A Character's Change/Resolution

"In the best stories, the odyssey from complication to resolution changes the character profoundly. In fact, the resolution often results not directly from the action but from a growing enlightenment -- often a suddenflash of insight -- as the character finally realizes what he has to do to solve the problem.

"Screenwriters often call this flash of insight or self realization, a 'plot point.' Screenwriters talk about two plot points, the first being thecomplication and the second coming near the end of the story, where the character finally fully perceives the nature of his problem and, as a result, sees how to solve it. But since we are discussing complication and resolution form, we have the need to refer to only one plot point, the second, or point of insight....

"Once you identify the plot point, you know you have found a story in which the character"s struggle leaves him a better, more mature individual. You have thus tied the character irrevocably to plot, and you have a viable story....

"If your story meets all the criteria it will, in the language of editors, 'work.' That means it will consist of a real person who is confronted with a significant problem, who struggles diligently to solve that problem, and who ultimately succeeds -- and in doing so becomes a different character....

"But the deeper satisfaction comes when the reader learns with thecharacter. The reader, like the character, thus becomes a better and wiser person; the story, in the final analysis, is an artificial experience. It doesn"t moralize but, like all experience, it teaches."


Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction by a Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Winner by Jon Franklin (pages 89-90)