Advanced Brilliant Writing: Make Your Plots Wider and Your Characters Deeper (Go! Write Something Brilliant) Read Online Free Page B

alas, he couldn’t hear it.
    Still, because he wanted to make me happy, he decided to take us dancing at a local venue’s ` 50’s night. After three songs I managed to coax him to the dance floor. He stayed in the basic step for about fifteen measures, then led me in a turn. Then another. Then another. The dance ended with him smiling and saying, “Hey, I did it!”
    Yes. The victory was enough to convince him to stay on the floor for the rest of the night, and later earn the esteem of a couple ladies who commented on what a great dancer he was! (Another taste of victory!)
    In Eagle Eye , Jerry Shaw experiences the taste heroism as he evades his captors—of course under the direction of the computer that continues to call him—still, with each heroic step he’s forced to take, he experiences a taste of the person he wants to become.
    In The Patriot , Benjamin Martin is victorious against the British—even outwitting them in their own fort, and causing the General’s Great Danes to love him. His tactics, although brutal, are winning the war.
    The Attempt and Mini-Victory happens early on the in the Second Act—early enough to leave room for what is called . . . Training for Battle.

Character change: Training for Battle
    Or, what I call . . . the fun and games.
    Your character isn’t going to literally “train for battle,” but rather, be put through a number of tests. Interpersonal challenges. Physical foibles. Through which, we’ll see him have to look inside and make changes.
    You’ve Got Mail is a great example of this Training for Battle concept. Remember when our hero is about to meet Kathleen Kelly for the first time in the coffee shop, and he realizes that it’s his nemesis from the “shop around the corner?” (We discussed this scene in the Cost portion of the journey.) He then tells her in the next scene that he has a project that will need some “tweaking” before they can get together.
    The next forty-five minutes or so of the movie are about that tweaking. He proceeds to “woo” her because he’s realized that once she finds out who he is, she’ll hate him. So, he must make her fall in love with him in the flesh, so that she won’t reject him as her online friend.
    This is the guts of the book. And the part of the story that is most easily mis-plotted. We’ll get to how to plot this portion in section two, but for now, follow these principles:
Every obstacle your character faces must make the journey more difficult, causing them to dig deeper and find a character trait that they didn’t have before.
They will get “better” at the skills they are developing—whether it be better at completing the tasks the computer tells them to do (Eagle Eye), or better at keeping the cell reception and finding the bad guys (Cellular), or better at fighting battles (The Patriot), or better winning football games, or better at winning the heart of the heroine.
Each time they get better, they become more the person they hope to be, a bigger glimpse of hope. So, give them a glimpse of something they long for. Let them kiss the girl, win the division championship, outwit the bad guys, or figure out why the computer wants to destroy the world.
 
    Sure, your character will have some failures during this section. Some slammed doors, maybe some cuts and bruises, but eventually, they will grow stronger, wiser, more handsome.
    Eventually, they’re going to feel so empowered that they think they’re on top of the world, they’ve solved the problem, they’re on their way to sure victory.
    Then, you’re going to rip the rug from under them, and push them right into their Black Moment .
    In my book Nothing But Trouble , my character, a wanna-be PI struggles with jumping to conclusions that lead her down rabbit trails. But, during this “growth” phase, I have her get a
    number of things right, and use her sleuthing skills well, until she thinks she’s practically Sherlock Holmes.
    Of course, that’s when