This week’s video points out some little-known considerations about creating an awesome and perfectly planned climactic setting for your story. Video Transcript: If we think of a story as sort of like a funnel, then the climax is the very tip of that funnel. In short, there’s not much room down there. Whatever is going […]
July 15, 2015 by 31 Comments Plotting Your NovelAmping Your Story Stakes: Why Even Positive Events Should Have Consequences
This week’s video offers another example from Jurassic Park for an easy way to instantly inject more continuity and tension in your story stakes. Video Transcript: Good fiction is about consequences. Something happens which causes something else to happen, which keeps the cause-and-effect ball rolling. If the cause has no effect, then the story peters […]
May 20, 2015 by 71 Comments Novel EndingsIf You Don’t Fix This Mistake in Your Story’s Climax, You’ll Hate Yourself Later
The Climax has got to be the best part of your story, right? It’s the maraschino cherry on top of the sundae (that is, of course, if you’re the kind who saves the cherry to eat last). Anyway—the point is you want your story’s Climax to be gripping. You want it to be suspenseful. You […]
April 5, 2015 by 42 Comments Structuring Your NovelWant Readers to Adore Your Book? Learn How to Ace Your Climactic Moment
Your story will contain many important moments. Actually, we could say with accuracy that every moment in your story is important, since any misstep could conceivably jar the whole line of dominoes out of sync. But the moment in your story is the Climactic Moment. This moment is the reason your story is even being told in […]
February 8, 2015 by 26 Comments Story SettingsThe 5 Secrets of Choosing the Right Setting for Your Story’s Climax
When you plan your story’s climax, the first thing to come to mind might not be the setting. Too often, the climactic setting is an afterthought. The action, after all, is what’s most important–not where it takes place. But setting can make or break any scene in your story, and this is nowhere more true than […]
November 26, 2014 by 37 Comments Novel EndingsDon’t Let This Sloppy Technique Kill the Tension in Your Story’s Climax
This week’s video points out one of the most egregious mistakes you can make in your story’s climax and how to make sure readers never look away from your exciting finale. Video Transcript: Imagine this: you’ve created an amazing story, full of amazing characters, who are clashing in an epic conflict. Your story’s climax has […]
November 23, 2014 by 32 Comments ThemeWhat Is the Role of Theme in a Story’s Climax?
Today, I’m going to be a bad blog writer. I’m not going to make you think at all to find the answer to the title question: “What is the role of theme in a story’s climax?” I’m just going to tell you straight up: The role of theme in your story’s climax is all-important. The […]
July 27, 2014 by 44 Comments CharactersHow to Write a Negative Character Arc, Pt. 3: The Third Act
In a word, the negative character arc is about failure, and this becomes nowhere more clear than in the Third Act. If the positive change arc is about redeeming self and the flat arc is about saving others, then the negative character arc is about destroying self and probably others as well. The previous two […]
June 22, 2014 by 16 Comments CharactersHow to Write a Flat Character Arc, Pt. 3: The Third Act
The Third Act is where we find arguably the greatest similarities between the flat character arc and the positive change arc, since in both types of story the protagonist will have a full grasp on the Truth by this point. The primary difference, of course, is that the protagonist in a flat character arc will […]
May 18, 2014 by 45 Comments CharactersCreating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 14: The Climax
In character arcs, as in plot, the Climax is the dot on the end of the exclamation point. The Climax is the reason for the story. This is where the author reveals what the journey the character just endured was really all about—and, in a positive change arc, why that journey has turned out to be […]
