Congratulations!

Your MC has faced a great challenge. They have been tested and demonstrated that they’ve learned the lesson they needed to.

It’s time for their Reward, which can be an unexpected boon or something the MC has been struggling to achieve the whole time.

In either case, the MC and their pals get a moment to celebrate, to bask in their glory, to honor their fallen comrades, and to come to grips with what just happened before they move on to the next and final phase of the story (more on that in The Road Back).

But what makes a good Reward?

Should you just shower your MC with gold doubloons and call it good?

Think back to your MC’s starting conundrum. What they wanted verses what they needed. The Reward is most directly linked to what the MC needed. They may also get something they wanted if you’re a very kind writer. I prefer my little darlings suffer a bit more, but that’s just me.

Let’s look at some examples of Rewards and see how they’re tied to what the MC needed and/or wanted.

• ‘The Postman’ by David Brin
• Quick Look – A former Shakespearean actor poses as a postman to gain access to a safe community and finds himself leading the resistance to an authoritarian strongman intent on regional domination
• MC – Gordon
• Wants – A safe, quiet life
• Needs – A higher purpose
• Reward – A community, family, love and admiration for generations to come

• ‘Leech’ by Hiron Ennes
• Quick Look – The Institute, a collective of individuals controlled by a hive mind, sends a replacement doctor to a remote château to investigate the death of the previous Institute doctor and contain the parasite there
• MC – The doctor
• Wants – To find and destroy the parasite Pseudomycota
• Needs – To recognize and address systems of oppression and abuse
• Reward – A train ride

• ‘All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries’ by Martha Wells
• Quick Look – After ‘the incident’ a rogue Sec Unit has to pretend to be still under control while protecting their human crew from the threats of an alien planet and trying to catch up on their beloved entertainment serials
• MC – A rogue Security Unit AKA ‘Murderbot’
• Wants – To be left alone
• Needs – To interact with humans and learn to trust them
• Reward – A choice

Finding the right Reward for your MC can be a challenge. Consider whether they need a physical object, personal validation, or something else.

Writing exercise

Look around your vicinity and pick out three to five items. Write them down. Add three to five non-tangible things such as family reunited, a work promotion, that knowing nod from a revered role model or external validation, which can take a specific form such as a book contract or movie deal.

Flip the script. What are the bad versions of the items? What are the bad versions of the non-tangible things?

Write a starting scene where the MC has these bad versions. This is foreshadowing. Once you know the end you’re working toward in the story it’s easier to connect those points.

If you’re a plotter by nature, you’ll do this before you start writing or fairly early in the process.

If you’re the kind of writer who just sits down with a vague idea and a bundle of inspiration, great! But you’ll have to do this kind of work during the editing phase. Make peace with the fact that some stories meander and will require a lot of editing.

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: The CLIMAX!

Also known as the Ordeal.

Much like Crossing the Threshold, the time for thinking, worrying, planning, and/or preparing has passed. Time for the Main Character(s) to face their greatest challenge and die! Wait…die?

Heroes aren’t heroic because they win.

They are heroic because they are willing to risk it all, even their lives, in service to a greater cause or goal.

The Ordeal is where the MC’s resolve is tested. Not everyone makes it to “The End”.

Elements of an Ordeal

• Setting – where is the Ordeal taking place? Whatever your first answer, great BUT how can you make it worse? Remember, the writing exercise from the Approach? Let’s say your setting is “while shopping” (16-17 roll). What if a child runs off in the mall/market? What if there’s a fire? What if the shop is all out of whatever the MC most needs?
• The Goodies – the MC will definitely be part of the Ordeal, but who else is there? Are they present the whole time or, like the Great Eagles, do they just swoop in all deus ex machina style? Sadly, any mentors who have survived this long are in grave jeopardy during the Ordeal, as there’s often the self-sacrifice of a secondary character to allow the MC to continue on their path. This is also the last chance that untrustworthy “friends” have to betray the MC and reveal their true colors.
• The Baddies – stack the deck in their favor. Whether physically, emotionally, or other, the Baddies have the high ground and the Goodies can’t possibly hope to win against those odds. Baddies suffer from hubris, ignorance, or some other flaw that’s directly related to the MC’s starting flaws. Remember, the Baddies are warnings – this is MC’s future if they make poor choices, if they succumb to temptation, if they fail.
• Final temptation, offer or chance to turn back:
  • Join me or die
  • All this can be yours
  • If you love me you would/wouldn’t do this to me
  • I can make all your dreams come true
• Death – Death and rebirth are part of the Ordeal. That may be literal, as in many mythologies where a divine being dies and comes back to life. It may be figurative, such as when the MC undergoes such a dramatic transformation that the version of them from the beginning of the story is essentially dead and gone.
  • Genres where literal death is more likely or more common: thrillers, action/adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, Westerns, historical, literary fiction
  • Genres where literal death would be very shocking to readers: romance (unless there’s a HEA baby), contemporary fiction, mystery (especially cosy ones)
• Outcome – There are three main options and yes, you very creative types are welcome to send me examples that fall outside these categories.
  • Win – The MC succeeds, whatever that means for them. They may or may not live, but they did win and the story world will forever be better off for it.
  • Lose – The MC fails, usually because they refused or were unable to learn the lesson of the story’s theme. For example, in Romeo & Juliet, one of the themes is Love Conquers All, but when Romeo finds Juliet apparently dead in a crypt, he despairs and instead of believing in their love, he kills himself. Stories where the MC can’t or won’t change in the way they NEED to are tragedies.
  • Draw – The MC kind of wins, but also kind of loses. Ambiguous endings frustrate some readers, as do cliff-hanger endings and friends, when you see these endings, you probably have a series on your hands. Keep going and you’ll eventually come to a more definitive resolution.
• Legacy – Not all MCs survive the Ordeal and not all those that die rise from their graves, which is good news (unless you like zombies). For MCs who die for REAL and don’t resurrect via magical, mystical or medical means, there is still a rebirth, but it takes the form of legacy in the story. Legacy can be as large as saving the multiverse or as simple as changing the school’s dress code (Hopefully, no one has to die to achieve this!). Sometimes, legacy is physically embodied by a child who is able to carry the MC’s cause forward (cue the convenient pregnancy trope). It can also be shown through the way future generations remember and celebrate the MC.

