I was drinking an extra tall vanilla latte, blinking back the sand in my eyes as Sally came in. A glorious Monday morning, the sun winking off the frosty waves of Lake Superior, the sky a triumphant eggshell blue, the snow glistening under all that grandeur like diamonds. Good thing, too, because I’d stayed up late watching both Casablanca and Pearl Harbor to prepare for our conversation this morning. I knew, after meeting with Sally for three weeks, she took our conversations seriously and wanted to be on my game. She sat down and pulled off her knitted mittens. “I started a notebook from last week, like you suggested.” She pulled out a hardbound journal with a leather cover and handed it to me. I opened it and to my […]
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The Great Sacrifice – the secret to a powerful emotional journey
A great suspense has a sacrifice that touches our heart. It does’t have to be a physical death – it can be a death of pride, or hope, or a dream. But a sacrificial moment reveals how your character has changed during the journey, and completes their transformation into a hero. What is that Sacrifice? A sacrifice is thing your character can’t surrender/do at the beginning he can do at the end. The Sacrificial Act is found by asking: What would your character do, or never surrender? And then follow up with the question: What would make him do/surrender it? You must put this scene into your plot. You know your character well enough by now to understand what he’d never do. The scene that must be included in your […]
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