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Behind on the blog but continuing my study of the elements of my own fiction.
Fifteen Heroic Turning Points for Satisfying Conflicts
https://mythcreants.com/blog/six-types-of-turning-points-for-climaxes/
Chris Winkle, April 10. 2026
When your hero faces down the villain, the two can’t just smash their swords together until the hero shows they are the better fencer. That would feel strangely meaningless, creating an unsatisfying end to their conflict. It would be equally unsatisfying if the villain randomly slipped on a banana peel and died.
When we finish a conflict and thereby resolve tension, readers expect this to happen in a certain way. Foremost, the hero must earn their victory. To do this, we use something called a turning point. A turning point that leads to success has two important components:
- The hero does something readers consider worthy, earning the hero good karma. Such karmic deeds generally demonstrate at least one of three virtues: perseverance, selflessness, and cleverness.
- When it’s time to resolve the conflict, readers witness how that karmic deed is the deciding factor. Because of the deed, the hero wins.
Turning points are pretty complex, but they become much easier with a little familiarity. Our favorite stories are full of turning points, and many of them can be repurposed to serve our own stories.
To help you find the right turning point for your conflict, let’s look at fifteen ways to grant your hero a satisfying success, organized by the virtue being employed. If you want a character to fail instead, you can see a list of downward turning points for heroes or villains.
Perseverance
Turning points that use perseverance are popular because they are so easy and flexible to employ. All you need is a compelling hardship or deterrent for your hero to withstand. The downside is that perseverance turning points are more likely to be cliche or poorly executed.
But don’t let that deter you. A little extra thought goes a long way, and these turning points easily work in concert with character arcs.
1. Leap of Faith
In a leap of faith turning point, the hero has to trust in something or someone, at great risk. In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana walks straight off a cliff, trusting that something will catch his fall. In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke turns off his targeting computer before taking his last shot at the Death Star. He trusts the Force to guide his shot instead.
The trust involved doesn’t have to be spiritual; it can be very practical. Let’s say Team One is supposed to lower a shock field so Team Two can enter the villain’s hideout without dying. The teams lose communication, so Team Two can’t confirm whether the shock field has been lowered. But time is running out, so they decide to trust that Team One has completed their task. That’s a leap of faith.
These turning points work because the hero must show courage in the face of danger. If George Lucas had not specified that Luke was turning off his targeting computer, there would be no risk to trusting in the Force, and the turning point wouldn’t have worked. Even so, the Indiana Jones turning point is stronger, because the risk was more visceral.
2. Refusal of Temptation
In a refusal of temptation turning point, the hero must turn down something they really want. To make this compelling, establish ahead what the hero desires. A hero driven only to help others probably won’t be tempted by a pile of gold, making for a weak turning point. But if you establish this character has always dreamed of riches, it should work.
Consider pairing your refusal of temptation with a character arc. When we establish a character arc, we’re usually showing what is uniquely difficult for a character. Perhaps the character is desperate for the approval of their mother, and they have to give it up. For the turning point, make their mother finally offer her approval if the hero will just give up their quest. Pull out all the stops to make this temptation look as compelling as possible.
In speculative fiction, a surprising number of temptation arcs involve visions where the hero receives their deepest desire. In the first season of the Wheel of Time TV show, Rand gets a vision of starting a family with Egwene. But while that’s what he desires, he knows it isn’t what Egwene wants. So Rand rejects the vision, allowing him to defeat the villain.
3. Sacrifice
A sacrifice turning point is somewhat similar to refusing temptation. But instead of turning down something desirable that they want, the hero has to give up something they already have. In some stories, the hero must give up their life. In others, such as Thor: Ragnarok, the hero compromises their goals. Thor initially tries defending his home but has to give it up and simply evacuate his people.
Because the focus is on loss, it’s easier to make a sacrifice compelling. But the sacrifice still has to make a meaningful difference. For instance, to win a smaller conflict, the hero might simply sacrifice an important tool or weapon. But then you can’t just give the hero a cool new weapon afterward, as that will render the sacrifice meaningless. Show how the hero struggles to adapt.
If you’re interested in this turning point, we have an article with practical tips for ensuring they work as intended.
4. Pushing Past Pain
This is probably the most overused turning point, simply because it’s so easy to fit into fight scenes – especially in visual media. It starts when the antagonist gets the better of the hero. The hero is then gravely injured or subjected to some kind of torture. In some cases, it’s a psychological attack that makes the hero lose faith in themself or believe their cause is hopeless. These psychological attacks work best when paired with a character arc.
Generally, you want the situation to look very serious, and often like the hero is down for the count. But then the hero gathers their inner strength — pushing themself back onto their feet or perhaps just crawling to the right button. A hero who endures a psychological attack might cower in the corner before they rejoin the conflict.
An unfortunate trend is heroes who use their willpower to ignore extremely deadly injuries. It was fine the first few times a film hero had to fight past stab wounds, but when Marvel started showing every hero getting stabbed through the midsection and then continuing the fight, it was too much. If you don’t treat injuries like they matter, pushing past them won’t matter either. The hero who struggles to crawl to a button actually has a stronger turning point for this reason.
