Insert appropriately suggestive music here, because I can’t even.
It’s been…. a month…. and a half. I could go into all the contretemps, but I’ll go into that in my newsletter later today, so my poor subscribers understand why they’ve been ghosted for the best part of three months, actually. Yes, critiques will happen, maybe even tonight, though I wouldn’t count on it, because stomach flu has come back for another go-round. (Sigh.)
ANYWAY music. For this post it would be something like: thump thump THUMP THUMP Ooooooooh. (Weirdly I remember some French pop songs of the seventies that were pretty much this only with a sexy female voice saying nonsense stuff in the background. Very popular with my brother’s demographic which were then early 20s.)
Anyway, moving right along, what if you’re not writing that type of book?
Sarah pulls her glasses down and looks at you over them. Young ladies, gentlemen and small amphibians (young in writing. Don’t quibble. And spit out your gum.) I’m sixty years old and I’ve never written that type of book (under my own name, at any rate.) And yet, all of my books have, I hope, a climax and I hope a satisfying one.
So… (Crosses nylon-clad legs) let’s talk CLIMAX. (Sorry guys. Too much blood in my caffeine stream. I can’t help myself.
Even if you are like me a reluctant semi-pantser, or even a full pantser, the climax like the ending should be a fixed point in your hazy mental map of the novel. At the very least you should be aware it’s missing if you are reading the novel for first edit and can’t find one. And you should know how to insert one in post.
(It’s easy to miss things in the heat of first draft. I once wrote half a book — never published — which either utterly lacked a main character, or had a different main character per chapter. The only fix for THAT one was shooting it through the head. I did.)
Anyway, in your map of the novel, not the close in stuff, with all the W, but the more distant map with the rising peaks of challenge, the climax is the highest peak.
Like this:
Anyway, so, let’s talk about climaxes. The double entendre is apt, because most people who think of climax think it’s somewhere around the middle of the novel. Look at that graph. It’s not in the middle. Because after the climax, you’ve spent the rising tension, and now are left with ushering the reader out of the adventure/your mind/your vivid dream.
What comes after is more…. uh…. optional. I like an old fashioned ending, where after the climax you dispose of all the still hanging problems (the green one) and maybe show the hero doing a victory lap — which my husband insists on calling the cigarette moment. Note neither of us smokes — or if a romance, an epilogue ten years later, or 30 years later, with the grandkids, or whatever.
But I’ve seen successful novels, where after the climax there’s a sentence, indicating the character is now happy. Or there could be just a few lines.
For short stories I tend to go with the one or two lines thing after the climax, because it punches harder, and the short story is all about leaving you thinking about that ending, like the lines of a song resounding in your head.
For novels, as I said, I like the slow and sweet let down. Or if you prefer, gently returning the characters and the world to its upright and locked position. There’s usually more to return/dispose of after all.
If you think the climax should be in the middle what you’re thinking of is not actually a climax. It’s more where the character realizes he’s been going about it wrong, and changes his or her angle of approach so he can get to the climax and solve the situation. Dan calls this the mirror moment, for when the character looks at himself/his strategy in the mirror and realizes it is wrong, wrong, wrong, miles and miles of wrongitude. And then fixes it.
The climax is where the character faces the antagonist and brings about a confrontation, from which there flows a resolution. That is, where the precipitating incident of the novel has led, through a series of increasing try/fail events.
That graph above denotes that each of the incidents should be of increasing seriousness, difficulty, until the climax which is the most serious and difficult of all.
Part of the reason to view it as the middle if you don’t think of it carefully is that because it’s very important, it occupies more of the novel, as in physical pages or real-estate. And the lead-up to it, in the sense of setting up the battle and preparation might start right after the mirror moment.
It is very important — VERY important — to make your climax hefty, both in page length and in the heft of the event.
For some reason a lot of writers — weirdly, mostly female — will set up the climax and we’re expecting this big, epic battle. And then the main character throws a fork at the big bad, and it pierces him through the heart, and big bad dies.
For the record, this is the “pulling out” of climaxes, to continue the double entendre. You might accomplish what you wanted to, but your partner, the reader, is left profoundly unsatisfied and will be a bit mad at you.
Some writers have careers and do this every time. I guess the rest of the book is good enough to carry it. But it’s still NOT good practice.
So, make sure your climax is the biggest battle, the most important, and in itself has try fail sequences and is not easy. Your character should be fighting with all he/she got, and even then barely make it to success.
