it on a lame reason like simple curiousity about “what’s going on” (unless that’s completely core to your hero and the tone of your story).
- You don’t have to reveal the hero’s entire reason (you can save it for the Major Plot Twist!), but if you’re holding something back, hint a bit so the reader doesn’t lose belief due to the less compelling reasons initially presented.
- Make it as irrevocable as possible. Otherwise you run two risks: (1) You may end up with scenes where the hero would be totally stupid to persist, but does so anyway. (2) You may have revisit the decision one or more times, which can be boring and obstruct the action.
Do you have to have an All-In decision in your story? Not necessarily. Some heroes find themselves swept along by events, with their decisions limited to tactical questions of how to resolve the situation they have already been committed to. Sometimes the decision has been made before the story starts. If you open with astronauts gazing down on an uncharted world or with a refugee hiding in a post-apocalyptic ruin, the die has been long cast. But for many adventure stories, the All-In moment can be a important element.
[Note: A Write On! diary a few weeks ago discussed The Moment the Protagonist’s Life Changes. www.dailykos.com/... I see this as slightly different although the two events may be close together. TMTPLC is what I would call the Precipitating Event, generally the very beginning of a story, that kicks off the action and drags the hero out of her drab and wretched life of mundanity. Then for some amount of time (perhaps very short), the protagonist has options, until the true moment of decision.]
Tonight’s exercise:
Our hero makes a rash, impulsive, total impractical and perhaps impossible commitment — for a deeply personal reason.
The reader is willing to suspend disbelief if the case is strong. Sell it!
Upcoming Write On! schedule:
Jan. 12 mettle fatigue
Jan. 19 dconrad
Jan. 26. strawbale
February 2 mettle fatigue
February 9 SensibleShoes
February 16
DailyKosWritingMonth
Unlike NaNoWriMo, DaKoWriMo involves a self-selected goal. You can aim to write x number of words, if you want. Or you can choose some other writing-related project that you’ve been putting off, like
- revising something you’ve already drafted
- organizing past fragments and deciding which ones to work on next
- research
- outlining
- submitting work for publication
- whatever else you have in mind
Below are the goals people have stated so far. Please let us know about your goal in the comments, and I’ll add you to the list.
AjaxFortune— finish 1st draft of a story
annieli— outlining new book project
bonetti— revising heavily more parts of Camp NaNoWriMo work
cfk — Writing a second diary every once in a while besides Bookflurries-Bookchat. I see it as a commitment to the community to help all of us with sanity. [Most recent one: www.dailykos.com/...]
Crimson Quillfeather— 30k words on novel revision.
Deejay Lyn— final check of a rewritten novel [proofing 75 pages to go], and revision of a 2nd novel [through 5 chapters]
dconrad— 25,000 words
Eihenetu— revise 2 essays & submit for publication, & complete 2 chapters of memoir
James Wells — Get unstuck with The Eternal Moment (Volume II of The Great Symmetry) and add at least 15k words.
mettle fatigue— will settle for accomplishing any fiction at all
MT Spaces— finish writing a review of Memoirs on Mime for All Time [Done, yay!]. Next: writing a simple letter to Mamako in Internet Japanese.
not a lamb— 10k of science, 10k of fiction
quarkstomper— get back to writing “Ones You Didn’t Hear In Sunday School” series; finish the scene-in-progress in Dune project
Richard Cranium— write anything over 1000 words
RiveroftheWest— historical research, create an outline, revise current 39,355 words & write 25,000 more [Have an expanded outline]
SensibleShoes— add 35k words to work in progress and revise old manuscript [Added 1100 words, wrote 4,000 words of editorial notes]
shaso— outline/worldbuild a fantasy novel
strawbale— finish the rewrite on first two sections. Install new breed of cactus under characters. Write to my Senators at least once this month too (Done!). And a good diary for the 26th, of course.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker— revising unfinished sections of novel-in-short-stories [Have revised 2 stories, 34 pages]
terry pinder— Reach 30k words in work-in-progress
traceycox— organizing unfinished work [found and organized 95 pieces of poetry] & writing 28 lines split between 2 sonnets.
Wee Mama- finish the science half of The Garden of the Soul
Write On! will be a regular Thursday night diary (8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific) until it isn’t.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.
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James Wells is the author of The Great Symmetry, a science fiction novel that celebrates the freedom of ideas. The sequel, titled The Eternal Moment, is in progress.
www.thegreatsymmetry.com (On Amazon: www.amazon.com/…, Nook www.barnesandnoble.com/…, Kobo store.kobobooks.com/...)