Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Intermediate Crisis

The Intermediate Crisis


Well now it's time to move onto a larger crisis. Not the biggie, but one that is intermediate in scope. If the first one was analogous to a field goal, this one is a touchdown. The game isn’t exactly on the line yet but this is a big hurdle for the Central Character to deal with.

For this one I ask the students to present an external crisis. Here somebody else or even God is responsible. It can be an act of nature, or it can be where that evil antagonist takes a halfhearted swing. I say halfhearted because the intended knock-out punch is intended for the climax. That will be the old round house left hook.

Say the CC gets word that his nemesis is back in town and is determined to bring the CC low. It is like the corrupt sheriff without the posse. In the finale the posse will arrive on the scene. But for now the sheriff feels that bringing the CC low is well within his means.

Now these crises are not exactly sequential. They are more like a metamorphosis. In the last one the CC did something stupid that made it possible for the second one to develop. Maybe he ran off at the mouth one night at the bar and told everybody about the gold strike he had happened onto. So what happens next? Well a host of disreputable characters want to steal it and the worst of the lot is Sheriff Scumbag. All the others are not a pimple on Scumbag's petotti and only by the narrowest of margins does our hero survive the second encounter. Get the idea? These are not sequential unrelated crisis we are discussing but interrelated crisis that build on one another. They might happen in sequence but they are a progression, with one growing out of the next.

Interwoven is the Central Character and his/her want need or desire. Then there is a life changing even and a resolve to do something that will make life better than doing nothing at all. In a story, as in life, there are bill payers to everything and our CC doesn’t want to become another sad statistic. Good must triumph over evil and rightousness snatch the prize form the jaw's of defeat.

It’s fun to kick back and think about all the components of your story. Ponder them in the abstract and decide where they will get poked into the manuscript. Today I was writing a short story and I remembered getting hammered by one of my instructors about the use of the senses. Hmmmm, I asked myself. Did my story include all five, maybe six (Da da da da). I had plenty of visual, effects, lots of sound and feeling but you know what….there was no smell and taste….Imagine that! A story with two of the five missing. How did that ever slip through the cracks? So I went back and there was room enough in the word count to add them in and guess what….They enhanced the story. So I tell my students…This is a workshop. As you go along think about all the things we've discussed and make sure they are each being given their due.