Unlocking the Power of the Aha Moment: Make Your Climax Unforgettable

In this episode, Zena Dell Lowe uncovers the hidden power of the “Aha Moment” in your story’s climax — the moment of revelation that resonates long after the final scene. Learn how to weave this essential beat into your work without forcing it, why it matters so much to your audience, and how to make it unforgettable.

Perfect for writers, screenwriters, and storytellers ready to elevate their craft.

This question came straight from Zena’s monthly office hours, which are open to anyone who’s ever purchased one of her classes. Want access like this? Check out her courses and join the mission. Learn more at The Storyteller’s Mission.


Seven Deadly Plot Points FREE TRAINING VIDEO

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Transcript

[00:00:00] So you had said something to me before about how it all ties into your audience's deepest desires, fears, and wants. I would be careful about keeping that in mind as you're writing your. Climax and you know, act three because it can really complicate and convolute things. Just keep it about the characters.

[00:00:21] Okay, so what I want to do is in the climax, climax have a big eureka. That's right moment. Okay. Where they figure out some things that are like right in front of their eyes where they just don't see, but they finally see it and put the pieces together. That's where the audience should have their own transformation, kind of a transformation.

[00:00:39] I use that term, you find the knowledge, the wisdom to, to move forward. You realize the truth about what's happening, so to speak. Hello and welcome to the Storytellers Mission with Zena Del Web, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through. 

[00:00:59] Have you ever read White Olender or seen the film? No. Okay. I didn't love it, but I'll tell you, there was a huge eureka moment in that essentially, I mean, I didn't really understand what this story was about until the climax. Because the daughter gives a speech during the climax, and the basic premise is that in the movie, at least I know that's, it's based on the book.

[00:01:24] So Michelle Pfeiffer placed the mother, she's scorned by a man, and so she kills him. And as a result of murdering this guy, she goes to prison and her beautiful blonde daughter gets placed in the foster care system where we track the daughter. As she goes from this home to this home, to this home, she has like.

[00:01:43] Three different female mother figures that she models herself after, sort of in these different environments to not great effect until finally, you know, she ages out and she's on her own now and she's visiting her mom in prison and she's supposed to appear, appear in front of the George, the judge, to testify on her mom's behalf for some hearing that's coming up so her mom can get early parole.

[00:02:07] I can't remember, but now this beautiful, I mean, she was. Just such a pure innocent beauty. Like think little Cinderella princess, you know, at the very beginning, just this beautiful little blonde girl and now she's showing up and she's goth dark makeup, black hair, you know, piercings, tattoos. I mean, she looks rough, and Michelle Pfeiffer is just staring at and she's.

[00:02:30] Disgusted by what her daughter has become. And finally the daughter says, you look at me and you don't like what you see. This is the cost of being yours. Let me go. And all of a sudden, everything we've seen in that movie. Makes sense. Until that moment it didn't. But the speech, that moment is so powerful that it made the whole journey worth it.

[00:02:55] Right? And we finally are like, wow. And that was insight and just, ooh, it really hits home. And it helps us to understand the daughter's journey and where she's come. It makes everything that's happened. Makes sense. So compare that to Kevin Spacey, the devil character. He turns out he is this invisible villain character.

[00:03:17] He makes it all up during interrogation. We think he's a gimp, but he turns out he's made it all up. He's this mastermind bad guy, and you know what I'm talking about. I watched that movie. Do you remember the name of it? No. I can't remember the name of it. No, but he's got, I don't know, they're robbing people or whatever.

[00:03:31] Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's phenomenal. But that happens right at the end, in fact. Mm-hmm. He's walking out down the street and the cop is in the room, like he's just gotten done interviewing him, and then he starts looking around and he's. Seeing all the names that this guy has used for his witness statement, like on the walls behind him, and all of a sudden he's starting to figure it out and he runs out after him.

[00:03:58] He finally figures it out as this huge aha moment. He finally figures out, wait a minute, that's the guy. He's the bad guy, and he runs out. But by then, Kevin Spacey is transformed back into his villainous. Character and he's gone. He gets away with it. Brilliant. And we are discovering it at the same time as the cop is.

[00:04:16] It is a huge aha moment. So I guess my point is, however, before we get there, did you know that there are seven crucial plot points that every story must hit in order to satisfy the audience? And if you miss even one of those crucial plot points, you risk losing your audience's attention forever. Okay.

