The Catalyst for Character Change: The Dark Night of the Soul

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The worst moment for your protagonist is one of the best moments for your reader.

A character who truly earns their victory—whatever that may be—is one readers will root for and remember. That’s often why they read the book in the first place. They want to watch a character struggle and overcome their problems and learn something from the experience.

Even if that something is, “the best weapon to put down zombies.”

Typically, the change is more character-focused and draws from the protagonist’s emotional core, but a Dark Night of the Soul happens in plot-heavy novels, too. It just takes a slightly different form and teaches slightly different lessons.

No matter what path your protagonist takes—emotional or intellectual, internal or external, plot driven or character driven—they have one thing in common.

Characters don’t simply change because “they want to.”

This is a sure sign of an underdeveloped character arc. For most of the story, the protagonist has been acting like a jerk, or making dumb mistakes, or not seeing the truth they’ve firmly refused to believe. Then in the end, they suddenly realize, “Gee, I’ve had it all wrong for 350 pages. I’m not going to do that anymore.” And poof, they change their bad behavior.

Yeah, nobody does that.

They fight that change. They struggle with it. They have to see the error of their ways over and over and have it ruin their life before that lesson sinks in.

The whole purpose of a character arc is to show the character’s growth.

It’s the slow journey from “flawed soul” to “fulfilled person.” The difficult path your character endures in order to become the person they need and want to be. And the Dark Night of the Soul is the moment that grabs them by the shoulders and shoves them over the edge.

This is the moment at the end of Act Two when the protagonist is at their lowest emotional point in the story. They’ve messed up—big time. They think it’s over for them. They can’t see who they are anymore or what they need, and they feel like they’ve been turned inside out and upside down.

Blake Snyder (Save the Cat) describes this as the moment the protagonist knows they’re beaten. It’s your call what “beaten” means in your story.

Often, the Dark Night of the Soul follows a death of some kind, be it literal, metaphorical, or thematic. It might be a true death, an emotional death, a loss of faith or confidence, or even a loss of ideals or beliefs. The character’s world gets shattered and nothing is what they thought it was.

Once the protagonist hits rock bottom, they finally learn their lesson (or at least enough to tip them over into changing their ways) and start acting the way they ought to.

• The liar starts being honest
• The confirmed bachelor/bachelorette wants to commit
• The meek gain confidence

Whatever flaw was holding them back, they find the strength to accept it, overcome it, and carry on.

How to Create Your Protagonist’s Dark Moment of the Soul

This is the worst and lowest moment of the book, so don’t hold back on the torment. But also remember that every genre is different, so “dark” is relevant. Blake Snyder uses the light-hearted holiday movie, Elf, as an example, and it’s a great one.

Buddy the elf has a moment where he stands on a bridge and realizes he doesn’t belong anywhere. The sense that he might jump is strong—despite this being a comedy! It’s a “whiff of death” that shows Buddy’s lowest emotional point, and also shows his facing something that’s true about his life.

He’s a human who was raised as an elf in the North Pole. He doesn’t belong, and he’s struggling to find his place in the world and the family he lost. He goes through his Dark Moment of the Soul and it helps him understand what he wants and where he fits in. This ultimately leads to his growth and happiness.

 So, dial up or down the darkness as it suits your story and genre. The lowest point in a comedy is lighter than the lowest point in a drama.

Let’s look at ways to rip your protagonist’s life apart (bwahaha):

Tell them it’s time to abandon all hope.

Put them in a hopeless situation, usually by their own making, and let them think about what they’ve done. They’ve been beaten and they know it. They’ve made mistakes, refused to listen to others, trusted the wrong people—even if that person was themselves. They might as well throw in the towel and go home.

Let them reflect on the mistakes they’ve made and how dumb they were. Force their bad decisions down their throat and make them see who they truly are and how they got to this point in their life.

In more plot-focused novels, this is where the antagonist has seemingly won, and the protagonist can’t see a way to defeat them. They seriously consider giving up, because they’re not good enough to win.

(Here’s more with How to Find Your Character’s Breaking Point)

Force them to own it.

