Searching for the Strongest Climax

I am often asked what the #1 problem writers have with plot. My answer varies, depending on the most recent plot consultation or plot workshop I've just done.

Writers often struggle with finding the exact right climax and resolution to their novels, memoirs an screenplays.

So much time and thought and writing goes into developing a compelling protagonist with a mysterious back story, deciding where is the exact right beginning of the story, how to make the action exciting and the book concept big, the details just right, the dialogue snappy, the setting exotic, the crisis disastrous.

I rarely (and I mean rarely) find a writer who has thoroughly thought out the climax and written the end quarter of the story as many times or more than the beginning.

Sure, writers bog down in the middle and thus the climax seems incredibly far away -- nearly out of reach. By the time a writer limps her way to the climax, the story is lucky to have an ending at all, much less an ending that is meaningful and different and leaves the reader satisfied and wanting more.

The end of a romance novel, even if it is for a teen, especially if it is for a teen, is so much more than... they lived happily ever after. You have been so careful not to use cliched phrases, metaphors, settings and have worked to make every element uniquely your own. Why settle for a cliched ending?

When a character rises in triumph at the climax, what does she look like, act like? In the resolution, what does the world look like now that she is new and different and transformed and has shared the gift she came to share?

Take an ending you're sure has no value and turn it on its ear. See the ending from a different angle or perspective. Write that.

Strive to give the reader something new and fresh and miraculous...

The Story End 
That fabulous beginning of your story and that wild twist in the middle do not count nearly as much as to a reader as the end of the story. Sure, you hope she looks back and sees how everything is seamlessly tied together. In fact, what she’s going to think about first is how the story ends.

Readers and audiences are affected first and foremost emotionally by the story they read, whether the story evokes fear or anger, joy and celebration, or sadness and resignation. Connecting with readers emotionally to the point they become instinctively involved in the story is the dream of every writer. The best place to search for this emotional effect is at the climax.

Think Different
Look beyond the words and sentences and scenes to the deeper pattern of your story. Every protagonist begins a story wanting something. The real reason that she goes after what she wants never (or rarely) is her stated reason. In fact, at the end of the story the protagonist can, and often does, fail at her stated goal. The reader cares because she knows the protagonist has actually won what she wanted and all that really matters is herself. She has gained self-knowledge and because of that she has been changed and transformed.

After having all of her layers stripped away one by one as false or unreliable, the protagonist reaches the point where she either must break down and live an unlived life or stand straight and rely on herself. To do that, first she must find the self on which she can rely. This is why often in a story, the protagonist’s stated goal fades and is replaced by the real goal.

*****

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot allows for a more loving relationship with 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 inThe 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 Book Group for Writers

Last month's book selection for the Monday's Plot Book Group for Writers is Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. (I'm a bit behind due to the mega-blog tour and release of The Plot Whisperer book. My apologies for the delay.)

Last week - 1F- you were asked to:

- Determine the 4 Energetic Markers for your story.

This week - 1G you are asked to:

- Insert on your story's Plot Planner a post-it note that represents the Climax of your story.

For more support about the Climax, check out Chapter 11 of:

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Now also sold as a Kindle edition)

Next week's book selection is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

***I am giving away 4 free autographed copies of the book AND

and a Scene Tracker Kit.

To enter, simply comment on each of fourteen blogs that took part in the mega-blog book tour

and listed on the Master Schedule. As one writer says of the experience: "I feel like I just took in a 2 hour writing workshop in a few minutes."

For more about the Universal Story and writing 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.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, read: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
and visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Keep the Climax in Mind

Three plot consultations with three separate writers, all with similar strengths and the same weakness. Each story has well thought out scenes that draw the reader into the Beginning 1/4 of the project. Each one develops character emotional development through dramatic action in the Middle 1/2. In other words, for these three writers, three quarters of their projects work, at least on a structural plot level.

At the end, these same three projects falter with little or no real Climax to top off the entire work. In each case, the protagonist is reawakened by the Crisis. They are shown struggling to take full ownership of their newly discovered consciousness. This is all good.

What starts as a twinge, in the quick build-up to the Climax, the protagonist more and more recognizes quite painfully each time her actions and speech do not align with her new understanding of herself and the world around her.

Trouble is, in none of the cases does the character show herself fully healing this schism at the Climax.

