NANOWRIMO Tips and Tricks (Day Eighteen)
The Hero Loses Everything
This is the day that we are 3/5 of the way through with the novel. You are doing a great job, wherever you are.
Today is also the day where the hero is really close to losing everything. This is the day when he must find his way through a place in the storm and he must be ready to go. The winds are kicking up, the tiny boat is being rocked about in the stormy waves, there is no navigation or sonar anymore, the lights don’t work, the water is cold, there are sharks in the water, and the storm is going to get even worse in a few hours. It already looks terrible, but it is going to get worse.
The hero may even get to a place where he is about ready to commit himself to death. This is not the dark moment, this is not quite the end of the end, it is just the beginning of the worst time in the story for the hero. He can’t seem to get anything right and he is definitely ill-prepared for what is to come even though he (and maybe the audience) thought he was. It is bad news everywhere.
The hero should also become very concerned, so much so, that he might not be able to really know what to do or where to go next. He is forgetting his training with the mentor. He is not remembering what he learned, and he is not even using basic instincts to guide himself and his team through the treacherous dangers. This is terrible news for audience. The audience might even be screaming at the screen or screaming at the book at this point.
The hero is in trouble, big trouble, and nobody can seem to save him. This is a great time for a cliffhanger ending to the chapter where then we cut to the villain making his preparations to totally destroy the hero.
Whatever you do, make it terrible for the hero at this point. It still needs to get worse and it will, but it should signal to the audience that things are going bad…really bad.
At the end of the day, we should be at 30,000 words. This is a huge deal. You are doing great and you are really moving along. I am proud of you!
