Welcome to day 20 of PREPTOBER! This is a series of daily questions and prompts to help you prepare for this year’s upcoming NaNoWriMo!
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Today’s question is:
What does your character choose?
Feel free to share your answer in the comments! I would love to hear your response!
Today’s prompt is an echo of Day 18. Your character made a choice to leave the Known World and enter the Unknown world. They responded positively to the call to adventure.
But now your character has been in this world for a while, they have experienced some trials and now they are faced with another choice around the 50% mark of the story.
Now having experienced the journey thus far, how would they like to proceed? Do they turn back now? Or do they keep going?
The obvious answer is that they keep on going, but it’s not so obvious to your main character and your audience will suspend their belief and follow your MC’s logic— not storytelling logic. So if you want to play with their emotions, go ahead!
Let’s share some examples:
In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo delivers the ring to Rivendell. This was his initial goal: get the danger out of the Shire, and find a safe place for the Ring. He accomplishes this task and then plans on going home.
But when the Council is called, Frodo ultimately volunteers to take the ring to Mordor. Now why would he do this if not a few minutes ago he was planning on returning home? Well, it makes for a better story. But it also lines up with Frodo’s character. Frodo witnesses the power of the Ring— how it influences and poisons people. He also knows based off of his experience with it (being one of four people who know that Ring intimately), he knows that he has an unusual resistance to the Ring’s power. he realizes that he is the only one who has a chance at saving Middle Earth. So he *chooses* to take the ring to Mordor to destroy it.
This choice is incredibly important. Many things will certainly happen to your character. And your character will have to choose how to react. In key moments like this, the midpoint, it is paramount that they voluntarily choose what to do next.
However, sometimes there are stories where the character does actually throw in the towel. In Spider-Man Far from Home, Peter Parker aka Spider defeats the bad guy with his new super hero bestie, Beck at the 50% mark. Story over. Done. Peter goes back home so he can go to prom. And all the evil bad guy stuff is over.
So he thinks. Beck is actually a double agent and Peter Parker has been deceived. Peter thinks the story is over, but this twist gives the narrative a new trajectory. Once he learns he’s been betrayed, Spider man is back in the action.
Don’t be afraid to play a little bit with this scene, it will serve as a pivot point for your novel. For instance in the first half of the Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s mission is to take the Ring out of the Shire. In the second half it’s to take the Ring to Mordor. This is a slight but very important variation that keeps the story rolling towards the climax.
In Spider Man Far From Home, Peter fights the fire elemental monster in the first half of the film. In the second half, he’s fighting his backstabbing friend, Beck.
As you can see, each half of the story is cohesive in it’s theme and still clearly are parts of the same story but with one major difference. And the difference is often that the main focus on the journey is not exactly what the main character expected. Why would they? They are in an unknown world, where they couldn’t possibly anticipate all the outcomes.
So, how does your character choose?
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Here’s a bonus meme that I find quite amusing. Don’t forget to troll your own characters!