The other thing to remember, if you have a group adventure, in different voices, is that they all should hit the various phases of the climax one after the other. Like set up for battle, they all hit it one after the other. Rising challenge. Tension building try fail. The big bad gets a vote. Fight against it almost at the last moment. Etc. Each phase should be hit one after the other, to victory.
Oh, yeah the phases of the final climax remembering some may be abbreviated or omitted are:
-realization of need for battle.
-Rising challenges/provocations from big bad.
-first try fail with rising tension.
-second try fail.
-big bad response to try fail which should be devastating.
-fight back on your last fingernail and last bit of strength
-big bad victory gloat.
-breakthrough.
-victory.
Remember these are suggestions, not obligatory. And in a short story, that’s not a thing. The climax is just the biggest try-fail. This is for novels.
Anyway, yeah, supposing things stop spinning quite so badly after Son of Silvercon, I’ll try to do a thing that’s just a series of exercises on these, and give critique.
For now, go forth and contemplate climax.
Mad Genius Club 
24 responses to “Writing Your Novel – Climax”
My novels always have a fundamental plot-wide problem for the protag, but it’s not often a plot or opposition by someone else. It’s more likely to be an unanticipated issue, a reality-doesn’t-like-you situation, an obstacle from left field, a random disaster, etc. I don’t fancy creating James Bond-style world-threatening villains.
Lots of stories don’t require explicit plot-driving villains (e.g., Robinson Crusoe). I prefer the accidents of fate that somehow keep getting in the way of the unprepared.
I do lean heavily on the mid-point crisis (I’m hard on my heroes). It’s very important to the hero’s setback & development & fundamental drive, but the villain (if there is one) isn’t necessarily the cause — sometimes yes, sometimes no.
For the climax itself, I’m with you about giving it room to breath (or pant) afterwards. I’m a “There and Back Again” kinda gal. I almost always end on a “Ah, glad that’s over” sort of feel, with occasional rueful reflections. I aim at a feeling of satisfaction, rather than excitement. Tolkien himself was channeling the sort of children’s books with animal tea-partying characters who relax after a day’s (book’s) adventuring, and that sigh of satisfaction goes with the turning of the cover to close the book until you can pick up the next story of our merry band of intrepid adventurers.
It’s fairy tale structure, and somewhat epic structure. (The whole, they have slain the dragon, now we will have the funeral of Beowulf and Wiglaff dealing with the warriors who fled.) And it SEEMS to be on the rise again.
Quite right, since the fairy tale is in the business of “the world is damaged” = “the world is repaired” = “and that’s how the world should be”.
Epic, not so much. Lots of tragic epic out there, and heroes who do the right thing but die gloriously anyway. They have a lot in common, in point of view, but they are rather different as story structures.
And ain’t it great that the old stories are still going strong in some form?
Hence “somewhat” on the epics. As you say there is a lot of overlap. Frankly there IS a lot of structural overlap. They emphasize different things but they use many of the same building blocks. I also disagree with your summation of the differences between the fairy tale vs. the epic.
Off the cuff example of Beowulf: The world is damaged (Grendel, then the dragon) the world is repaired (Grendel defeated, then his mother and the rightful order restored. The dragon killed, Beowulf dies but sets a worthy heir who carries on.) The longer epics have this in cycle rather than in isolation. The costs may be higher, but not always. (The fairy tales where the princess or prince breaks their promise to the person who helps them and looses them forever as an example. The world IS restored, as the transgression is dealt with, but at a cost no one wishes to bear.)
Now these are all larger structure and yes, they do vary more substantially in the details. But at the level our hostess is discussing they are very much the same, structurally. You fight the dragon (Climax), you have your heroes’ feast, or your heroes’ funeral, or both depending on the story (Denoument).
No, it doesn’t have to be a singular villain, it could be “does the kid from the wrong side of the tracks make good on the trial/debate/diplomatic encounter with the king” then you have him receiving his reward. THEN you can move on to the next story.
And I’m not surprised that the the old stories are going around in new forms. We see echoes of the same structures throughout time. I suspect a lot of the broader strokes of story bones are human things.
Yeah, the bigbad isn’t necessarily a person. This is a high view.
Denouement helps dismiss the reader in calm of mind, all passion spent. Ending with the climax tends to agitating.
But I note that even if you started with the idea for the climax, it’s hard to write.
depends on the book.
I tend to refer to denouement as “that French term that comes after the climax.”
I actually did get taught the whole story curve in English class, but I don’t know if anyone ever pronounced that term properly aside from the teacher.
Maybe today is the day you substitute Red Bull for water in your coffee. And as for climax, my disabled infantry hubby was told to substitute Red Bull for testosterone shots. The shots had too many side effects and could poison me. Go forth and cuddle.