5. Prior Achievement: Inglorious Legwork
The four turning points above assume that the karmic deed happens at the climax and causes the victory immediately. But the deed can actually happen earlier and have a delayed effect. This is what we call a prior achievement turning point.
To create one, you have to ensure that 1) the hero earns no reward of any kind for the deed before the conflict in question and 2) it doesn’t look like their deed will hand them a victory in the future. This generally narrows what options are available.
For perseverance, a prior achievement typically looks like the hero working very hard for something of questionable value. A famous example appears in the classic movie The Karate Kid. The hero wants to learn karate from a master, but this master just makes him paint fences for days. But by doing that, the hero actually learns important moves that serve him well later.
Generally, it’s helpful if everyone around the hero tells them not to bother, but the hero sticks with their tedious work because they believe in it. However, you can also reverse it, so the hero has to be convinced to focus on the basics, and they persist even though they doubt it means anything.
Selflessness
Turning points with selflessness are fairly simple and straightforward. But they do require a little advance planning, and they can end up looking pretty similar to each other. They also have the most obvious moral. Many storytellers like that, but a few don’t.
6. Self-Sacrifice
Oh, look, it’s another sacrifice turning point. But in this case, the sacrifice isn’t a way to show how committed the hero is to winning. In fact, it could be the opposite: the hero might believe they are sacrificing their chance at victory. This is particularly common during dangerous competitions. The hero may give up the lead to help a fallen competitor.
What matters is that the hero helps others at personal cost. Just like with the previous sacrifice turning point, readers need to understand the cost undertaken. If the hero gives away money, what did they need that money for? You want their choice to come across as a remarkable gesture, without being so excessive that it seems silly.
With any selflessness turning point, translate the karmic deed into victory by making another character respond well to the hero’s kindness. In the above example of a competition, maybe the judges are so moved that they give the gold medal to the hero anyway. Or maybe the hero loses the competition, but an admirer gives the hero something they need more than the prize.
7. Gesture of Goodwill
While self-sacrifice is one way to make selflessness more impressive, another is to choose a very unlikely recipient for the hero’s kindness. If the hero has an enemy or powerful opponent, particularly one who’s done damage, no one will expect the hero to do this enemy any favors.
The hero can then surprise the enemy by showing compassion, whether it’s bandaging their wounds or just giving them time to bury their dead. In The Lego Movie and Free Guy, the heroes give the villain a powerful item. In Steven Universe, Steven uses his powers to heal a villain who is destroying the sea out of desperation.
Whatever their gesture of goodwill is, the hero must do it without expecting anything in return. Then their goodness should inspire the enemy to show compassion back. Maybe instead of the villain meeting their goals in a harmful way, they decide to work with the hero. This gives the hero a big success.
8. Granting Mercy
In this case, the antagonist is already under the hero’s power. Maybe they’ve been caught stealing the hero’s horses or they tried to assassinate the hero. Whatever the guilty has done, it should be something that impacts the hero more than anyone else. Then the hero can look selfless by granting this person mercy. The lucky recipient might then repay the hero by offering valuable information.
In The Lord of the Rings, for instance, Frodo spends a great deal of time showing compassion to Gollum. Frodo knows Gollum wants the ring and is capable of mischief, but Frodo also sympathizes with Gollum because of their shared experience with bearing the ring. Ultimately, Gollum saves Frodo and destroys the ring, but not because he actually wants to return the favor. The implication in the book is that some higher, benevolent power may be rewarding Frodo’s goodness.
To give the hero good karma, granting mercy needs to be balanced with prudence. If the hero frees someone who will just turn around and do more harm, that’s too careless for good karma. It works better if the guilty party is sympathetically desperate or has no real chance of succeeding.
9. Test of Virtue
If you want to switch things up, you might try a deliberate test of the hero’s goodness. This can actually be used with perseverance and cleverness, too, but since selflessness has the clearest moral implications, it’s the most likely candidate. This kind of test can be administered by a potential mentor, a guardian of a place or artifact, or a powerful person who has some interest in testing virtue.
A classic is the powerful sorceress who pretends to be an ugly beggar, just to see how others treat her. Then she uses her powers to punish or reward them. Labyrinths are also typically full of ancient tests. In BBC’s Merlin, Arthur and Merlin enter a labyrinth where they are given a goblet of poison one of them must drink. Arthur chooses to drink the poison, proving his selflessness and lifting a curse on the kingdom.
Everyone who wants to join Fight Club shows up at the protagonist’s front door, where he tells these hopefuls to get lost. But if they camp out on the front steps anyway, he eventually lets them in.
10. Prior Achievement: Surprise Reinforcements
For selflessness, a prior achievement can actually be easier to employ than a karmic deed during a tense conflict, and it provides a nice surprise, too.
Find a place earlier in the story where your hero can aid one or more people who are either powerless or antagonistic. After the aid is rendered, let those people exit the story for a while. Then during the conflict, they can offer unexpected help to repay the hero for their good deed.
Generally, this looks like either surprise reinforcements or a minion switching sides at a critical moment. It creates a powerful, feel-good twist.
