Triumph With Twabbles: How Writing Fiction For Twitter Can Launch Your Writing Career

In many ways the final bit of your story, the Final Conflict, is the most important part. Things are now looking up. Sure, nothing has actually changed. Right now at this moment, the protagonist is everything we wanted her to be. She has struggled, she has failed, she has learned from her mistakes and the scales have just fallen from her eyes. She has partially at least healed her deep inner wound.

As a result, the protagonist is whole; she has come into her power. Now the protagonist makes a new plan. Often she is alone at this point, her allies having been sidelined. Story reasons for the protagonist keeping her plan to herself could include the following:. In any case, the protagonist advances, alone, to the place where the final conflict will take place. She could have one or two allies come with her, the crucial bit is that she faces the Big Bad all by herself without any help.

The minion would have beaten her before her revelation—before the epiphany she had at the end of the All Hope Is Lost moment—but now the tables are turned. Also, this confrontation with a minion shows how far the protagonist has come.

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One way of accomplishing this is to have the protagonist wipe the floor with a bad guy that gave her a sound beating earlier in the story, around about the time she entered the Special World and was still figuring out how things worked. What ensues now is what I think of as fun, satisfying, violence, the sort of thing you see in the trailer to a James Bond flick. After this fight things get serious.

Often, one way the protagonist can win is by sacrificing her life. Riding high from trouncing the minion the protagonist often walks into a trap. Or she is ambushed. Perhaps our protagonist has gotten a little cocky, perhaps a vestige of her former, scarred, self rears its head. Whatever the case, the protagonist gets into trouble.

This could happen right as the protagonist goes to engage the antagonist, or it could happen after the fight is well on its way and the antagonist is starting to realize he may not win the fight or confrontation. It sometimes happens here that the antagonist ups the stakes one last time by daring to do what no one else would.

But, still, no secrets. Perhaps the antagonist will taunt the protagonist by filling in the last little bit of the puzzle that lets the protagonist see how very high and dire the stakes are. Also, the protagonist may have allies the antagonist has killed and who need avenging. We, the audience, quake.

Perhaps he even knocks the protagonist down. The audience is now worried that perhaps the protagonist was bluffing after all, that perhaps she really is all flash and no substance. The story question has been answered. The story question is basically: Will the protagonist achieve her story goal? Jim Butcher has written a wonderful article on this. Or she could partially beat the antagonist and Well, there are many, many , possibilities. Keep in mind, though, that each genre usually has pretty clear conventions about how stories will end.

In a Harlequin-type romance story, if the romantic leads do not live happily ever after HEA there will be hell to pay. A senior editor at Harlequin once told a conference I attended that they did break this rule once, and both the writer and publisher received hate mail. I kid you not! The final conflict concluded, we wrap up the story by cashing out the final stakes. We do this by showing how the lives of each significant character have been changed because of the protagonist achieving the story goal.

Then, at the very end, the protagonist goes back to the Ordinary World and we see how the adventure changed her. Now, transformed, she does with ease tasks which were impossible before. There is no one monolithic structure that each and every genre story will exemplify. Situations change, characters change. The mood of a scene changes. Readers—the audience—go from ignorance Who is the villain?

Without change, nothing dramatic can happen. And whatever else genre stories are, they should be dramatic. I think the take-away from this is to, as always, do what seems right for you. That way, once the hero breaks into Act Three it feels like one incredibly fast race to the Story Climax. Posted by Karen Woodward at 1: I will do that Wednesday.

The ending plays out in Act Three so, ideally, the third act will build the tension of the first two acts into a crescendo of suspense, rushing into The Story Climax, where the Story Question will be decided. After that devastating, plot-twisting, defeat, the protagonist comes up with a new plan, but this new plan fails as well. The stakes, now, are the highest they have ever been and the chance of success the smallest it has ever been. At the end of this sequence the protagonist seems to fail, totally and completely.

Other times it is more drawn out. Both kinds of stories, though, usually have the same general structure:. After the devastating, plot-twisting, defeat of the Major Setback, the protagonist comes up with a new plan, but the new plan fails. The consequences of the failure turn out to be very much worse than anyone imagined.

The protagonist is unprepared for this and sometimes loses hope. Often an ally or a mentor figure will come onstage and give the protagonist a pep talk. The protagonist comes up with another plan but this plan, too, fails, or appears to fail. As bad as things seemed at the end of the second sequence, it will turn out that what the protagonist thought was the true bottom—the worst things could possibly get—was only a way-stop on the way to complete and total ruin. Now the protagonist is at rock bottom. This is the lowest point of the movie, both for the protagonist and for the story quest as a whole.

There is no possibility the protagonist is going to get out of this.

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No rabbits in this hat. A shift now occurs. The last stop of her journey from darkness to enlightenment is for the protagonist to make a radical—and much needed—change to her worldview. This is where all the messy touchy-feely stuff, all the character building, the talk of internal goals, scars, and so on, comes into play. The B-Story is all about—is essentially about—the protagonists inner change.

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Or, at least, in a bolt of inspiration thinks of the problem in a new way and devises a new plan. Or, perhaps, now she sees the truth about herself, and this epiphany, this revelation, heals her inner wound. Obviously, what happens now will depend on your story. Sometimes the new plan quickly leads to the final confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist, sometimes not. If not, perhaps the group of adventurers needs to re-assemble—or at least the core group.

If so, these quests will be very short and the focus will still be on the protagonist and her final approach. It was, hands down, my favorite action flick of The obstacle was that Instead of battling the Omega, Cage was ambushed by a couple of mimics who tried their best to kill him permanently. Cage escapes, but his failure to find the Omega knocks him and his allies back to square one. Still, what other choice is there?

