This Magic Moment
Having an idea
of a particular moment and then building on it is the basis of all creative
endeavors.
In movies that particular moment is called the climax. If there is more than one pivotal moment that leads up to the big finish, they are called a watershed moment or wow moments or memorable moments. Any way you look at it, everyone what to have that one magic moment in their stories that makes them memorable and takes someone’s breath away. Well, good luck to you and I wish you all the best. The main problem when it comes down to that Magic Moment is how you are going to get the biggest response possible. I remembered a movie long ago called Sparkle.
It was about a singing group made up of three women trying to make it big in the music business. To cut to the chase. There is a pivotal moment in the movie where the manager and also the love interest of the leading lady have a gun to his head by some very bad people in the entertainment business. They were playing a game of Russian roulette in the fact that each time he refused to sign over the girl group they would pull the trigger. During this magic moment the lead singer was pouring her heart out in a song looking at the stage door off to her side for the man she loves to appear. Throughout the song the screen kept switching from the lead singer, the door, the boyfriend, and the gun being pulled back and trigger squeeze with the click of the hammer striking down. This drama continued throughout the song. When all hope was lost in the woman’s eyes that she knew he was dead and she let her heart cry out through the song, he appears running through the door. And, the audience goes banana splits with the nuts.
For me, the magic moment can come from suspense, aggravation, and the unexpected. All three of these examples can and do over laps at times, but each can add their own special twist to give you that Magic moment. The one that is most used and very useful is suspense.
In movies that particular moment is called the climax. If there is more than one pivotal moment that leads up to the big finish, they are called a watershed moment or wow moments or memorable moments. Any way you look at it, everyone what to have that one magic moment in their stories that makes them memorable and takes someone’s breath away. Well, good luck to you and I wish you all the best. The main problem when it comes down to that Magic Moment is how you are going to get the biggest response possible. I remembered a movie long ago called Sparkle.
It was about a singing group made up of three women trying to make it big in the music business. To cut to the chase. There is a pivotal moment in the movie where the manager and also the love interest of the leading lady have a gun to his head by some very bad people in the entertainment business. They were playing a game of Russian roulette in the fact that each time he refused to sign over the girl group they would pull the trigger. During this magic moment the lead singer was pouring her heart out in a song looking at the stage door off to her side for the man she loves to appear. Throughout the song the screen kept switching from the lead singer, the door, the boyfriend, and the gun being pulled back and trigger squeeze with the click of the hammer striking down. This drama continued throughout the song. When all hope was lost in the woman’s eyes that she knew he was dead and she let her heart cry out through the song, he appears running through the door. And, the audience goes banana splits with the nuts.
For me, the magic moment can come from suspense, aggravation, and the unexpected. All three of these examples can and do over laps at times, but each can add their own special twist to give you that Magic moment. The one that is most used and very useful is suspense.
Suspense
Building up that one fatal moment isn’t just placing more words between the cause of an action and its effect or a winding maze of facts and situations is a way to make a moment suspenseful. Pacing and emotion is a very difficult to pull off and takes much practice and natural talent. Before the Boos start come out and of the calling of shenanigans begins, you can only be taught so much and can pick up style traits from others. However, isn’t that just being a copycat and noting that hasn’t been seen before. Oh, but there is still hope and that is remembering a childhood or traumatic feeling (non-life threatening). Let’s say that moment you had seen something that caused you to cover your eyes that you pay absolutely no attention to now.
i.e.; One day you thought to go outside and play in your front yard. Your parent is called inside their house and tells you not to move. Your next door neighbor comes over carrying something small and squirming. Suddenly they slowly place the small squirming white fuzzy thing in front of you. It doesn’t move at first and cause you to move forward to see what it is. Only moments ago, it was moving and now it isn’t. You don’t know what to do, but something inside you tells you to run away, but you keep moving forward. Something tells you to call out for your parents to save you, but you move forward. You want to stop, but you keep moving forward as if this small fuzzy thing that you had seen moving only moments ago has you memorized. You slowly reach out your finger to touch it and… A small veracious animal in front of you, that only a moment ago lay motionless on the front lawn at your house surprisingly moves in a flash and knocks you down. You are so frightened that you can’t move. You were looking at the small fuzz ball of white one moment a then the clouds in the sky and suddenly… You can’t stop from giggling as the small puppy keep licking your face and your parents and friends come running from everywhere yelling out happy birthday.
With the small additions of human emotions and physical descriptions of fear like sweating, dry throat, and shaking limbs, suspense is a very tricky thing to pull off. Now aggravation is less complicated and is easy to take too far.