They actually make caffeinated water, you know. Not even my caffeine addiction would require using it in an espresso maker.
The climax, I think I’ve got, from the point where he finally kicks his conditioning, gets zotted and hauled off for rewriting, and she uses her connections, and willingness to bulldozer social situations to figure out where the hidden facility is, then actually using the fact that she’s really a mythic abomination to tear the place apart, to the final withdrawal struggle on the decaying orbit. That I think I’ve got.
What I’m missing is the part in the middle. What is the nature of his conditioning? How is he being controlled? How do they figure out, or at least come to suspect that the way to fix her being an abomination is just to keep her from eating people when in full frenzy mode until it finally stops? I’ve got some inklings that he tries to analyze it, and discovers it doesn’t make sense (“Maybe it’s not real?” “What?” “I mean, what if it’s all in your head?” “… I’m going to hit you now.”) but I’m still missing that bridge from point A to point C.
I took to outlines for that. YMMV.
Yeah. Right now I need to figure out the mechanism. Because digging around in vampire and ghoul mythology isn’t finding much, especially when symptoms of withdrawal are “subject begins attempting to unscrew heads with increasing vigor”.
So you need the vector and mechanics. Biological parasite, plague based vector (non-parasite, viral), technological tinkering (look at brain damage and notice how destruction and damage cause radical change, perhaps), magic (which means make-your-own-horrors are on the table)…
You could also go the addiction angle. Addiction warps a personality, *hard.* You go looking for justifications to satisfy the addiction. That guy over there, he must be suicidal. Doesn’t take care of himself. Drinks himself until blackout, violent drunk, practically begging for his end to come. Be doing the world a favor. Set it up like he picked the wrong fight, boom, done.
Then you do what addiction counsel does. Have to have something *stronger* than the addiction to replace it in their mental hierarchy (the addiction is always at the top to the addict. Above other physical needs, dignity, family, the works). Can’t make it the relationship, gives them an excuse to backslide when troubles happen. That’s the psychological answer, but that might be just the band aid over a gaping wound. You still have the problem.
Technological would require technological solutions. Removing the brain chip or whatever wouldn’t solve the problem, because then all you’ve got is brain damage and halve to solve that. Biological can be trickier, because human biology is not mechanics. That stuff gets *complicated.*
Or do an end run around the the problem and neuter it just enough that you can mitigate the worst of the symptoms. Flexible, lets you keep the power, some of the bad temptations, but all depends on what you want the mechanic to be. Maybe a suppressant that needs to be regularly reapplied to keep symptoms of homicidal bloodlust from occurring, something like a drug, but that adds a vulnerability that can be later exploited.
I think the vector and mechanism is demonic, actually. But I don’t want to ever state that directly in the story.
And she does not keep any of it. Part of the reason this cannot be a proper romance arc is at the end, she fades back to an incorporeal entity once she’s finally got it all out of her system.
It’s not a doom and gloom ending; he can still see and hear her, even if they can’t physically interact, and they end up with him reading books to her. So they’re both a lot happier and more stable than when they started but it’s still not the right categories ending for that genre, despite the story trying very had to behave like a nightmare fuel version of that genre.
Sounds like you’ve got a good idea going then! Demonic vector means purging the demonic taint. That means faith based magic, which is a lot simpler writing wise to lay out to the reader.
Good luck, and write often.
My next book has two climaxes. One is the action climax, the other is the protagonist’s emotional climax. (No spoilers so no details, sorry.) I don’t think it makes the denouement too off-balance, but I’ll be curious to see what beta readers think.
Can you tell us which series?
Familiar Generations.
Darkship Renegades, and for that matter Noah’s boy have two climaxes…
” . . . a different main character per chapter . . .”
I’m only on the second chapter of the story that the Muse is fixated on, and I can already see that being a problem. May have to axe the MC of the first chapter, which could be kind of fun, having him a mysterious figure . . .
… or an inconveniently-located corpse wearing an axe that has no business existing anywhere near here. THAT could liven up the plot in a hurry. And you did suggest axing the fellow.
Gives me a few ideas, that does. I really need to tidy up some dangling plots before the big smashing end, though. Not all. Most. There’s a major plot element that hasn’t been discovered yet. Once it is… thingsgoveryfast.
Perhaps not, but I can. (Warning: link to a track from an album of “the most body movinest, most hip groovinest, retro synth music in homage to the soundtracks of vintage 80s porn.”)
https://retropromenade.bandcamp.com/track/vincent-remember-shaftcleaner