When should the protagonist have a self-revelation?
So far, I've been learning rules and guidelines for plotting a good story from John Truby's excellent "The Anatomy of Story".
Truby structures plot using 22 steps (a summary here). Among them, the most important are steps 20 and 21: step 20 is "Self-revelation", where the protagonist learns more about himself, his true self, his past mistakes and how to overcome his psychological and moral weakness. This character growth is immediately shown in step 21, "Moral Decision", where the character acts in a moral way (in contrast to his moral weakness that defined him at the start of the story). These two steps, positioned at the climax of the story (between "Battle" and "New Equilibrium") are so important, they should be among the first things defined when building a story, according to Truby.
Then, I have stumbled upon this answer, which describes James Scott Bell's concept of Mirror Moment.
The Mirror Moment is a moment, at the middle of the story, where the protagonist assesses herself, and makes a decision based on her own psychology, what sort of person she is going to be (source). Anything happening later is about showing that the character's change has taken place.
I see several similarities between these two moments. It almost looks like the same moment moved to the middle of the story instead of the climax.
Is there a difference between Bell's Mirror Moment and Truby's Self-Revelation? What is the best place to insert a self-revelation moment: Middle, climax, or anywhere else? Does it depend on genre or other factors?
This is my first question on SE, I apologize if it's too vague.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/39733. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
It depends on what the self-revelation is supposed to accomplish. There are multiple turning points in a story. At about the 25% mark, the character needs to leave their "status quo" world and start solving some inciting incident.
But typically this is a non-expert or fumbling attempt (that may have made their problem even worse) for about 25% more of the story, so around 50% they figure out more of a real plan, and start to execute that.
Then at about 75%, the real plan isn't working that great, and they need a turnaround that sends them into the finale.
Your Mirror Moment or self-revelation can occur at any of these points. Say the inciting incident is witnessing a murder. She is in her status quo world, we are getting to know her and her routines, then about the 12.5% mark she witnesses a murder. She doesn't think she's been seen. from 12.5% to 25%, she is debating whether she should put herself in danger by coming forward, but around the 20% mark, the stakes are raised: An innocent man is arrested for the crime. She knows he is innocent, she saw the killer. Her self-revelation is about who she truly is as a moral being; whether she can still remain silent, or if she has to come forward.
Self-revelations, particular of flaws or shortcomings in character, are plot devices, they serve to make your character grow into a different person, and in particular a different person that can solve the problem she is facing.
For an emotional story (coming-of-age story, or coming-out-gay story, dealing-with-death story, a love story), I'd expect the self-revelation to appear late, it would drive the story into the last Act (the finale).
For more action-oriented stories, I'd expect it earlier, it would drive the story out of the FIRST Act, leaving the status quo world and into the risky wilderness to try and accomplish or change something.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads