Tis the season of peace, love, and good will. Christmas is here again and, like many people, I am binging on seasonal books and movies. I am also—like many writers—crafting stories and collecting ideas that fall under this theme we call the ‘happiest time of the year’.I am also reflecting on how interesting it is that the best Christmas stories take us to the darkest places. It’s A Wonderful Life starts off with a suicide attempt. A Christmas Carol features a horrifying haunting. Looking past the silly, even the antagonist of The Grinch is a ruthless sadist whose sole intention is to rob people not of their possessions, but of their happiness—and he’s not above engaging in animal cruelty to do so. (Ahem. Consider his poor, little dog). The beatific, altruistic mom in The Christmas Shoes dies while her loving husband and son hover helplessly at her bedside.My goodness. So much for peace, love and charity. Except….Underpinning these elements is the most profound Christmas concept: Hope. And when do we hope? Well, we do not hope when things are going well. We do not fall on our knees when the sun is shining. We don’t need to believe things will be brighter if nothing is bleak.

Nowhere is the cliché ‘It is always darkest before the dawn’ more pronounced than in the most powerful Christmas stories. So, what elements need to be present in order to amplify the Christmas protagonists’ ‘Darkest Moment’?

Physically Helplessness works well: Are they sick? Make them sicker. Poor? Take their last dollar. Abandoned? Steal the car they have been sleeping in. Steal their shoes. Rip their winter coat in two and have the bums beat them up when they try to huddle around the garbage can fire in the back alley.Trap them: Stick them in a place of intense and relentless misery. Think wrongful imprisonment. The palliative ward of an understaffed hospital. Consider the misery of being stuck in a household where the rest of the family scapegoats you and hates you. Imagine a schoolyard where the bullying and cruelty take your breath away.EmotionallyVulnerability: Cut off all their resources. Were they texting the one person who’s kept them sane? Let them run out of data. Leave them completely alone. Better yet, let their one champion die…literally. Oh, and did they have a weapon with which they believed they could defend themselves? Render it useless. Have their last hope turn on them. In fact, let their last hope start working against them. Leave them…Defenseless: Moreover, when they are defenseless, let whatever the force is that’s working against them get even bigger. Meaner. Uglier. Make it evil.Sorrow: Sorrow is not merely grief. Sorrow arrives when you realize all truly is lost. Make all lost for your character, and then—Despair: Despair lives where hope is not. Crush. Every. Hope. That faith they have been clinging to? Annihilate it. God Himself has turned his back.Beyond that, and additionally, your characters’ entire set of circumstances, both physically and emotionally, have to be unjust. And not just a little bit. You want your reader not just steeped in empathic sorrow for your hero(ine). You want them wildly indignant that your character is suffering so much in the first place.(Conversely, if this is a redemptive story for your protagonist, you want their self-actualization to be just as intense as the pain would be for a suffering character. Either way, you want your character on their knees).And also…

Use Your SettingWinter is dark, cold, and every good thing is hidden beneath a blanket of ice. Use this to your advantage—both literally and symbolically. Let your setting become an additional, relentless obstacle that appears to be working in consort with ‘The Problem’ (oh, and don’t be afraid to strongly imply that this malevolence is supernatural. Christmas is, after all, a supernatural event).

And then…When all has been lost, when the last bell has tolled, when no solution is within remote sight….give them magic. Give them The Miracle. This is where you get to work just as hard at crafting awe as you did at creating misery. This is where the impossible is now possible; where the unloved are adored, where the hungry are fed, and where the dying spring to life with vibrant joy. This is where the Spirit of Christmas will reign over your tale, and where Hope becomes Reality.And that is my real-life wish for you too, as we say goodbye for 2019: that Hope springs back in and surprises you by becoming your reality in the upcoming new decade: love beyond measure, joy beyond laughter, and peace beyond any contentment you’ve ever imagined.