It’s showdown time!
We've come out of the lowest point of the story as our hero has reached a moment of failure and introspection and learned something about themselves and why they are doing what they're doing...and why they can't give up.
There is still a villain out there or an injustice or something that is causing a problem that they need to finally face (sometimes it could also just be their own character flaw or the need to reconcile with another character, so it doesn't always have to be a bad guy. Many relationship stories are about figuring out what needs to change within themselves in order to be the person they need to be to have the relationship with another character).
The Try/Fail Cycle
Throughout the story there should be many versions of something called the "try/fail cycle" where our hero makes a plan, but things don't go the way they want. They try, fail, learn something, try, fail, learn something... but with each failure, they're growing and ultimately getting better.
That's a tough lesson for us to face in the real world because we don't want failure.
The hard truth is that failure is often the most effective teacher. We just have to keep trying in ways that aren't repetitions of past mistakes. And hopefully our hero will learn that too.
And in Act Three, most stories will finally allow the protagonist to find the success that has been eluding them at the climactic moment of the story as they overcome the bad with good...but we're not there yet.
Remember when I said that as we exit the low point we need them to gather together whatever friends and assets they've picked up along the way to make a plan to finish out the story and win the day?
What happens if they make a plan and it immediately succeeds?
It would be boring.
The plan they make to launch into Act Three needs to be a good one, and one that the reader will think should probably work...and ultimately, it can work as long as enough things go wrong along the way.
Either that, or they need to have their plans fall apart one more time, but that should allow an opportunity for them to take a lesson they learned along the way and apply it in a way that they figure out how to cleverly win the day.
In many stories, it's the choice to be selfless and think about someone else.
Because at the beginning of so many stories, it's all, “I Want, I Want, I Want, I'll sing a song about the thing I Want.”
From ‘I Want’ to ‘Doing Good’
It's not bad to want things, but sometimes that comes at the expense of considering the needs of other people. The more we grow and have life experiences, the more we figure out how to balance living and being around other people and how we need to still take care of ourselves, but also we can't ignore the community and world that we live in.
I won't go into specific stories for spoiler reasons, but think about all of the stories where a character makes a sacrificial act for the sake of someone else and it's how they win the day.
Not every story goes like that, but usually that willingness to think of others is what will separate our hero from the villain and give them the edge they need to win.
Consider what I suggested about how the villain often mirrors the hero, but often they go way farther than they should to pursue the thing they want and that means hurting others because they are thinking so much about themselves.
The hero then needs to realize how much is a healthy level of what they want, see how that mixes in with what they actually need, and then from that point, it gives them the wisdom required to overcome the badness that comes from being too selfish.
The Why that they discovered during their low point is also going to be a factor that should give them an edge over defeating the villain, so make sure that is considered as well.
Now, how can they fail at the task? The bad guy wouldn't be a very worthy foe if they couldn't hold their own in the final battle and just laid over when the hero showed up. They should have plans of their own that make things difficult for the hero, of usually they at least look like they have the upper hand once before they are defeated.
Consider Kindness
Something for your consideration: I'm a big proponent of kindness being displayed in stories. Not every conflict needs to end in violence or physical force being the winning factor. Yes, there are some villains who can't be redeemed, and some stories have that.
But for the sake of a mental exercise, let's consider what the motivations are of the villain, and if there is any way they can be redeemed. Sometimes they just haven't been given a chance or been shown kindness or sympathy and the lessons that the hero has learned are ones that the villain would do well to learn as well.
Now, some stories may feel really weird if a bad guy who has destroyed a planet gets a free pass in the end because he just needed a friend, for example.
When I was in 5th grade, there was a class bully who would threaten to sit on me and hang me up on a coat rack. Over time I realized he just needed a friend, so carefully, I offered to be friends.
Not every situation is going to be like that, and I would never want my own kids to put themselves in situations that would be dangerous for them, but I think it's a very worthy exercise to consider that the antagonist is a person who has their own history and struggles and hopes and dreams and probably a lot of trauma that they've never dealt with in a healthy way.
Activity: Back and Forth Escalation
To make a satisfying ending, we need to reach up, up, up on that chart we started to make on intensity. At about the 85-95% point of the story, we need to be at the height of the story.
We can do scene/sequel and have some moments of reflection, but overall, Act Three is usually a race to the finish and we get a breather when the dust finally settles and we close out the story.
So kind of like how we thought of 8 ways the hero could fail during the Bad Guys Close In section, let's think about how the conflict and tension can ramp up, and we trade turns about how the good guys and the bad guys keep one-upping each other until we can't go any further and the conflict is resolved.
For this exercise let's think of 5 rounds of events that lead to the end like this:
First off, the hero does _____
Then the villain counters by ______
The hero bounces back by ______
The villain looks like they're going to win because they ______
But in the end, the hero wins because they had learned _______ and used that to be able to defeat the villain by _______.
There are some more events we can flesh out during the writing phase for Act Three, but usually this section is one of the harder ones to plot out because when you start drafting your story, there will be parts of it that will surprise you along the way that you'll want to pay off at the end, and only by writing the story will you discover those. So sometimes it's best to hold loosely to the outline in Act Three and have an idea of the big events that wrap up the story.
We're almost there! See you in the final episode of the outlining session!
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