Cleverness
These turning points generally require the most thought and planning. That’s because to pull them off, readers must be able to follow your hero’s logic. If your hero says a bunch of technical jargon as they invent some device on the spot, that won’t be satisfying. But provided you do your homework, these turning points are very flexible and create fun reveals.
11. Observing a Weakness
This turning point is probably the easiest way to employ cleverness, because it doesn’t take much advanced planning. When your hero encounters a big monster or another enemy, they should observe it closely. Based on their observations, they realize this antagonist has a crucial weakness. Then the hero takes advantage of this weakness to win the conflict.
Like all of the easiest turning points, this one has also become a bit overused. I recommend against using the eyes as a vulnerable area or poor eyesight as a weakness; it’s been done too often. In fights between humans, noticing the antagonist is favoring one side and has a previous injury there has been done a lot already.
But that leaves plenty of more creative weaknesses you can use. Perhaps the hero realizes the monster is being magically controlled by a nearby wizard. Or perhaps an enemy strikes wildly and then spends a little time not moving as much, and the hero realizes this opponent is easily winded. You can also use this turning point in social conflicts. An antagonist that’s easily angered might say something they shouldn’t. Or the hero could find the hole in the antagonist’s story.
12. Unlocking Powers
Many speculative fiction readers love empowerment, and for those readers, few things are more fun than a mid-conflict power-up. Since we can make magic work however we want, it’s possible to unlock a magic power with any of the three virtues. However, having characters unlock magic with perseverance is extremely overused and often poorly implemented. Using love isn’t far behind.
So instead, I recommend making your hero figure out how to use a new tool or ability. Plus, then it works more easily with mysterious technology. But you will need to do setup. The hero should have previously tried to use this power and failed. Decide what significant piece of information they’re missing. Maybe they don’t know how to power the device or control what their lightning blast targets.
The last step is to deliver a final clue during the conflict. Perhaps the device flickers on briefly, making the hero aware that the monster’s radiation could be a power source. Or perhaps the hero is simply reminded of the right thing. If they contemplate their death and wonder what their mother would say, they might recall relevant advice their mother gave them.
13. Uncovering a Deception
This one is fun because it includes a dramatic reveal. Design an antagonist that is in disguise or lying about something big. It can be a shapeshifter pretending to be a friend (always popular), an assassin who killed and replaced an ambassador, or an ally who’s been selling secrets because they were blackmailed.
The hero will need to compare how the antagonist is acting with how they are supposed to act. So before the conflict, establish what’s normal. Introduce the friend, discuss the ambassador who’s soon to visit, or mention the temperament of the ally.
Then give a hint of foreshadowing while still keeping the reveal well concealed. Mention the enemy has shapeshifters, the ambassador was delayed briefly during their travels, or the ally has seemed under stress lately. Finally, you’re ready to deliver one or two simple clues during the conflict that the hero can use for their big realization.
14. A Creative Tactic
Sometimes a tactic is creative and clever enough to work as a turning point. Above, I mentioned Free Guy, in which the hero puts his super powerful glasses on the enemy he’s fighting. While the glasses give the hero lots of powers he can use in the fight, it ultimately isn’t enough to defeat a much stronger opponent. Putting the glasses on this opponent distracts them and also gives them free will, so they don’t have to fight anymore.
You can set up a creative tactic by establishing some weird or dangerous effect earlier in the story. The car inexplicably stalls whenever the radio is turned on. Every time someone lifts a steak in the air, a nearby buzzard swoops down to grab it. The tile floor is incredibly slippery when wet. Then during the conflict, the hero thinks of a way to use this against the antagonist. Maybe right when the carjacker is making a sharp turn, the hero turns the radio on.
Another option is to have the hero switch to something that’s less direct or obvious. Maybe instead of fighting a monster, the hero plays dead,* and the monster loses interest. In a social conflict, you could use reverse psychology or bizarre behavior that throws the antagonist off their game.
15. Prior Achievement: The Hidden Plan
Unfortunately, clever deeds are the hardest to do ahead of time. If the hero figures out the villain’s big weakness a month before the fight, not only does that seem to be its own reward, but the hero’s victory will be too assured.
The closest thing we have to a prior achievement for cleverness is what we call the hidden plan turning point. In this scenario, the hero comes up with a brilliant strategy for defeating the villain. However, the existence of this strategy is hidden from readers. Instead, the hero acts as if they’re in over their head. Then at the climactic moment, we reveal the hero has had this in hand all along.
This isn’t too hard to pull off in visual media, but if you’re narrating in the hero’s viewpoint, it can be very awkward and difficult. Generally, you want to minimize the amount of time you have to hide things from readers, so the clever plan is still pretty recent. When done well, readers don’t notice you’re concealing anything.
Even then, these turning points offer less tension and more candy for the hero. Usually that’s not a good trade-off, but it can still work well when candy is called for. I just recommend doing something else for the story’s climax.
Not every turning point needs to be impressive. Your story’s climax needs to be the most impressive because it’s the turning point for the whole story, but most conflicts aren’t so pivotal. If your hero gets in a small argument, they can just say something nice or ask the right question.
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- Days ago: MOM = 3982 days ago & DAD = 636 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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