Building up that one fatal moment isn’t just placing more words between the cause of an action and its effect or a winding maze of facts and situations is a way to make a moment suspenseful. Pacing and emotion is a very difficult to pull off and takes much practice and natural talent. Before the Boos start come out and of the calling of shenanigans begins, you can only be taught so much and can pick up style traits from others. However, isn’t that just being a copycat and noting that hasn’t been seen before. Oh, but there is still hope and that is remembering a childhood or traumatic feeling (non-life threatening). Let’s say that moment you had seen something that caused you to cover your eyes that you pay absolutely no attention to now.
i.e.; One day you thought to go outside and play in your front yard. Your parent is called inside their house and tells you not to move. Your next door neighbor comes over carrying something small and squirming. Suddenly they slowly place the small squirming white fuzzy thing in front of you. It doesn’t move at first and cause you to move forward to see what it is. Only moments ago, it was moving and now it isn’t. You don’t know what to do, but something inside you tells you to run away, but you keep moving forward. Something tells you to call out for your parents to save you, but you move forward. You want to stop, but you keep moving forward as if this small fuzzy thing that you had seen moving only moments ago has you memorized. You slowly reach out your finger to touch it and… A small veracious animal in front of you, that only a moment ago lay motionless on the front lawn at your house surprisingly moves in a flash and knocks you down. You are so frightened that you can’t move. You were looking at the small fuzz ball of white one moment a then the clouds in the sky and suddenly… You can’t stop from giggling as the small puppy keep licking your face and your parents and friends come running from everywhere yelling out happy birthday.
With the small additions of human emotions and physical descriptions of fear like sweating, dry throat, and shaking limbs, suspense is a very tricky thing to pull off. Now aggravation is less complicated and is easy to take too far.
Aggravation
Whenever a criminal, villain, and even the hero get what they are after or want with little resistance every single time, it can get extremely aggravating. Bad habits are another form of aggravation as well as perfection. Everyone wants to see the bad guy (person) get what they deserve and even the hero taken down a peg or two to learn humility. However, no one will put up with perfection without going nuts! The tricky part when doing the big finish is that it may take too long to get from the starting line to the finish. Having small roadblocks appear here and there will defuse a complete loss of interest and yet will still allow the reader to be both entertain and aggravated equally until the final outcome. Once again, it takes much practice to pull this style of writing off, but when added with other styles like horror, comedy, action adventure, science fiction, and even romance, it can be a powerful tool to give the ending that needed punch to have something favorable you say about your work. In actuality, every writer wants that magic moment to blow the minds of their readers with the unexpected even if it's expected.
Whenever a criminal, villain, and even the hero get what they are after or want with little resistance every single time, it can get extremely aggravating. Bad habits are another form of aggravation as well as perfection. Everyone wants to see the bad guy (person) get what they deserve and even the hero taken down a peg or two to learn humility. However, no one will put up with perfection without going nuts! The tricky part when doing the big finish is that it may take too long to get from the starting line to the finish. Having small roadblocks appear here and there will defuse a complete loss of interest and yet will still allow the reader to be both entertain and aggravated equally until the final outcome. Once again, it takes much practice to pull this style of writing off, but when added with other styles like horror, comedy, action adventure, science fiction, and even romance, it can be a powerful tool to give the ending that needed punch to have something favorable you say about your work. In actuality, every writer wants that magic moment to blow the minds of their readers with the unexpected even if it's expected.
Unexpected
Surprise! You didn’t see that one coming. The elusive wow factor is the crown jewel every author wants and strives for. It doesn’t matter if it a kiss at the end, the super smart bad guy gets caught at the end, everyone what’s the ending to be memorable (or at lease cause the reader to yell for the next installment and tell their friends what they had just couldn’t put down). What you should try to understand is that the unexpected ending isn’t just for mysteries. Every form of writing can have that unexpected moment of surprise. The romance where the bride walks down the aisle melancholy that she has no other choice except to marry the man who will save or destroy all that she holds dear when she is clearly in love with another. She keeps her eyes to the ground and fights back her tears. She suddenly hears the minister say her name and then ask the question if she will take… The man she loves name is called out. Oh, and all unexpected endings don’t have to be happy ones as well. What is most important is that they are memorable, enjoyable, and that magic moment. SD
Surprise! You didn’t see that one coming. The elusive wow factor is the crown jewel every author wants and strives for. It doesn’t matter if it a kiss at the end, the super smart bad guy gets caught at the end, everyone what’s the ending to be memorable (or at lease cause the reader to yell for the next installment and tell their friends what they had just couldn’t put down). What you should try to understand is that the unexpected ending isn’t just for mysteries. Every form of writing can have that unexpected moment of surprise. The romance where the bride walks down the aisle melancholy that she has no other choice except to marry the man who will save or destroy all that she holds dear when she is clearly in love with another. She keeps her eyes to the ground and fights back her tears. She suddenly hears the minister say her name and then ask the question if she will take… The man she loves name is called out. Oh, and all unexpected endings don’t have to be happy ones as well. What is most important is that they are memorable, enjoyable, and that magic moment. SD
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