Save the Cat Breakdown Series - Dark Night of the Soul

In the previous article, we explored the Save the Cat story beat of All is Lost, and how everything goes wrong for the protagonist here. They feel lost and see no way to achieve their goal. In this article, we are exploring the story beat of Dark Night of the Soul.

What is the Dark Night of the Soul story beat?

The Dark Night of the Soul story beat is a several scene beat where the protagonist reacts to the events in All Is Lost. Action, reaction, remember? They are lost, defeated, and see no way out. Depression can creep in. Second guessing themselves. Doubting the entire plan. They can even fall back into old habits. Where the All Is Lost beat is the moment it all falls apart, the Dark Night of the Soul is the wallowing that comes after that. This is the delicious angsty moment in your novel. It typically occurs at the 75 - 80% mark, or at around 60,000 - 64,000 words in a typical 80,000 word novel.

Another way to look at this story beat is to treat it as the thematic lesson. This is the result of the protagonist trying to achieve their goals while still refusing to face their fatal flaw. And it is only now that they have lost everything that they realise this.

In The Matrix, the Dark Night of the Soul begins after the crew implodes, resulting in the capture and torture of Morpheus, and the deaths of Apoc, Switch, and Cypher. The remaining crew is left rudderless and a shell of their original force. They even consider killing Morpheus to prevent him from breaking. This is an action movie of the early 2000s, so the introspection is kept to a minimum, just one scene in this case, but it can be longer if your piece calls for it.

Regardless of how many scenes this uses in your novel, your protagonist should be worse off now than they were at the start of the novel. This, after all, has to force them to re-evaluate themselves and their life.

Dark Night of the Soul in Disney’s Mulan

In Disney’s Mulan, her fellow soldiers and commander have just abandoned Mulan after being outed as a woman. Despite how much she improved, how she was the one responsible for coming up with the avalanche that saved them from the Huns’ attack, they left her behind solely because she is a woman.

Mulan realises that she shouldn’t have left home. Everything is now worse than if she had focused on remaining a dutiful daughter. Not only does she face death in the mountains, worse for her, she has brought dishonour upon her whole family directly by her actions.

“Maybe I didn’t go for my father. Maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right. So when I looked in the mirror,” She picks up her helmet and looks at her reflection, a mirror to the Debate moment and the song Reflections, “I’d see someone worthwhile. But I was wrong! I see nothing!” She tosses the helmet away.

Even Mushu’s attempts to cheer her up just cause her to turn away in despair. Mushu and Crickey also come forward at this point, admitting their own failures and deceit. Mushu comes clean about not really being sent by the ancestors and confesses that he only came to benefit himself, unlike Mulan, who at least was trying to help her father. Crickey admits that he’s not really lucky (I still love you, Crickey, even if you’re not lucky!).

Dark Night of the Soul in Flewelling’s Luck in the Shadows

Seregil, Alec’s mentor, protector, and best friend, has been taken prisoner on false charges, charges that have previously already condemned another innocent man to death. He is lost and without Seregil’s steady hand to guide him. Where before, he could be on his own for a job but he always had Seregil’s skills and quick wit to bail him out if something went wrong, now he has none of that.

He managed to arrange a very brief visit to Seregil in the prison, where his mentor passes on a seemingly nonsensical message to him to pass on to Micum.

Alec held Seregil’s gaze a moment longer, heart pounding painfully in his chest. What he could see of Seregil’s mouth tilted up suddenly in the old reassuring grin. “Why the long face?” Seregil whispered. “You’re not alone in this, you know. Everything’s gong to be fine!” But Alec felt anything but fine as he followed the guard back down the stairs. Much as he wanted to believe Seregil’s brave assurances, he thought he’d heard a hollow note in his friend’s voice. They were in a bad spot, and a good deal of it was up to him to solve. The consequences of failure were too awful to bear thinking about. His face must have given something of this away for the guard said kindly, “There now, sir, perhaps it’ll all come right in the end. He seems a good enough fellow.” Sensing a potential ally, Alec managed to work up a few tears by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs. In fact, they came with surprising ease. p339-340

This passage shows both Alec and Seregil are struggling to deal with this latest, largest blow.

Final Thoughts

The Dark Night of the Soul story beat is where the protagonist is at their lowest. They are decompressing and trying to come to terms with the absolute disaster that happened just before in the All is Lost moment.

Next time we will look at the Break Into Act 3 story beat, where the protagonist realises what they must do to fix things. We are now into the final act! I hope to see you then!