Cage tries to convince the General of the truth of his story. At first it seems he has succeeded. The General gives cage the artifact, but that turns out to be a ruse and Cage and his ally must flee for their lives. While fleeing, Cage uses the device to locate the Omega. Unfortunately, Cage is wounded and taken to a hospital where he is given a blood transfusion. That was the only edge Cage had, that was his superpower.

He convinces his squad to go with him to attack the Omega. After suffering heavy losses—his entire team has died—Cage swims toward the Omega intending to plant an explosive device on it. Still, this means nothing. Cage has lost, finally, totally, completely. He is moments from death. The woman he loves is dead. All his allies are dead. His plans have failed. Humanity is about to be driven extinct and the Earth stripped of its resources. A moment before Cage dies he opens his hand revealing several trigger pins and we realize that he has armed the explosive, after all. Cage smiles in triumph and the next moment we see the Omega explode.

Till then, happy writing, and thanks for reading. Posted by Karen Woodward at 3: As I mentioned in the last post, the protagonist and her allies will often have to journey to the place where the protagonist will confront—or at least make some sort of contact with—the Big Bad. The protagonist can be tricked and, rather than tackling the Big Bad, is ambushed. The contest is of wits and John McClane comes away with a better understanding of the situation. Of course, there are lots movies that have a good old fashioned, no-holds-barred, fight between the protagonist and the Big Bad—or at least the minions of the Big Bad.

Often, the spectacular and satisfying part of the midpoint comes before the confrontation with the antagonist. Generally the confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist is less than spectacular. After all, if the protagonist confronts and defeats the antagonist at the midpoint then, since the antagonist is the force preventing the protagonist from attaining her story goal, the story would be over.

After the midpoint, rather than reacting to the actions of the antagonist they actively pursue the antagonist and his minions. The protagonist now has a much better, though likely still imperfect, understanding of how things are done in this strange new place that is fast becoming home. He and his allies are, in many ways, back at square one. After the confrontation at the midpoint the protagonist will regroup with her allies.

This could be as simple as getting back in touch through the telephone or they could physically meet to reassess the situation and decide where to go from here. This is a sequel. Highlight disagreements among the group, disagreements that could drive the adventurers apart, handicapping the hero and perhaps even leading one of her allies to betray him. Even though the protagonist has survived her confrontation at the midpoint, she has learned that her assumptions were almost completely wrong.

As a result, the old stakes no longer apply. The true stakes, she now knows, are much, much , bigger. The protagonist holds firm. She believes they can do it. The protagonist might have to be helped into this place of hope by one or more of her allies. If there is a romance, the romantic interest could play a role. Though, looking back, it should make perfect sense. After all, your readers need to be clear about what the plan is and all the ways it can go wrong!

Further, before the protagonist and her allies go into danger, before they engage with the enemy, we need to spell out the stakes. Of course, when things go south and the stakes get cashed out, the consequences of failure are going to be worse, much worse, than we thought they would be. Once the stakes are clear and the plan has been spelled out, the protagonist and her allies—or, often, just the protagonist—travel to the place of confrontation.

BTW, the plan could be as minimal as: This is similar to what we did before the midpoint, only now the stakes are much bigger and the chance of success much smaller. Often, the protagonist is counting on something or someone. In my Last post , I examined Act One of the three act structure.

But, before we get to that, please keep in mind this is only one version. Doubtless, other people have their own way. Use whatever works for you. But most genre stories have this basic skeleton: Complications and Higher Stakes, confrontation with the antagonist, new information. The showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist.

The Story Question is answered. As we saw, at the end of Act One the protagonist leaves the Ordinary World, leaves her familiar surroundings, and travels to the Special World of the adventure. This complication has the effect of locking the protagonist into her quest. One of my favorite examples of this occurs in the Matrix when Morpheus gives Neo a choice: I think of the Special World of the Adventure as being radically different from the Ordinary World the protagonist has just left. Many of the things we said of the Ordinary World are also true of the Special World. For instance, the protagonist will often meet new friends as well as make new enemies.

Another similarity between the Ordinary World and the Special World is that, on entering the Special World, the protagonist will have an initial goal, one that will soon take on new dimensions. As soon as the protagonist enters the Special World she will begin a series of Tests and Trials, mini adventures which highlight the strangeness of the Special World.

Tests and Trials are often also a time of Fun and Games, a time of bonding through adversity. This is a time of bonding and—for the writer—of character building. Often, at the tail end of Tests and Trials the protagonist has her first big success. For the first time she triumphs over her tormenters. Though not every story has pinch points, there are often two such points in a story. Pinch points bring the focus back onto the antagonist and his goal. We are once again reminded of the stakes and of how truly awful this could turn out for the protagonist and her allies. The first pinch point ends the Tests and Trials as well as the Fun and Games; it reminds the hero why he is in the Special World.

This is a time of bonding before the group makes the dangerous journey to the place of confrontation. Till then, good writing and thanks for reading.

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This post was first published on karenwoodward. Photo altered by Karen Woodward. There are so many genres and sub-genres, the mind boggles at the thought of listing them all. What are the top-level genres? For example, some lists have thrillers as a sub-genre of crime while others hold that they are a genre all their own.

All of these have sub-genre. For example, in the romance genre we find: Ideally, any post on story structure would look in some detail at each genre noting the unique aspects of each.

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Though, at various times, I have discussed the genre requirements of mystery and horror , and I have puzzled over the essential difference between mysteries and thrillers. But, honestly, I think that with a few minor adjustments we could just as easily think of this structure as the Four Act Structure. An old, old language, English has absorbed words from Latin, French, Spanish, Asian languages, and many others, giving us a range of choices that rival the spectrum of the rainbow IX Visual Exercises download for free shorelinepain.

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