How to Structure Sequence 8 in a Story:

Sequence 8 includes your story’s climax and resolution. Emotionally, this is what everything has been leading toward.

Let the climax challenge your protagonist in the exact way they’ve been avoiding. This is their moment of truth. Whether they win or lose, they do it authentically. They achieve this with the emotional growth they’ve earned. This is true unless, of course, you’re writing a negative arc.

Scenes here should deliver on your story’s emotional promise. If the theme is forgiveness, show it. If it’s courage, let them stand up and face what they feared.

Wrap up with a resolution that reflects the change. What do they now understand that they didn’t before?

Act Three: Sequence 8

Emotional Focus: The reader should feel a strong emotional release, catharsis. That could mean relief and triumph or sorrow and reckoning. The character has changed (or failed to), and now the audience sits in the emotional truth of what it all meant.

End on a final scene or scenes that capture their emotional transformation, or a tragic end. Leave the reader with powerful emotions before they close the book or leave the theater.

Happy Writing!

~ M.C. Convery