One writer wrote the Climax as the grandmother in the story dying. In this young adult novel, the protagonist is, necessarily, a young adult person and not the grandmother. The answer presented itself. In the Grandmother dying, the Climax takes on a deeper relevance as the protagonist of this young adult novel is given the opportunity to assist her grandmother's spiritual departure. Such an action demonstrates mastery at the thematic level. That death is looming sends the conflict, tension and suspense higher and the energy of the Universal Story soaring. The clock ticks. The sense of everything coalescing in the final minutes builds.

The Beginning sets up the scene of highest intensity in the story so far ~ the end of the Beginning. This scene shows the shift or reversal outside the character that sends her into the heart of the story world.

The middle sets up the scene of the highest intensity in the story so far ~ the Crisis. This scene shows the character’s consciousness of the shift or reversal inside her.

The End sets up the crowning glory of the entire story ~ the Climax. This scene shows the character fully united with her new self-knowledge, new understanding of the world, new sense of responsibility through her actions and her words.

The Climax is the crowning glory of the entire book. Once you write that most important scene all the other pieces begin to fall into place.

For more support, read Chapter 11 of:

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

For more about the Universal Story and writing 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.

For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, read: The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
and visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Speaking of Climax

A recent plot consultation reflects confusion many writers have about the Climax of their stories.

In telling me the end (1/4) of her story, the writer describes her climax  which is the perfect and unexpected (twist) end for the dramatic action plot. Problems arise as another seven to nine major scenes and chapters follow what the writer had labeled as the climax to her story. 

The climax brings the energy of the overall story to a head and once it is over, the story is over, too. One chapter or scene follows the climax to bring the story to resolution but no more than that. When the energy is over, the story is over. To take the story further, though most readers never want a story they love to end, even the most loyal reader loses her enthusiasm as the story drags on and energy peters out.

However, in the consultation, it quickly becomes evident that the energy of the story does not lessen but does, in fact, grow. And, of the scenes that follow what she calls her climax, the second to the last chapter is the true climax -- this one being the character emotional development climax.

Yes, in most stories, both the dramatic action plot and character emotional development plot usually coalesce at the end for more punch and impact though, in this case, the character emotional development plot climax carries tremendous energy and excitement and shows the character at her most transformed and doing something she was unable to do anywhere else in the story. She needed to experience every other scene in order to die to who she has always been and rise up out of the ashes. 

Her story begins with the character emotional development plot and it is fitting and right that the crowning glory of the story revolve around the character emotional development plot. 

I have said it before:

Beginning hook readers.

Ending creates fans.

Watch how and where you end your story in order to keep your fans happy and satisfied and eager for your next release.

Click on green highlighted plot concepts for further explanations via video. Each time a concept is referenced you are directed to new information.

The End is the Beginning

A plot consultation this week reveals to the writer that the scene sequence she believed was rising to the Crisis rather represents the Halfway Point... perfectly.

Undoubtedly she was disappointed to find she is only halfway through writing the 1st draft of her story rather than 3/4 finished. Still, she knew the story needed the additional page count and by the time we hung up she sounded enthusiastic and empowered to write her way to the Crisis.

Thanks to my background with working with children with learning disabilities (and my own), I appreciate the process of learning new material and find helpful explaining new concepts in as many different ways as I can think of at the time.

The idea of putting her main character in the sort of peril her story demands at the Crisis took to time to penetrate her consciousness on a practical level. She knew intellectually what the Crisis represents to a story. She even had an example in her head of the exact moment in a favorite book of hers. However, to actually bring the concept of the Crisis down to the actual moment-by-moment action necessary to bring the protagonist to her knees and die to her old personality took time.

The writer knows her Climax which I always view as helpful to a writer because the Climax informs all the other parts of the story.

With the Climax fixed in her mind and the scenes waiting to be written to the Crisis and her commitment to herself to a timeframe, she's off and writing...

For more on the Climax and what to keep in mind as your write your way there, view Steps 7 & Step 8 of the Plot Series: How do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay?

For information on the contest we're running with the series (I'm doing it with fellow writer -- 

Cathy Cress who has a terrific new book out: Mom Loves You Best; Forgiving and Forging New Sibling Relationships): go to Santa Cruz Traveling Mystery Tour.