Day 4: What I learned …

[Isti Madarasz]

I learned that in the final showdown, emotional turbulence is important. It’s not good if my hero is obviously going to win from the first moment, he has to weaken, it’s good if there comes a moment when everything seems lost. But it’s important that there should be a spark, an emotional impulse that lifts him up, that gives him new strength, with which we, the audience, can rise up and start a new battle.

It is also very important to consider that the antagonist should not be a mindless idiot, should be right from his point of view, should be well prepared and competent. It is even more cathartic to defeat him.

[Claudia Wolfkind]

What I learned… that it’s essential to elevate the situation, the dialogue, etc… make the conflict riveting, even if it’s a Rom/Com…. giving us a surprise twist will make it a more satisfying ending.

[Mary Dietz]

I had a lot to rewrite in this scene. I learned that tension must take first place. I need to play with my dialogue to add intrigue through subtext. I also need to increase the element of mystery: I’m using a montage that links two sites to one incident. I need to be clear about the intentions of both parties and the stakes of the conflict between them. I also need to be clear about the advantage that the winning character has. It’s wrapped very intensely in her character arc. I also realized that the scene can afford to be longer to accommodate all these edits.

[Deb Johnson]

What I learned:

What I found structurally is that I’m missing some key elements in my climax. Here are the changes:

• The hero does not abandon the love interest – even though she betrayed him.

• The monster (a malevolent spirit) empowers the obstacles that try to destroy the hero. These obstacles will be set up in such a way in Acts 1 and 2 – that what was seemingly harmless before – has now turned against him.

• The monster and the hero are both justified from their own point of view.

• The hero appears to have lost. It looks like he’s going to drive away and never return, but his emotional impulse/rage takes over and leads him to the final confrontation.

• Element of surprise – we think we know what the hero will do – but the exact opposite occurs and it’s inevitable.

• (We think) the hero has won, but there are still questions as to what happened to the monster.