Today, we're approaching the 7th step of our mapping of the character's ups and downs to see our story structure.
Friendly warning: It's not too late to turn back and stop reading this blog now.
It is too late for our character. For them, all hope is gone. They've reach the point of no turning back.
In the last blog post, I came across a conundrum. If the things start unraveling in our story, how does that fit with the fact that we're learning about how to weave a story. Which is it? Are we weaving and is unraveling part of that process?
Yesterday, I was actually puzzled by this and didn't have an answer. That made me tense. I'm supposed to know this stuff. That's why writing this blog has been really helpful to me to evolve this approach to story structure. There is a method to my madness. Usually there always is a method to madness, but it's not always apparent. Extra credit if you can solve this question.
For an excellent book about method underlying "madness" read George Atwood's, The Abyss of Madness. The Abyss of Madness
Our character has alienated his friends, his enemies have gotten the upper hands and they're sinking fast. Have you ever heard the expression, "Everything is going dark?" That's what's happening to our character, they're dying.
This is known in a lot of screenwriting books as a symbolic death. However, again they don't tell you too much about it. What exactly is a symbolic death? What is it a symbol of?
It can actually take two forms and many films will have both. Often the sidekick can die, or the main character can feel like their life is over and has no longer has any meaning. They can even feel suicidal like Bill Murry in Groundhog Day.
As a storyteller, I want to know how to make this moment as powerful as possible. I want to know how it feels and how we represent it to make it REAL for our audience.
So, I'm going to leave you with a second pop quiz. If the character dies, is that the end of this blog?
Sadly then, they'll be no extra credit...
Regarding the weaving and unraveling conundrum, it is a frame of reference issue and not actually a problem.
ReplyDeleteThe weaving of the story is the work of the story creator. To overextend the metaphor, the story creator takes the threads representing characters and events and places them in particular places in the story's fabric.
The unraveling is a description of the specific section of the main character's thread(s) that seems to the character to lead to the point where all hope is gone.
However, the story creator has purposely placed the unraveling of the main character in the thread(s) of the story. At least this seems to me to be in line with the idea of story you've presented here.