Push them to their breaking point. Force to reevaluate everything they know and believe and sort through the mess of their life at that moment. They face their demons, and start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the solution to the problem.

This is a moment for reflection and self-awareness, and they can’t move forward until they fully understand—and accept—the consequences of their actions. They have to acknowledge who they were in order to become who they truly are.

In more plot-focused novels, this is where the protagonist must accept that no one else can do what needs to be done. It’s their responsibility, even if they don’t want it.

(Here’s more with Battered but Not Beaten? Pushing Your Character Past the Breaking Point)

Show them they can’t go back.

Pull the blinders off so they can’t ignore whatever issue they’ve had all book. They know this path leads to failure, and in order to be happy and get what they want, they have to change what’s not working. They might not have fully grown yet, but they’ve changed enough that they can’t keep doing what they’ve been doing. They don’t want to do that or be that person anymore.

There’s no going back anymore, and the only way out of the misery is to go forward. This is where the “whiff of death” comes in—the death of the old self, rebirth of the new self.

In more plot-focused novels, this is where the protagonist might lose an ally or trusted friend, and the risk of losing more people they care about it high. But the cost of not moving forward is even higher.

(Here’s more with The Wheels of (Character) Change)

Tell them to suck it up and accept it already.

They’ve finally figured out what they must do or who they must be to succeed, and even if it’s hard, they’re just going to have to do it. There’s often one last stubborn refusal, and one last attempt to talk their way out of it, but even their best argument fails to get then out of whatever hole they’ve dug for themselves.

They did this. It’s their fault, or they’re responsible, and they just have to deal with it.

The novel’s theme is typically front and center here, driving the character and the change, and lighting the way for the goal that will launch and drive Act Three.

In more plot-focused novels, this is where the protagonist knows what they have to do, but they don’t want to do it, and don’t want to make the required sacrifice. But deep down, they know they have to.

(Here’s more with The Inner Struggle: Guides for Using Internal Conflict That Make Sense)

Help them realize it’s time to make the Big Choice.

The protagonist faces the biggest and most important choice of the novel—do they accept the lie or the truth? They reject the lie or false belief, and finally accept the truth. The truth shall set them free, and this gives them the strength to face Act Three and the climax.

Th protagonist takes the most important emotional step of the novel and embraces their change, allowing them to grow and be who they need to be.

In more plot-focused novels, this moment leads to the protagonist finally accepting what has to be done to win, and the sacrifices they’ll need to make to do it. It’s hard, but it’s worth it to overcome the story’s central conflict.

(Here’s more with Story Structure: How the Act Two Choice Works in a Novel)

Change comes through hardship and sacrifice, and until the protagonist learns their necessary lessons, they won’t change.

Seeing a character grow and become who they’re meant to be is a satisfying end to a novel. Your protagonist might not like you for it, but your readers will love you for this deep, emotional moment that will resonate with them long after the story is over.

EXERCISE FOR YOU: Take five minutes and examine your novel’s Dark Moment of the Soul. Does your protagonist face their demons and examine their life? Do they understand that their choices and actions have brought them to this point? What do they have to face or accept to move past it?

What’s the Dark Night of the Soul in your novel?

Find out more about characters, internalization, and point of view in my book, Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems.

Go step-by-step through revising character and character-related issues, such as two-dimensional characters, inconsistent points of view, too-much backstory, stale dialogue, didactic internalization, and lack of voice. Learn how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and fix those problems.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems offers five self-guided workshops that target the common issues that make readers stop reading. It will help you:

• Flesh out weak characters and build strong character arcs
• Find the right amount of backstory to enhance, not bog down, your story
• Determine the best point(s) of view and how to use them to your advantage
• Eliminate empty dialogue and rambling internalization
• Develop character voices and craft unique, individual characters 

Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems starts every workshop with an analysis to pinpoint problem areas and offers multiple revision options in each area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. It's an easy-to-follow guide to crafting compelling characters, solid points of view, and strong character voices readers will love.

Available in paperback and ebook formats.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.

When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.

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