When the Climax Fails The Reader Suffers

In preparation for a plot talk for children's writers and the SCBWI San Francisco/South region last Saturday (FYI: this is a post I ran nearly two years ago and am re-running now because I want to insert the Plot Planner this time. To see why, go here), I analyzed one of my favorite books from my childhood -- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

As I read and plotted out the scenes in the Beginning of the story, I was delighted to see all the effective foreshadowing (in 2 instances she shows Mary, the 10-year old protagonist, playing in dirt and attempting to plant cut flowers which foreshadows the passion she develops for the secret garden. She also foreshadows the presence of another child in the house with the sound of crying three times before Mary actually discovers the cause of the distressing sound.).

In the middle, relationships abound which is thematically rich in that Mary has never had a true and loving relationship with others and in order to become who she is meant to be, she must heal this divide. Each relationship becomes a subplot in the middle which is exactly where subplots belong.

Also in the middle, whenever the story seems to slow down or her circumstances become too ideal, there are plenty of plot twists thrown in which makes for an exciting read.

However... and this is an enormous however, the End of the story made me want to fling the book across the room and declare that the book is no longer a favorite of mine.

The energy of the story rises to a climax and thus, stays true to the needs of the Universal Story BUT is not at all satisfying in that the reader is committed to Mary's story and yet, as soon as she helps Colin -- the only son of the lord of the manor -- heal and become whole, she moves into the shadows never to be heard from again. The last 1/4 of the book becomes all about Colin.

This is not so surprising, when one considers that the book was published in 1911 (women's right to vote doesn't happen until 1920) and girls didn't have many options. Still... there is absolutely no climax OR resolution for Mary's plot line and thus, no resolution for all the young girls who love(d) this book.

In analyzing this book, I consider the impact the story must have had on me as a young girl. Though I read the book in the 50s or early 60s, my generation continued to have limited options -- nurse, teacher, secretary, mother...

Now, a young girl's options are limitless. She can be a leader, an artist, a visionary, an entrepreneur.

Please, when considering your story, reach, think different, stretch when it comes to writing the Climax of your story. Write lots of endings, push yourself to think outside the box, and then pick the one that feels thematically the strongest version.

Your protagonist's actions at the climax inspire the reader to think big and different and grow and evolve. Give the ending the time it needs and deserves to deliver the greatest impact.

For more support about the Climax and ending of your story:

1) Check out Chapter 11 and 12 of: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Also available as a Kindle edition)

2) Watch:

• How to Create a Climax
• The Climax using in Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

For more about the Universal Story and writing the end of a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. A directory of all the steps to the series is to the right of this post. (a directory of the Plot Book Group with specific stories as examples is to the left of this post. Scroll down a bit to find it)

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:

Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)

Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

Use Setting to Deepen Readers' Appreciation Of Your Protagonist's Character Emotional Development

A story is about a character transformed over time by the dramatic action.

To make this character transformation more dramatic, great writers convey who the character is within the safety of a world that is familiar to her before thrusting her into a new world. The ordinary world gives the reader insight into the values, background, and habits of the protagonist (or lack thereof).

Usually the protagonist has a life before the story begins, although some stories such as Ursula Hegi’s Stones of the River begin on or nearly at the protagonist’s birth. The reader, in the first part of the story, gains a sense of the main character’s framework of relationships and the degree to which she’s governed by them. This gives the reader a starting point from which to evaluate the emotional change in the protagonist as she is forced to break away and rely on herself in the middle of the story.

In her usual life, customs, dogma, rules, and regulations come from outside the protagonist. They often form a kind of inner protection for her.

In the middle of the story when this protection is stripped away, she becomes vulnerable.

If we grasp the comfortable, safe, and well-fed environment the protagonist has always known, it’s easier for us to sympathize when she wonders why she left it in pursuit of a solitary, difficult, and dangerous new world.

Exercise:
Cut out a magazine picture that represents the setting of the protagonist’s ordinary world (her house, community, country, planet, depending on the needs of your particular story). If you can’t find something suitable, draw one or use a photo of a place you know that embodies the qualities you envision for your protagonist’s home, neighborhood, community, and so on. Affix this visual representation of your main character’s usual world above the beginning section of your plot planner to stimulate ideas.
(Excerpt from The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master.)

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

101 Best Websites for Writers -- as Awarded from Writers Digest

"Congratulations! Your website, Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers, has been selected as a 101 Best Website for Writers as honored by Writer’s Digest. Your site has been listed in our May/June 2013 issue, which is linked in our SHOP"

Thank you, Writers Digest! (Yes, I know, my show of gratitude is months overdue -- goes to show you what sort of year I've been having...)