Writing Exercise

Brainstorm your Ordeal.

What is the setting? Make that worse in at least one way. Not only is the forest haunted, it’s also quite stinky.

Who are the Goodies present?

Take at least one helper away or add at least one additional character the MC must protect and defend to split their focus.

Who are the Baddies present?

Give them at least one more advantage. Make it something outrageous, like “I never miss when throwing with my left foot” or “I can read your mind by watching your microexpressions.”

Remember the Try-Fail cycle from Refusal of the Call? The MC tries to do something and gets a Yes, BUT or a No, AND result.

Think of the best result the MC could hope for. Wonderful, isn’t it? World peace and chocolate cake now grants you three wishes. Just as your MC lifts their fork for that oh so satisfying bite, drop in the BUT. Yes, they achieved world peace, but…

Imagine everything has gone horribly wrong. The love interest turned out the be the main baddie and they never actually liked the MC’s hand-knit scarf. Just when your MC thinks things can’t get bleaker, give them that AND. Did you win? No, and on top of everything else…

The Main Character(s) are well in the soup now, but so far, they’ve been able to handle the tests their enemies throw at them with the help of their friends. They’ve also been learning and developing the skills and knowledge they’ll need to face the story’s main challenge.

The Approach combines a few different elements and sets up the rest of story, foreshadowing the Ordeal. So, what do you need for a good Approach to the Ordeal?

• Fear – the MC grapples with their fear. Whether this is linked back to their original reason(s) for Refusing the Call or some other thing they’ve encountered along the way, the Ordeal is about facing one’s biggest fear.
• Pause – the MC needs a time to realize what’s at stake if they fail. This is one of the scenes where the MC’s Person verses Self (See Types of Conflict) or inner conflict will be most clearly on the page. Up to now, they might have waltzed around it, but the MC can’t avoid it anymore: They have to fully recognize the situation and choose to move forward anyway.
• Villain – Sometimes called “the Shadow” this enemy is the distorted mirror opposite of the MC, their evil twin, if you will. More on the Shadow below.
• The Ordeal Itself – What is it that the MC will encounter? The challenge must both externally and internally difficult. It must also be unidirectional (one way). After the Ordeal, the story world will be different no matter what happens.

Here’s where you plotters really shine.

The Approach sets up the Ordeal. This is where you can play around with misdirection or make it glaringly obvious the path the MC will take between now and “The End”.

The Shadow

The Shadow’s role is to both tempt and warn the MC. Often the Shadow seems like a better, more successful, more popular version of the MC. The Shadow offers the MC a chance to get what they WANT at the cost of what they NEED. They are the quick fix to a serious issue. Or the Shadow might be cautionary, even pitiable, if they weren’t so mustache-twirlingly evil.

While the Shadow shares many of the MC’s characteristics, they serve a warning: That is the MC’s destiny if they make the wrong choices. This villain doesn’t need to be THE villain of the story, especially in stories less focused on Person verses Person conflicts. They can appear only briefly or might not be a person at all, but some other form as long as they are a warning.

Let’s look at some literary shadows.

Below are only a few characteristics to consider when creating an effective Shadow. Generally, Shadows either resemble or counterpoint the MC. Mix and match as your story requires.

• Sex and/or Gender
• Age – similar or gap?
• Race
• Socioeconomic status
• Physical appearance

Writing Exercise

Pick an Ordeal from your own life – it can be something good such as a wedding, graduation, birth of a child or something you dread, such as a death, major move, or asking for a raise at work.

Consider how you approach your own ordeal. What is at stake? What do you hope to gain? What do you fear to lose? Who is your Shadow and why?

Write a short scene – less than 1,000 please – where you prepare for your Ordeal. Include your emotional state, your location, your Shadow, and what the Ordeal.

Not hard enough? Don’t worry, I got you.

Bonus rolls

Roll a D20.

For you non-nerds it’s this beauty ➡︎

If you don’t have one, you can use an online dice roller such as Roll A Die.

Got your rolls? Great.

Now write the scene of you approaching your ordeal using the setting and genre combo you rolled up. For example, you roll a 15 and an 11 – so you should write a literary story set in the wilderness.

I would LOVE to share your results. Please send them to me here.