Let's face it. This is not an easy section of the story to plot out and write. We've created these characters, given them hopes and dreams and a quest...and now we have to make their lives more difficult.

As much as it pains me to say it, if we skimp over this part, the story won't be very strong.

Part of the hero's journey is being tested. If all they ever faced were easy things and everything went their way, they wouldn't grow.

As I've said before, growth comes from the challenges they face, and that's something I believe is true in real life as well.

In the first half of the book, our protagonist is hopefully very active in making choices and impacting the direction of the story. We've gone places and met people because of the decisions they've made.

And now that we're past the midpoint, it's time for them to still make choices, but those choices are going to be largely in a reaction to things going wrong, either from bad guys, outside forces, or just the circumstances of how the plot goes.

Remember in Aladdin when he's just soared through the sky on magic carpet with Jasmine, he's won her over, narrowly evaded his mishap about talking about Abu after Jasmine recognizes him (she's very clever in her own right and has many moments where you see her realizing things), and they have the moment on the balcony where they kiss.

It's a false victory of a midpoint because he is still keeping up a lie about who he truly is.

And for a moment, just about everything is right in his world. He got the kiss, he throws his arms up in the air and falls back onto magic carpet and says,

"For the first time in my life, things are starting to go right."

Less than a second later, three palace guards grab him the moment he gets to the ground, tie him up, and throw him in a lake to get rid of him.

Side note, this happens about the 2/3rds mark of the story because Aladdin has a very long Act One to set up sympathetic characters, and the Fun and Games section is particularly long, because how can we cut any of the magic and musical numbers. It's a story about wish fulfillment, so we're going to have that part of the story expanded beyond the usual 25%.

And that brings up a point that we don't have to be limited exactly by this outline framework. It's very important to understand story structure, and after that if you want to break free from it, knowing why you want to do that will help you understand what kind of story you're telling.

Otherwise if you're kind of meandering with a story and it just doesn't feel right, it's hard to tell why.

Now, back to Bad Guys Close In, because they literally just did that to Aladdin.

Things get more and more intense. Aladdin has to blow one of his wishes on being saved by Genie, then the lamp gets stolen and Genie has to start serving Jafar, who outs Prince Ali as Aladdin, and before he knows it, Aladdin has been banished to a frozen wasteland.

It all happens kind of fast.

Aladdin does his best to escape all of these situations, but it requires the help of Genie (who gets taken away) and magic carpet. The Act 2 fun and games characters are the ones who help him the most during this part of the story where everything goes wrong.

But while he is making choices, he is still having to react to the plans of the bad guy who is trying to get what he wants, which is power through Genie.

In some ways, the Bad Guys Close In section is kind of like the Fun and Games section for the bad guys. They're making choices, usually smart ones, that make things more difficult for the hero in a similar way that the hero was winning and making choices that suddenly made things more difficult for them in the first half of the story.

It's a lot of back and forth in stories, and honestly that is what helps keep stories interesting. If a character started off and kept winning and winning and winning, we'd just get really bored. If bad things happened to them and always kept happening, it would be a sad and depressing story. There is a place for tragedies, but I doubt that's the kind of story you're wanting to write.

Ultimately, I want hope in my stories. Even when things look bleak and dark, I want the reader to feel like all isn't lost. We'll push as far as we dare to that point by the end of Bad Guys Close In, because it ends with the Dark Night of the Soul and All Is Lost.

Yes, the antagonizing forces need to have an almost absolute victory to where our hero thinks maybe they can't go on. They need to doubt if what they did to get here was worth it. We'll dig more into that in the next lesson, but the point of this portion of the outline is to have moment after moment that wears down our hero.

Sometimes that means the support that our main character has needs to go away. If there is a mentor character, they're usually gone by the end of this section because by the time we get to Act Three, our character has to figure some things out about themselves on their own instead of having someone hold their hand the entire way.

So, as tough as it is, let's brainstorm ways that the hero can lose, or at least things that can go wrong. If they have a mentor, they probably need to be separated from them in some way. If they have friends or allies, maybe there is a misunderstanding or they have to leave for a little bit (they often come back in Act 3 when the hero needs it in a big way). Their goals that they've been working toward might fall apart. Or maybe they were mistaken about something important and they learn the truth in a hard way. Or maybe the decisions they've made that weren't great ideas are coming back to haunt them and people find out the truth.

There are a lot of different ways that things can go wrong, but you'll want to make sure it hits the character in a way that they feel like maybe they need to quit.

But next up, we'll figure out how to give them the motivation to go on.

The best stories give us the ups and downs. If success feels like it's inevitable, it can be fun, but it won't be as satisfying. Because that's not how life works. We all have ups and downs, and sometimes the downs help us appreciate when things are going well. It's a gift we don't necessarily want in the moment, but it's still an chance to look at a tough time as something to grow from and make life better going forward.

One last aside, if you're into sports, which can be fun because of how unpredictable the experience can be, I've found that the games that are the most satisfying are the ones where the team you're rooting for looks like they probably won't win the game. It's getting late in the game, they're behind...and the games where they dig deep and come back and win it in the last moments...those are the most fun ultimately, to me at least.

So, in this part of the story we're going low so we can make the return and rebound and eventual win even better.

Activity: Where Does It Hurt

Let's come up with 10 different ways that something could go wrong for the main character.

After you have your list of 10, whittle that down to 3. One of them needs to be really bad for them, and put that last on the list. Then think of how the bad guys or whatever is working against our hero can use those three things and how our hero will react.

Having those three things that happen to the character will help give you a roadmap to get to the lowest part of the story.

But the light is coming. Don't give up hope.

Get full access to Fictionsmith Family at fictionsmith.substack.com/subscribe