Being honored in this way is almost sweeter now than the thrill I felt upon receiving the news the first time in 2009 and then when I received the award in each of the subsequent years.

Writers Digest presented me with the following website award logo.

They ask us to wear this badge with pride and honor the prestige that is carried by being part of the few who make WD's 101 Best Website list. I do sincerely honor the prestige and feel incredibly grateful to be part of the few who make the list, knowing each of us is doing our part to help writers keep at the business and pleasure of writing.

Thank you, Writers Digest!

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

Internal Goals versus External Goals

Every character wants something. You (and your character) must decide what she is willing to give up to achieve her goal. This begins the character’s emotional development plot.

The specific actions the character takes to realize her goal comprise the dramatic action plot. Tie the character’s private passion to a bigger, more transformative universal subject, and a thematic plot is launched.

When the dramatic action changes the character over time, the story becomes thematically significant. Think of the action, character, and thematic plot lines as parts of the whole. Then separate them and assign each plot a different color sticky note on your Plot Planner.

For now, let’s concentrate on getting the front story going. The plot of a story is about a character faced with a series of conflicts and obstacles while in pursuit of a goal, which, over time, inspire her to change her choices. In the end, she is transformed, and her ultimate transformation creates her anew with a different understanding of herself and her existence.

For you to write about a character pursuing her goal, you first need to know what her goals are. Before you know how her choices will change, you must discover what motivates her choices to begin with. To write about a character’s transformation, you first must appreciate how she views herself and the world around her now, at the beginning of the story.

 The thread that keeps the reader hooked is the tension in not knowing what the protagonist will do (her choices) when confronted with the next impossible scenario. The reader thinks she knows and reads on to learn if she is right or if the story will shift into a new, though foreshadowed, direction.
(Excerpt from The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.)

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

Pre-Plot or Write?

She has several successful YA novels, a memoir, and an adult novel published by major publishing houses and a contract for the novel she's working on now. Having never considered theme in her writing and wanting to use theme to deepen her new story, she bought The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories. After filling out the exercises, she asked for a plot consultation to work further on theme and, for the first time, to pre-plot the character emotional development rather than see what happens writing by the seat-of-her-pants.

She's been pre-plotting for more than 6 months, working out the non-linear dramatic action plot, the magical realism plot, the historical plot. We spent two hours, brainstorming the thematic significance statement while concentrating primarily on the protagonist's character development.

After she better understands the role of the scenes that lead up to the crisis and following the biggest scene in the story so far, she hung up from the consultation with lots of ideas to incorporate and the energy to start writing. A couple of weeks later, she asks for more time together. By then, she's firmed up the themes and worked out more of the magical legacy for her new story.

At the end of our session together, rather than support her urge to continue working out the various plots and theme and character development, this time I encourage her to begin writing. At some point, she has to get out of her head planning and plotting and get into her body and write. Writing is where the magic happens. Getting close to the character in moment-by-moment scenes connects her better to the character development than merely thinking about what she'll do or not do. She's ready.

Her time to write is now.

Today I write. How about you?

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest

What Happens After the Climax of Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay

The resolution comes immediately after the climax of your novel, memoir, screenplay.

The true ending of the story is the climax.

The resolution actually is the beginning of a new story, one that starts with the protagonist having succeeded in what felt like at the climax a life-or-death struggle. With the end of that struggle, something else begins.

There is never an ending without a beginning.

Just as the resolution is the beginning of a new story, in the same way, when the inciting incident begins the story, that beginning marks the end of the protagonist's life as she knew it before the incident occurs.

Plot Tip:

Show in the resolution what life looks like now that the protagonist has transformed and how the world around her embraces her internal changes. No matter what she has lost and gained in the course of the story, at the resolution show us a glimpse of the new beginning life offers her now.

Be aware when you begin the story at the beginning what ends for the protagonist. In other words, what did she most want one second before the story begins? An awareness of what has ended in beginning the story gives your story more depth by reinforcing the idea that there is no beginning without an end and no end without a beginning. Because, in truth and the Universal Story, there is no beginning and there is no end.

(Excerpt from The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories.)

*****SPECIALS*******

1) Track Your Plot at the Scene Level Webinar
Learn to Maximize the 7 essential plot elements in every scene (one of 7 essential plot elements in every scene is CONFLICT) from the comfort of your own home.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts inThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest