Welcome to day 21 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 trials does your character face?
Feel free to share your answer in the comments! I would love to hear your response!
This is it folks! We are in the home stretch. For the last few posts, we are going to be examining the last 50% of your novel.
At this point you should be thinking about your novel like it’s on a hinge. The midpoint is your hinge and theoretically, if you have outlined or written up to this point, you should be able to the pull the rest of the story from the first 50% like it’s a mirror image. A dark shadowy mirror image, but a reflection nonetheless.
For this section of your novel, we want to take a close look at the Trials you created for your main character, and we want to mirror them, escalate them, and make them more dangerous.
Think about The Hunger Games (I know, we haven’t stopped thinking about it. Am I right?).
In the first half of Act II, Katniss has to survive the capitol, rely on Peeta and Haymitch, and outsmart the other victors
In the second half of Act II, Katniss has to survive the Games, rely on Peeta and Haymitch, and outsmart the other victors
There are clear parallels and clear differences in each section of the novel. In this case, the characters remain the same and the context of their relationship changes. In the first half of Act I, Katniss has the luxury of facing her opponents in the capitol, where it is relatively safe. But once she enters the games, all sense of security is gone. The entire story is about survival, the only difference is that every choice Katniss makes in the second half of the novel could be her last. The stakes are ratcheted up to new heights.
For your novel, you want to look at the ground work you have already laid down for your main character and take those same concepts and ramp up the tension.
In Pride and Prejudice, the midpoint happens in this scene:
Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, which completely changes the dynamic of their relationship. And Lizzy responds by turning him down…hard. Ouch.
But she still encounters him throughout the rest of the novel, except now she’s on the back foot. She’s not so sure anymore that he deserved her anger. This is new territory for sure-footed Elizabeth. and every interaction with Darcy she has from here on out is strained but in a more intense way.
Practice raising the stakes for your character, giving them more to lose, taking them even more out of their comfort zone to create even more difficult trials for them in this section.
Remember, we are still in the Unknown World. You’re character has spent about 25% of the book here so far and they think they know their way around pretty well. Not so. This is the time to show your character that they are in deeper than they realized, and they might drown if they aren’t careful. The journey isn’t over yet.
If your trials don’t seem to escalate, then consider reordering them so that they do until they hit their most desperate moment. But more on that next time.
So, what trials does your character face?
Share this post with a friend so that we can all write together!