The emotional low point where your protagonist hits rock bottom and must decide whether to keep going or give up.
The dark night of the soul is the moment in your story where your protagonist has lost everything that matters, or at least believes they have. It comes after the major setback and before the final push toward the climax. This is the beat where your character sits alone with their failure, stripped of their usual defenses and coping mechanisms, and has to confront who they really are. It is not just a bad event happening to them; it is the internal reckoning that follows.
This beat is where your character earns the climax. Without a genuine dark night, the hero's final triumph feels unearned, like they never really had to fight for it. It is also where your reader connects most deeply with the character, because vulnerability is what creates empathy. Skip this moment and your ending rings hollow; nail it and your reader will remember your story for years.
After Rue's death, Katniss is alone and grieving in the arena, unsure whether survival even matters anymore. Her decision to honor Rue with flowers is the turning point that transforms her from survivor to symbol.
After Brooks's death and decades behind bars, Andy seems to have finally been broken by the system. The other characters (and the audience) genuinely believe he might take his own life.
Ove's repeated failed attempts to end his life after his wife's death form an extended dark night that is simultaneously heartbreaking and darkly comic, until human connection slowly pulls him back.
The dark night needs to breathe. If your character bounces back in a paragraph, the reader never feels the weight of the despair. Let them sit in it. A full scene or even a full chapter is not too much.
Another character swooping in to fix everything robs your protagonist of their agency. The turn should come from within, even if other people help catalyze it.
Even lighthearted stories need this beat, just calibrated to the tone. In a rom-com, the dark night might be the protagonist eating ice cream alone, realizing they pushed away the person they love. It does not have to be tragic to be real.
Take a protagonist from a story you are working on (or invent one). Write a 500-word scene set at their absolute lowest point. Strip away their support system, their confidence, and their plan. Then, in the final paragraph, plant one small, quiet detail that hints at the reason they will eventually get back up. Do not let them recover yet. Just leave the seed.