From the course: Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps

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All is lost: Explanation

All is lost: Explanation

From the course: Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps

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All is lost: Explanation

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- Regardless of whether your bad guys closing was an upward path or a downward path. All paths eventually lead to the "All is Lost." And just like the title of the beat suggests, it's a low point, a defeat. If you have real bad guys in your story, here is where they went. And if you only have internal bad guys in your story, your hero's flaws. Here's where the drag the hero to the very lowest they can go. In the "All is Lost" the hero must be worse off than they were at the start of the story. Basically, something must happen in this beat that holds the hero all the way down to rock bottom. Why rock bottom? Because rock bottom is the ground in which heroes finally sew their seeds of change. Rock bottom is where everyone has to go before they realize that they really do need to change. Most human beings don't actually transform until they've hit that rock bottom. So your hero must hit it too. Otherwise, their transformation won't be believable. So when you think about it, the "All is…

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