[00:04:37] This is why I've created a free training video for you where I break down exactly what these seven deadly plot points are. These are the essential plot moments that you need to hit in order to deliver a powerful, compelling page turning story. So. Be sure to check out my free training video on the seven Deadly plot points.

[00:04:59] It's going to transform your writing. Just click on the link provided in the notes, or head over to the storytellers mission.com and you can start watching this free training video right away. In both of those examples, you can't force transformation in your audio. All you can do is have your characters have an aha moment, and then hope that somehow that is transmitted or it's meaningful to your audience.

[00:05:26] That's the idea I'm going for. Okay. That's the idea you're going for. So then the aha moment that you're trying to create all at once, well, how are you doing it? How are we learning? When you get into that act three and you know, what is the aha moment? How does it all come together that the big transformation has to be in the self?

[00:05:44] So the main character realizes that the transformation he wanted had to be within, but how were you gonna show that? That's a good question. I got, I don't know. I've got a lot of different ways I'm thinking about, okay. In the first example I gave, it's a conversation that she has with her mother where she confronts her mom and says, this is the cost of being yours.

[00:06:05] In the second one, it's the cop looking around after the guy is left and they starts seeing the clues on the wall, Hey, wait a minute, and he looks at his. Notes, and then he sees another one like, oh my God. And then he sees another one. And so we're seeing him do the comparison and making those connections so that he runs out after the guy.

[00:06:25] You've gotta figure out the moment, okay, both of them are a ha. How are you going to show it? I don't know. See, the way that I realized that I was just sitting on a swing, looking out into the woods in front of me and had my aha moment. But that's boring. That's not gonna sell. So I gotta come up with something more dramatic than that.

[00:06:42] Is it. Boring. I don't know. Okay. In it's about Schmidt, we go through the whole movie of about Schmidt and you know, he's doing another monologue to in Dogo and he says, you know, I have to finally accept that in relatively short amount of time I'm going to die. My life has not mattered to anyone. I wasn't able to stop my daughter from marrying that comb poop, and that's my life.

[00:07:08] And then he gets home and he has a letter from Ndugu. And he opens it and all it is 'cause Ndugu can't even read it. Turns out Duo is five and he is drawn a picture. And you have this moment where Jack Nicholson sees this picture that Ndugu has drawn of Ndugu holding hands with Jack Nicholson. That's it.

[00:07:29] That's all that's there. And all of a sudden he starts crying and then he smiles. You know, smiles to the tears and we know his life matters and he knows it. I mean, we see the transformation. It is beautiful. And that's it. That's the end of the movie. So it's very subtle. It's not like it's this, you know, like he flew to the moon, he opens a letter, he sees the letter.

[00:07:52] So the sitting on a swing and you know, having an aha moment. You just have to find a way to. Visualize that in a way that's going to be meaningful to us. I mean, it can be anything. It can be exciting, it can be subtle, but it fact sometimes have a lot of callback subtlety is profound. What? It will have a lot of callbacks.

[00:08:12] Okay, so I'm back in the same spot that I was in earlier where I got some other smaller aha moments. So when you put all the pieces together on the swing, then it, to me, that was transformative. Okay. And there might be, if there can be one thing that you can do that shows to the audience, you know, maybe there's a bug or something.

[00:08:31] Yeah. Okay. Do you remember the Deer Hunter, the movie, the Deer Hunter? I mean, we're talking old school now. At the very beginning, he's hunting deer. Then all this stuff happens in Vietnam. And he has to go back to Vietnam to try to rescue his friend who he sees, blow his head out from Russian roulette. And then he comes back and now he's out hunting and he is got a deer in his scope and he sets the gun down and just watches the deer.

[00:08:54] He's had enough of death, he didn't wanna kill the deer, and he's completely changed. So maybe there's a bug or something that he, every time he is out there, it gets on him and he, ugh, you know, he kills it or whatever. But this time he doesn't, or I don't know. There can be just something subtly different in his behavior that shows true transformation, but that's what I would be thinking about.

[00:09:14] How are you gonna visualize that? Thank you for listening to the Storyteller's mission with Zina Del Lo. May you go forth in. It to change the world for the better through story.