Welcome to the official first day of the challenge!
(And remember, you can submit your writing to me for in-doc feedback this time!!)
You might notice this challenge looks a little different. I am teaching it the way I teach inside Academy of Story, so you get the theory behind each scene as well as the exact steps to write it, all laid out on the slides. Each day should take you around 45 minutes to an hour. It is a challenge, so find your pockets of time… but it is only five days.
Today: your destabilising moment
This is the moment, around the end of chapter three, when your Hero’s ordinary world breaks. You’ll have spent the first few chapters setting up their normal life, and now one thing happens that shatters it and pulls us into the story.
Most people call this the Call to Adventure. I don’t, because it is rarely a fun invitation. It is a problem that your Hero can’t ignore, and it presses right on their core flaw—that belief or coping mechanism that has kept them safe until now. The same event that wouldn’t faze anyone else is the one thing that your Hero has always dreaded.
Here is how it looks in stories you know:
Toy Story: Buzz arrives and takes Woody’s place as the favourite.
Barbie: at the party, she suddenly thinks about dying and her world stops being perfect.
The Hunger Games: Prim’s name is called at the Reaping.
Finding Nemo: Nemo is taken.
The Matrix: Neo’s screen tells him to wake up.
Each one breaks the old life and makes staying put impossible.
How to write it
This is often a really short scene, a page or two at most, so keep it quick and sharp and try not to overwrite it:
1. Write your Hero’s core flaw in one sentence.
2. Name what this moment threatens, the belief or the safety it takes away.
3. Choose the one specific event that delivers it (a line of dialogue, a name drawn, a phone call).
4. Enter the scene late. Drop us straight into the action and cut the setup.
5. Keep it bare. One image, one line, or one thing that lands hard.
6. End the moment the world changes. Don’t explain it…just stop there.
Before you send it to me, run it through two quick tests.
Can you say what happens in ten words or fewer?
And if your hero did nothing after this, would they lose something they can never get back?
If both are a yes, you have got it.
Your challenge for today
Write your destabilising moment scene. Please write it as a proper scene rather than bullet points…and messy is absolutely fine! I’m not expecting perfection, I never do, and nobody sees this but me. Just throw some clay on the wheel.
To send it to me:
write it in a Google Doc with the permissions open
click the button below, and pop your name and the link into the form.
Then come back here and comment to let me know you have submitted, and close your doc.
Once I have left your feedback I will like your comment, and that is your cue to open it back up and read.
This is same-day only, so get it to me before midnight tonight!
Try not to overthink it. It is only day one, and you have a whole week of scenes ahead of you.
Any questions, leave them in the comments below!
See you tomorrow at 5am,
Xx Shelly
